Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle, August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family, media personality, entrepreneur, and former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.

Meghan was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her acting career began at Northwestern University. She played the part of Rachel Zane for seven seasons (2011–2018) in the legal drama series '' Suits''. She also developed a social media presence, which included The Tig (2014–2017), a lifestyle blog. During The Tig period, Meghan became involved in charity work focused primarily on women's issues and social justice. She was married to the film producer Trevor Engelson from 2011 until their divorce in 2014.

Meghan retired from acting upon her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018 and became known as the Duchess of Sussex. They have two children: Archie and Lilibet. The couple stepped down as working royals in January 2020, moved to Meghan's native Southern California and launched Archewell Inc., a Beverly Hills-based mix of for-profit and not-for-profit (charitable) business organizations. In March 2021, she and her husband participated in ''Oprah with Meghan and Harry'', a much-publicized American television interview by Oprah Winfrey. She has written the children's book '' The Bench'', hosted a podcast ''Archetypes'' (2022), and has starred in the Netflix series ''Harry & Meghan'' (2022) and ''With Love, Meghan'' (2025). Her lifestyle and cooking brand, As Ever, was officially launched in April 2025.

Early life and education

Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981, at West Park Hospital in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California. She identifies as mixed race; "My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I'm half black and half white." Her parents – the former makeup artist Doria Ragland (born 1956) and Thomas Markle Sr. (born 1944), a television lighting director and director of photography – separated when she was two years old and divorced four years later.

Markle reportedly has a close relationship with her mother. Until the age of nine, both parents contributed to raising her; then, her father was left in charge of caring for her (while her mother pursued a career) so Meghan lived with him full-time before commencing university at age eighteen.
Markle Sr. worked as a director of photography and lighting for ''General Hospital'' and '' Married... with Children'', and Meghan occasionally visited the set of ''Married... with Children'' as a child. In later life, she became estranged from her father and paternal half-siblings, Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jr.

Growing up in View Park–Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse. At age eleven, she and her classmates wrote to Procter & Gamble to gender-neutralize a dishwashing soap commercial on national television. She was raised as a Christian, though conflicting reports indicate she was raised either Catholic or Protestant. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High School (Los Angeles), a fee-charging all-girls Catholic school. Markle took part in plays and musicals at the school, where her father helped with lighting. During her teenage years, she worked at a local frozen yogurt shop and a donut shop and later as a nanny and waitress. She also volunteered at a soup kitchen in Skid Row, Los Angeles.

In 1999, she was admitted to Northwestern University (NU) in Evanston, Illinois, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. With other members of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Markle did volunteer work with the Glass Slipper Project. After her junior year, her uncle Michael Markle helped secure her an internship as a junior press officer at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, and she 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

According to Markle, she 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'', a show for which her father served as a lighting director. Markle had small guest roles on the television shows ''Century City'' (2004), '' The War at Home'' (2006) and '' CSI: NY'' (2006). For her role in ''Century City'', she told the casting directors that she was a SAG-AFTRA member when she was not, but after being cast, the employers were obliged to help her join the union according to the Taft–Hartley Act. Markle also did several contract acting and modeling jobs. Between 2006 and 2007, she worked as a "briefcase girl" on 34 episodes of the US version of the 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 appeared in small roles in the films '' Get Him to the Greek'', '' Remember Me'' (produced by her then-partner Trevor Engelson) and ''The Candidate'' in 2010 and the 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, she 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'', she lived for nine months each year in Toronto. ''Fortune'' magazine estimated that she was paid $50,000 per episode, amounting to an equivalent annual salary of $450,000.

Personal life

Early relationships and first marriage

Markle and American film producer Trevor Engelson began dating in 2004. They were married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on August 16, 2011. They separated in 2013, and were granted a divorce in 2014. Markle's subsequent live-in relationship with Canadian celebrity chef and restaurateur Cory Vitiello ended in May 2016 after almost two years.

Second marriage and motherhood

In mid-2016, Markle began a relationship with Prince Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II. According to the couple, they first connected with each other via Instagram, and they have also said that they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend in July 2016. On November 8, eight days after the relationship was made public by the press, 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. Later, in a letter to a British media regulator, Markle's representatives complained about harassment from journalists. In September 2017, Markle and Prince Harry appeared together in public in Toronto at the Invictus Games, of which Harry is founding patron.

Meghan Markle's engagement to Prince Harry was announced on November 27, 2017, by Harry's father Charles (then the Prince of Wales). The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm by the British media and prompted generally positive comments about a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to Commonwealth countries. Markle announced that she would retire from acting and her intention to become a British citizen.

In preparation for the wedding, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, baptized Markle and confirmed her in 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. Her wedding dress was designed by Clare Waight Keller. Markle later revealed that there was a private exchange of vows three days earlier, with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the couple's garden. However, this private exchange of vows was not a legally recognized marriage.

After the wedding, the Duke and Duchess lived at Nottingham Cottage in London, in the grounds of Kensington Palace. In May 2018, it was reported that they had signed a two-year lease on Westfield Large, located on the Great Tew Estate in the Cotswolds. They gave up the lease after photos of the house and its interior were published by a paparazzi agency. The couple considered settling at the twenty-one room Apartment 1 within Kensington Palace, but moved to Frogmore Cottage in the Home Park of Windsor Castle instead. The Crown Estate refurbished the cottage at a cost of £2.4 million, paid out of the Sovereign Grant, with the Duke later reimbursing expenses beyond restoration and ordinary maintenance, a part of which was offset against rental payments that were due at the time. Meghan gave birth to a son, Archie, 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 withdrew from undertaking official royal engagements. After some months in Canada and the United States, in June 2020, the couple bought a house on the former estate of Riven Rock, Montecito, California. The next month, Meghan suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet, on June 4, 2021. Meghan later revealed that she had suffered from postpartum preeclampsia. The Duke and Duchess have owned a Labrador named Pula and two Beagles named Guy and Mamma Mia. Meghan previously owned a Labrador-German Shepherd cross named Bogart.

Political views

Markle was politically vocal before marrying Prince Harry. At age 9, she and her friends reportedly campaigned against the Gulf War. Decades later, she backed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election and publicly denounced her opponent and eventual winner, Donald Trump. In 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. In 2017, Markle recommended the book ''Who Rules the World?'' by left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky on her Instagram account.

In July 2018, Irish senator Catherine Noone tweeted that the Duchess was "pleased to see the result" of the Irish referendum on legalizing abortion. Meghan received criticism for potentially breaching the protocol that prohibits royals from interfering in politics; Noone deleted her tweet and emphasized that her statement was misleading and "the Duchess was not in any way political".

After she returned to the United States and as an eligible voter, 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 then-president Trump to dismiss their messaging at a press conference. In October 2021, she penned an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, advocating for paid leave for parents. Her remarks were met by backlash from Republican representatives Jason Smith and Lisa McClain, who found her statement "out of touch" and criticized her interference with American politics while utilizing her British royal titles. Meghan has reportedly lobbied senators from both parties on the issue of paid family leave, including Democratic senators Patty Murray and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins. She has also publicly spoken in support of federal voting protections.

In February 2022, she voiced her support for the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson. In June 2022, she publicly supported Moms Demand Action, an organization which campaigns for safer gun laws in the US. In the same month, in an interview with Jessica Yellin for '' Vogue'', Meghan criticized the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that abortion is not a protected constitutional right and voiced her support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.

Public life

Royal duties

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. Meghan's first official engagement after marriage was on May 22, when she and her husband attended a garden party celebrating the charity work of King Charles III (then 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 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 Meghan'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". Meghan also participated in her husband's work as youth ambassador to the Commonwealth, which included overseas tours.

As part of establishing a separate office from that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2019, the Duke and Duchess created an Instagram social media account, which broke the record for the fastest account at the time to reach a million followers. In July 2019, the Duchess's security team were criticized for creating an empty zone of about 40 seats around her at Wimbledon where she was watching a match between Serena Williams and Kaja Juvan. In August 2019, Meghan and her husband 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 similar criticism faced by the royal family in June 2019, after it was claimed that they "had doubled heircarbon footprint from business travel".

In September and October 2019, a Southern African tour included Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. Archie traveled with his parents, making it "their first official tour as a family". Meghan completed 179 engagements in total in 2018 and 2019.

Stepping back and subsequent public appearances

In January 2020, Meghan and Harry 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 cease to undertake royal duties as representatives of the Queen and would therefore no longer receive the relevant financial support. The couple would retain their HRH styles but not use them. The formal role of the Duke and Duchess was subject to a twelve-month review period, ending in March 2021. Meghan's final public solo engagement as a senior royal was a visit to Robert Clack School in Dagenham on March 7, 2020, ahead of International Women's Day. She and Harry attended the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 9, 2020, which was their last engagement as a couple before they officially stepped down on March 31. Two years later, they made their first official appearance in the UK in June 2022 while attending the Platinum Jubilee National Service of Thanksgiving.

They visited the UK and Germany in September 2022 for a number of charity events in Manchester and Düsseldorf. On September 8, 2022, while Meghan and Harry were in London preparing to attend a charity event, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and they remained in the United Kingdom for her funeral.

Meghan and Harry visited Nigeria in May 2024 to honor the work of the Invictus Games. Meghan had previously stated that a genetic test had found she was of 43% Nigerian ancestry. According to CNN, their trip focused on "sports rehabilitation, mental health, and women's empowerment". Meghan co-hosted a women's empowerment summit with the head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and she was honored in a ceremony by some of the Nigerian Chiefs.

Further career and investments

In summer 2019, before announcing their decision to step down in January 2020, Meghan and her husband were involved in talks with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the founder of the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi, over a possible role in the service without gaining personal profits, but they eventually decided against joining the project. In September 2019, it was reported that the couple had hired New York-based PR firm Sunshine Sachs, which represented them until 2022. The couple has also been associated with Adam Lilling's Plus Capital, a venture capital fund designed to connect early stage companies with influencers and investors.

In June 2020, they signed with the Harry Walker Agency, owned by media company Endeavor, to conduct paid public speaking engagements. In September 2020, the Sussexes signed a private commercial deal with Netflix. In December 2020, it was announced that Meghan had invested in Clevr Blends, a coffee company based in Southern California. In the same month, Meghan and Harry signed a multi-year deal with Spotify to produce and host their own programs through their audio producing company, Archewell Audio. A holiday special was released by the couple on the service in December 2020, while Meghan's podcast, titled ''Archetypes'', premiered in August 2022. In June 2023, Spotify cancelled the podcast, which ran for a single season of 12 episodes.

'' The Bench'', a picture book written by Meghan with illustrations by Christian Robinson, was published in June 2021 by Random House Children's Books. It is based on her perception of the relationship between her husband and their son. The book received a mixed response; it garnered praise for its illustrations and messaging but was criticized for its structure and writing. On June 17, the book reached number one in the children's picture books category of ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. In July 2021, it was announced that Meghan would executive produce, alongside David Furnish, a Netflix animated series called ''Pearl''. The series was originally pitched to Netflix in 2018. ''Pearl'' would have depicted the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who was inspired by influential women from history, but the project was canceled in May 2022. Also in July 2021, it was reported that Meghan and Harry had signed a four-book publishing deal with Random House, including a wellness guide by Meghan and a memoir by Harry.

In October 2021, Meghan and Harry announced their partnership with Ethic, a sustainable investment firm based in New York City, which also manages the couple's investments. According to state filings from Delaware, where the couple's Archewell foundation is registered, Meghan and Harry incorporated 11 companies and a trust beginning in early 2020 which include Orinoco Publishing LLC and Peca Publishing LLC to hold the rights for their books as well as Cobblestone Lane LLC and IPHW LLC which are holders of their foundation's logos. Frim Fram Inc., which ran ''The Tig'', had been registered earlier as a new corporation in Delaware in December 2019.

''Harry & Meghan'', a docuseries about the couple directed by Liz Garbus, was produced by Netflix and the couple's Archewell Productions and premiered on December 8, 2022. The series received mixed reviews. In April 2023, it was announced that she had signed with talent agency WME, which would represent Archewell as well.

In March 2024, Meghan launched the lifestyle and cooking brand American Riviera Orchard, which was later renamed As Ever. In April 2024, it was announced that Archewell Productions was collaborating with Netflix to produce two new shows on lifestyle and on polo, respectively. Later in August, it was revealed that she had invested in the handbag brand Cesta Collective, which sold handwoven basket bags prepared by a group of women in Rwanda that were then completed in Italy. In November of the same year she invested in the haircare line Highbrow Hippie. Her lifestyle series, ''With Love, Meghan'' premiered on Netflix in March 2025.

In March 2025, it was announced that Meghan would host a second podcast series, '' Confessions of a Female Founder'', with Lemonada Media. In the same month, she launched an online site via ShopMy, which allows content creators to share links to their favorite clothing, accessories and jewelry while earning revenue through commissions.

Charity work and advocacy

Markle became a counsellor for the international network One Young World in 2014, spoke at its 2014 summit in Dublin and attended the 2016 opening ceremony in Ottawa. Also in 2014, she toured Spain, Italy, Turkey, Afghanistan and England 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. Her speech at the UN Women's 2015 conference as an advocate for political participation and leadership contained a number of sentences that were nearly identical to a 1951 speech by Eleanor Roosevelt. 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 August 2020, Meghan used proceeds from the cookbook to donate £8,000 to the UK charity Migrateful, which supports refugees, asylum seekers and migrants by helping them organize cookery classes. In March 2021, she donated £10,000 from the proceeds to the UK-based charity Himmah to assist them with stocking the group's food bank, provide them with equipment and help the Salaam Shalom Kitchen, the only Muslim and Jewish community kitchen in the UK.

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 Elephants Without Borders for species conservation in Botswana. In June 2020, the couple backed the Stop Hate for Profit campaign and encouraged CEOs of different companies to join the movement. In July 2020, she spoke in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In April 2021, the couple were announced as campaign chairs for Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, an event organized by Global Citizen to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations. They also announced their support for a vaccine equity fundraiser initiated by the same organization, and penned an open letter to the pharmaceutical industry CEOs urging them to address the vaccine equity crisis. In July 2021, Meghan and Harry were among people who were selected by UK-based charity Population Matters to receive the Change Champions Award for their decision to have only two children and help with maintaining a smaller and more sustainable population. In August 2021, to mark her 40th birthday, Meghan launched 40x40, a campaign that asks people around the world to spend 40 minutes of their time mentoring women reentering the workforce. In October 2021 and ahead of the 2021 G20 Rome summit, the couple penned an open letter together with the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom, asking the G20 leaders to expedite efforts for the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

In February 2022, the couple were selected to receive NAACP's President's Award for their work on causes related to social justice and equity. In the following month, they were among more than a hundred people who signed an open letter published by the People's Vaccine Alliance, asking for free global access to COVID-19 vaccines and calling out the UK, EU and Switzerland for opposing a waiver that would allow vaccine intellectual property protections to be lifted. In October 2022, Meghan and Harry were named as Ripple of Hope Award laureates for their work on racial justice, mental health and other social initiatives through their foundation Archewell. In April 2023, she was named as a recipient of the Ms. Foundation for Women's Women of Vision Award.

Patronages and interests

From January 2019 to February 2021, Meghan was patron of London's National Theatre and the Association of Commonwealth Universities

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