Meghan Markle was born in Los Angeles in 1981 to Thomas Markle, a lighting director, and Doria Ragland, a social worker and yoga teacher. Meghan became known as an actress through the legal series “Suits”. Outside of film, she rose to global prominence through her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018. In November 2017, she officially became engaged to Prince Harry. The wedding of the two took place a few months later on May 19, 2018. With this marriage, Meghan became Her Royal Highness Duchess Meghan of Sussex. Meghan became a kind of enemy among supporters of the British crown. The antipathy was fueled by the “Megxit” 2020 and the scandalous interview with Oprah Winfrey. Meghan is a mother of two children. Archie Harrison was born on May 6th, 2019,
Duchess Meghan of Sussex professional background
Meghan studied drama and international relations at Northwestern University after graduating from high school. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she worked for a few months at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires.
In Los Angeles, an artist agency spotted Meghan and signed her. In 2002, the actress made her television debut on an episode of the ABC soap opera General Hospital. Other small appearances in television series and films followed. In 2007, Meghan modeled in four episodes of the television game show Deal or No Deal. Her breakthrough came in 2011 with the Toronto-based legal drama Suits. There she played the helpful and hard-working paralegal Rachel Zane, who turned the main character Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) into heads.
Following her engagement to Prince Harry in November 2017, Meghan announced that she would be leaving Suits after its seventh season ended in 2018 and retiring from acting. From then on she wanted to devote herself to the tasks of being a member of the British royal family.
Duchess Meghan’s love life and relationships
Meghan has been in a relationship with Prince Harry since June 2016. In November 2016, the relationship was made public. A year later, the couple became engaged and married on May 19, 2018 at St George’s Chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Since the wedding, Meghan has held the title of Duchess of Sussex.
On May 6, 2019, Meghan and Harry’s first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, saw the light of day. In November 2020, Meghan first reported on the miscarriage she suffered in July 2020 in an essay in The New York Times . On June 4, 2021, Lilibet Diana, the second child of Prince Harry and Meghan, was born.
Royal life of Duchess Meghan of Sussex
With her wedding, Meghan took on representative and charitable tasks for the British royal family in 2018 and 2019. Among other things, she accompanied Prince Harry on his trip to the Pacific in autumn 2018 and visited the Invictus Games in Australia.
Duchess Meghan’s social commitment
Meghan has been campaigning for the rights of (African American) women for years. She was an ambassador for the international charity One Young World, at whose annual summit in Dublin in 2014 the actress spoke on gender justice and modern forms of slavery. In 2016, Meghan was named an ambassador for World Vision Canada. In this context, she worked with the Clean Water Campaign to provide clean water in Rwanda. In India, she spoke to women and young girls about education, hygiene, empowerment, economic development and health. Meghan was also an ambassador for UN Women. In 2020 she founded the charitable foundation Archewell together with her husband Prince Harry.
Duchess Meghan and her retirement from royal duties
On January 8, 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they wanted to withdraw as much as possible from the royal family. The couple first moved to Canada for a few months and then to Montecito, California (USA). Financially, the couple would like to live independently and thus self-determined. Since April 1, 2020, the couple have voluntarily renounced the use of the predicate title “Royal Highness”. Harry and Meghan repaid a £2.4million government grant for the refurbishment and conversion of Frogmore Cottage.
Following the withdrawal, the former royal couple struck a deal with streaming giant Netflix. Among other things, a documentary series about Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan was planned, which was intended to give an insight into the life of the retired royals. According to deadline.com, Netflix postponed the documentary’s broadcast date by a year because it would be the fifth season of “The Crown”, also a Netflix production, which has given the streaming service a strong headwind from the direction of the British royal family and the press.
Since 2022, Meghan has been producing her own podcast Archetypes, where she talks to other well-known women, including tennis star Serena Williams, about life, children, parenting and the status of women.
Remarkable things about Duchess Meghan
Meghan always presents herself as an independent and strong woman – also alongside her husband Prince Harry and as a member of the British royal family. Before her marriage to Harry, Meghan successfully ran the lifestyle blog The Tig, which she gave up when she got engaged in April 2017.