Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and a former actress.
Markle was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and identifies as mixed-race. Primarily known for playing Rachel Zane in the American legal drama Suits (seasons 1–7), her early acting career began while studying at Northwestern University. Her former lifestyle blog, The Tig, featured a column profiling influential women. She has also received recognition for her fashion and style, having released a line of clothing in 2016.
In 2017, Markle became engaged to marry Prince Harry. Upon their marriage in 2018, she became Duchess of Sussex. Their son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, was born in 2019. The following year, the couple stepped down as senior members of the royal family and moved to the Duchess’s native Southern California. In October of that year, they launched Archewell, a public organization that carries out charity and media projects.
Early life and education
Rachel Meghan Markle was born August 4, 1981 in Canoga Park, California. When Markle was six, her parents divorced. Markle has a close relationship with her mother, Doria Ragland. Markle’s father, Thomas Markle Sr., worked as a television director of photography and lighting, and Meghan often visited his film sets as a child. She is reportedly estranged from her paternal half-siblings, Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jr.. Her mother is descended from enslaved Africans, while her father is descended from European settlers. Markle self-identifies as being “mixed-race”.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse. At age eleven, she wrote to Procter & Gamble to gender-neutralize a dishwashing soap commercial on national television. Three months later, P&G changed the commercial. Raised as a Protestant, she graduated from Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girl Catholic school. In 1999, Markle was admitted to Northwestern University (NU) in Evanston, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. After her junior year, Markle interned at the American embassy in Buenos Aires and considered a political career. However, she did not score high enough in the Foreign Service Officer Test to proceed further with the US State Department, and returned to NU. She also attended a study abroad program in Madrid. In 2003, Markle earned her bachelor’s degree with a double major in theater and international studies from Northwestern’s School of Communication.
Acting career
Markle had some difficulty getting roles early in her career due to being “ethnically ambiguous” because “I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones.” To support herself between acting jobs, she worked as a freelance calligrapher and taught bookbinding. Her first on-screen appearance was a small role as a nurse in an episode of the daytime soap opera General Hospital. Markle had small guest roles on the television shows Century City (2004), The War at Home (2006) and CSI: NY (2006). She also did several contract acting and modeling jobs, including a stint as a “briefcase girl” on the US game show Deal or No Deal. She appeared in Fox’s series Fringe as Junior Agent Amy Jessup in the first two episodes of its second season.
Markle with Suits co-star Patrick J. Adams at Paley Center for Media, 2013
Markle appeared in three 2010 films; Get Him to the Greek, Remember Me and The Candidate. Then, one film, Horrible Bosses in 2011. She was paid $187,000 for her role in Remember Me and $171,429 for her role in the short film The Candidate. In July 2011, Markle joined the cast of the USA Network show Suits through to late 2017 and the seventh season. Her character, Rachel Zane, began as a paralegal and eventually became an attorney. While working on Suits, Markle lived for nine months each year in Toronto. Fortune magazine estimated that Markle was paid $50,000 per episode, amounting to an equivalent annual salary of $450,000.
Personal life
Markle and American film producer Trevor Engelson began dating in 2004. They were married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on September 10, 2011 and concluded a no-fault divorce in August 2013, citing irreconcilable differences. Markle’s subsequent relationship with Canadian celebrity chef and restaurateur Cory Vitiello ended in July 2016 after almost two years.
Markle and Prince Harry on Christmas Day 2017
In June 2016, Markle began a relationship with Prince Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II. In November, the prince directed his communications secretary to release a statement on his behalf to express personal concern about pejorative and false comments made about his girlfriend by mainstream media and Internet trolls. In September 2017, Markle and Prince Harry first appeared together in public at the Invictus Games in Toronto, of which Harry is patron.
Marriage to Prince Harry
Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry was announced on November 27, 2017 by Harry’s father Charles, Prince of Wales. The announcement prompted generally positive comments about having a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to Commonwealth countries with populations of blended or native ancestry. Markle announced that she would retire from acting, and began the lengthy process of becoming a British citizen, which is subject to strict immigration rules about living outside of the UK for more than ninety days.
In preparation for the wedding, the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, baptized Markle and confirmed her into the Church of England on March 6, 2018. The private ceremony, performed with water from the River Jordan, took place in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace. The marriage ceremony was held on May 19 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. It was reportedly agreed in advance that excess funds generated from the BBC broadcast of the ceremony would go to a charity chosen by the newlywed couple. In April 2020, Feeding Britain (which provides food packages to families in food poverty) was nominated to receive £90,000 from the BBC.
After the wedding, the Duke and Duchess lived at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace in London. They later moved to Frogmore Cottage in the Home Park of Windsor Castle. The Duchess gave birth to a son, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, on May 6, 2019. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s office moved to Buckingham Palace and officially closed on March 31, 2020 when the Sussexes ceased “undertaking official engagements in support of the Queen”. After some months in Canada and the United States, the couple bought a house in June 2020 on the former estate of Riven Rock in Montecito, California. The next month, the Duchess suffered a miscarriage.
Political views
The Queen is constitutionally bound to act on the advice of the government; as such, members of the British Royal Family are politically neutral by convention. However, Markle was politically vocal before marrying Prince Harry. She backed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election and publicly denounced the opponent, Donald Trump. The same year, when the referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union resulted in favor of Brexit, Markle expressed her disappointment on Instagram. As an eligible voter in the United States, she released a video with her husband encouraging others to register for the 2020 United States presidential election on National Voter Registration Day. Some media outlets took it as an implicit endorsement of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, which prompted Donald Trump to dismiss their messaging at a press conference.
Fashion and style
Markle (3rd from left) at the New York Fashion Week in 2013
In 2014, Markle founded her own lifestyle blog The Tig. She wrote about food, fashion, beauty, travel and inspirational women. The viewing audience consisted primarily of the fans of Markle and Suits. Promotion of the blog on other social media platforms targeted 3 million followers on Instagram, 800,000 on Facebook, and 350,000 on Twitter. In April 2017, The Tig closed. In January 2018, Markle took all articles offline and deleted her social media accounts. It is estimated that Markle’s social media activities annually earned her about $80,000 from endorsements and sponsorships.
Markle became known through The Tig for her fashion sense, releasing two fashion collections with Canadian clothing company Reitmans in 2015 and 2016. The lines were based on her personal style and that of her Suits character. Markle has cited Emmanuelle Alt as her style inspiration.
Shortly after her engagement to Prince Harry in 2017, Markle caused a surge of interest in Scottish retailer Strathberry after carrying one of its handbags to a public event. This was reported as an indication that her fashion choices would produce a variation of the Kate Middleton effect. After Markle and Prince Harry’s first appearance as a couple, brands Mackage, Birks, R&R Jewelers, Crown Jewelers and Everlane noted an upswing in their website hits and sales. It was speculated that Markle’s effect would be broader internationally because she already had a strong American appeal. Consequently, the United States saw a boost in yellow gold jewelry sales in the first quarter of 2018.
In 2018, Tatler named the Duchess with other senior royal women on its list of Britain’s best dressed people. Following the announcement of her pregnancy, the Duchess appeared in a Karen Gee dress that resulted in the Australian designer’s website crashing. Fashion website Net-a-Porter ranked the Duchess as one of the best dressed women in 2018. and was nominated for the 2018 Teen Choice Awards in the category Choice Style Icon. In 2019, British brand Reiss reported a growth in profits after the Duchess was seen wearing a mini-dress by them on International Women’s Day.
Public life
Royal duties
Markle greeting the public in Belfast, March 2018
After becoming engaged, Markle’s first official public appearance with Prince Harry was at a World AIDS Day walkabout in Nottingham on December 1, 2017. On March 12, the 2018 Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey was the first royal event she attended with the Queen. On March 23, Harry and Meghan made an unannounced day visit to Northern Ireland. In total, Markle attended 26 public engagements prior to the wedding.
The Duchess’s first official engagement after marriage was on May 22, when she and her husband attended a garden party celebrating the charity work of the Prince of Wales. In July 2018, Meghan’s first official trip abroad as a royal was to Dublin, Ireland, alongside Harry.
In October 2018, the Duke and Duchess traveled to Sydney, Australia for the 2018 Invictus Games. This formed part of a Pacific tour that included Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. As representatives of the Queen, the couple were greeted warmly by crowds in Sydney, and the announcement of the Duchess’s pregnancy hours after their arrival delighted the public and media.
During their visit to Morocco in February 2019, the Duke and Duchess focused on projects centered on “women’s empowerment, girls’ education, inclusivity and encouragement of social entrepreneurship”. It is otherwise noted that the Duchess participated in her husband’s work as youth ambassador to the Commonwealth, which included overseas tours.
As part of establishing a separate office from Kensington Palace in 2019, the Duke and Duchess created an Instagram social media account, which broke the record for fastest account to reach 1 million followers to date. In August 2019, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were criticized by environmental campaigners for using private jets regularly when taking their personal trips abroad, which would leave more carbon footprint per person compared to commercial planes. The criticism was in line with the reactions the royal family faced in June 2019, after it was revealed that they “had doubled carbon footprint from business travel”.
In September and October 2019, a Southern African tour included Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. Because infant son Archie traveled with the Sussexes, this was “their first official tour as a family”.
Stepping down
In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess returned to the UK from a vacation in Canada and announced that they were stepping back from their role as senior members of the royal family, and would balance their time between the United Kingdom and North America. A statement released by the Palace confirmed that the Duke and Duchess were to become financially independent and cease to represent the Queen. The couple would retain their HRH stylings but not be permitted to use them. The formal role of the Duke and Duchess would be subject to a twelve-month review period, ending in March 2021. The Duchess’s final solo engagement as a senior royal was a visit to Robert Clack School on March 7 in Dagenham ahead of International Women’s Day.
Post-royal work
The Duke and the Duchess remain president and vice president respectively of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT). Periodically, online QCT chat sessions are conducted and uploaded to YouTube for general public viewing. In June 2020, they signed with the Harry Walker Agency, owned by media company Endeavor, to conduct public speaking engagements. In September 2020, the Sussexes signed a private commercial deal with Netflix “to develop scripted and unscripted series, film, documentaries, and children programming for the streaming service”. In December 2020, it was announced that she had invested in Clevr Blends, a coffee company based in Southern California. In the same month, the Duke and Duchess signed a multi-year deal with Spotify to produce and host their own programs through their audio producing company, Archewell Audio. The first episode of the podcast was released on the service in December 2020.
Charity work and advocacy
Markle addressing the audience during a USO show at Naval Station Rota, Spain, December 6, 2014
Markle spoke at the 2014 summit for the international charity One Young World in Dublin and attended the 2016 opening ceremony in Ottawa. Also in 2014, she toured Afghanistan and Spain with the United Service Organizations.
In 2016, Markle became a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign. After a trip to India focused on raising awareness for women’s issues, she penned an op-ed for Time magazine concerning stigmatization of women in regard to menstrual health. She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an Advocate. The Duchess is a vocal feminist and intended to use her role as a member of the royal family to continue supporting women’s rights and social justice. In 2017, Markle joined Prince Harry in teaming up with the charity Elephants Without Borders to assist with the conservation efforts taking place in Botswana.
In January 2018, Markle became interested in the Hubb Community Kitchen run by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. She visited the kitchen regularly, and suggested that the displaced women publish a cookbook to assist in funding for the group. Together: Our Community Cookbook, her first charity project as Duchess of Sussex, was announced in September.
In March 2020, it was announced that Meghan’s first post-royal project would be the narration of Disneynature’s documentary Elephant, which was released on April 3. In support of elephants, Disneynature and the Disney Conservation Fund would donate to Elephant Without Borders for species conservation in Botswana.
In April 2020, the Duchess volunteered with her husband in a private capacity to personally deliver foods prepared by the Project Angel Food to Los Angeles residents amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. In July 2020, Meghan spoke in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Patronages and interests
The Duchess’s patronage of London’s National Theatre, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, Smart Works, and Mayhew reflects her earlier interests in the arts, access to education, women’s empowerment, and animal well-being, respectively. In March 2019, the Duchess was appointed the vice president of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust. In October 2019, the Duchess voiced a Public Health England announcement with other members of the royal family for the “Every Mind Matters” mental health program.
In 2019, the Duchess was a contributor and guest editor for the September issue of British Vogue and highlighted the works of 15 women from different areas, who were described as “Forces for Change”. Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of the British Vogue, later revealed that the issue had become the “fastest-selling issue in the history of British Vogue“. In the same issue, it was announced that she had collaborated with a number of British fashion houses and stores to launch a capsule collection, called The Smart Set, in September 2019 to benefit the charity Smart Works, of which she is a patron. The collection sought to help “unemployed and disadvantaged women”, through selling items “on a one-for-one basis, meaning an item is donated for each item purchased”. Taking advantage of “the Meghan effect” (driving consumer purchases), in 10 days the collection provided a year’s worth of clothes for the charity.
Sussex Royal and Archewell
In February 2018, Markle and fiancé Harry attended the first annual forum of The Royal Foundation. After marriage, the Duchess became the foundation’s fourth patron alongside Prince Harry, Prince William and his wife, Catherine. In June 2019, it was announced that Harry and Meghan would split from the charity and establish their own foundation. Nevertheless, the couples would collaborate on mutual projects, such as the mental health initiative Heads Together. The following month, “Sussex Royal The Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex” was registered in England and Wales. However, it was confirmed on February 21, 2020 that “Sussex Royal” would not be used as a brand name for the couple following their step back from public life as working royals. On August 5, 2020 Sussex Royal Foundation was renamed “MWX Foundation” and dissolved the same day.
In April 2020, Meghan and Harry confirmed that an alternative foundation (in lieu of Sussex Royal) would be called “Archewell”. The name stems from the Greek word “arche”, which means “source of action”; the same word that inspired the name of their son. Archewell was registered in the United States. Its website was officially launched in October 2020.
Privacy and the media
In 2018, Time magazine included the Duchess on its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and placed her on its shortlist for Person of the Year. She was also chosen as one of the most influential women in the United Kingdom by British Vogue magazine. Her influence was also recognized in both the 2019 and 2020 editions of Powerlist, the 100 most influential Britons of African and Afro-Caribbean descent.
In May 2019, Splash News issued a formal apology to the Sussexes for sending photographers to their Cotswolds residence, which put their privacy at risk. The agency also agreed to pay a “substantial” sum of damages and legal costs associated with the case. In January 2020, lawyers for the Duke and Duchess issued a legal warning to the press in general after paparazzi photographs were published in the media.
At the end of the tour of Southern African countries in September and October 2019, it emerged that the Duchess was suing The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline for alleged breach of privacy, infringement of copyright, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018 over the publication of a letter she had sent to her father. The Duchess lost the first round in the High Court of Justice case with the Daily Mail in 2020, and was ordered to pay £67,000 legal costs for Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL). In September, ANL successfully applied to use the recently published biographical book Finding Freedom, alleging that the Duchess had passed information onto the authors. The two sides were scheduled to return to court in January 2021, before the trial was postponed to October or November due to a “confidential matter”.
In March 2020, the couple took Splash UK to court after the Duchess and their son were photographed without permission during a “private family outing” while staying in Canada. The case was settled later that year with Splash UK agreeing to no longer take unauthorized photos of the family. On April 20, 2020, the Duke and Duchess announced that they would no longer cooperate with the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Mirror and the Express. In July 2020, the Duchess jointly launched legal action with her husband against an unidentified individual for taking pictures of their son in Los Angeles. American news agency X17 issued an apology. It also agreed to reimburse some of the other party’s legal fees, hand over photos on hand, destroy any copies in its possession and cease distribution of the images.
Titles, styles, and arms
The Duchess of Sussex’s monogram
Meghan became a princess of the United Kingdom upon her marriage to Prince Harry, entitled to the style of Royal Highness. After her marriage, she was styled “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex”. She also holds the titles of Countess of Dumbarton and Baroness Kilkeel. She is the first person to hold the title “Duchess of Sussex”. Following the Duke and Duchess’s decision to step back from royal duties in 2020, the couple agreed not to use the style of “Royal Highness” in practice, but still technically retain the style.
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Filmography
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | General Hospital | Jill | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Century City | Natasha | 1 episode “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Lose” (season 1: episode 4) |
| 2005 | Cuts | Cori | 1 episode “My Boyfriend’s Back” (season 1: episode 5) |
| 2005 | Love, Inc. | Teresa Santos | 1 episode “One on One” (season 1: episode 9) |
| 2006 | 1 vs. 100 | Herself | 1 episode Mob member number 7 |
| 2006 | The War at Home | Susan | 1 episode “The Seventeen-Year Itch” (season 1: episode 17) |
| 2006 | CSI: NY | Veronica Perez | 1 episode “Murder Sings the Blues” (season 3: episode 7) |
| 2006 | Deceit | Gwen | Television movie |
| Deal or No Deal | Herself | Holder of Case #24; 34 episodes | |
| 2008 | Good Behavior | Sadie Valencia | Television movie |
| 2008 | 90210 | Wendy | 1 episode “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore” (season 1: episode 1) The Jet Set (season 1: episode 2) |
| 2008 | ‘Til Death | Tara | 1 episode “Joy Ride” (season 3: episode 2) |
| 2008 | The Apostles | Kelly Calhoun | Television movie |
| 2009 | Knight Rider | Annie Ortiz | 1 episode “Fight Knight” (season 1: episode 14) |
| 2009 | Without a Trace | Holly Shepard | 1 episode “Chameleon” (season 7: episode 15) |
| 2009 | Fringe | Junior FBI Agent Amy Jessup | 2 episodes “A New Day in the Old Town” (season 2: episode 1) Night of Desirable Objects (season 2: episode 2) |
| 2009 | The League | Random Girl | 1 episode “The Bounce Test” (season 1: episode 2) |
| 2010 | CSI: Miami | Officer Leah Montoya | 1 episode “Backfire” (season 8: episode 20) |
| 2010 | The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down | Dana | Television movie |
| 2011–2018 | Suits | Rachel Zane | Series regular (seasons 1–7), 108 episodes (Markle’s final scene was filmed in 2017) |
| 2012 | Castle | Charlotte Boyd/Sleeping Beauty | 1 episode “Once Upon a Crime” (season 4: episode 17) |
| 2014 | When Sparks Fly | Amy Peterson | Hallmark Channel television movies |
| 2016 | Dater’s Handbook | Cassandra Brand |
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | A Lot like Love | Passenger on plane | |
| 2010 | Remember Me | Megan | |
| 2010 | Get Him to the Greek | Tatiana | Uncredited |
| 2010 | The Candidate | Kat | Short film |
| 2011 | Horrible Bosses | Jamie | |
| 2012 | Dysfunctional Friends | Terry | |
| 2013 | Random Encounters | Mindy | UK Title: A Random Encounter |
| 2015 | Anti-Social | Kirsten | |
| 2020 | Elephant | Narrator | Disneynature film; credit: Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex |
Authored articles
- Markle, Meghan (May 2015). “It’s All Enough”. Darling Magazine., republished online, November 6, 2018.
- Markle, Meghan (July 2015). “I’m More Than An ‘Other‘“. ELLE., republished online, December 22, 2016.
- Markle, Meghan (November 9, 2016). “With Fame Comes Opportunity, But Also A Responsibility”. ELLE.
- Markle, Meghan (March 8, 2017). “How Periods Affect Potential”. Time.
- HRH The Duchess of Sussex, “Foreword”, in: The Hubb Community Kitchen (2018). Together: Our Community Cookbook. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-1529102925. OCLC 1055685147.
- HRH The Duchess of Sussex (July 29, 2019). “HRH The Duchess of Sussex Introduces The September Issue In Her Own Words”. Vogue (British ed.).
- HRH The Duchess of Sussex (July 31, 2019). “HRH The Duchess of Sussex Shares A New Smart Works Initiative”. Vogue (British ed.).
- Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex (November 25, 2020). “The Losses We Share”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.