Person attributes
Other attributes
Rachel Meghan Markle, better known as Meghan Markle or Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is a former actress and a member of the British royal family through her marriage to Prince Harry. Markle retired from acting upon their engagement in 2017, and the couple married in May 2018. They have two children, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. In January 2020, Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from their senior duties as members of the royal family in a widely publicized move dubbed as "Megxit." Since separating from the royal family, the two have pursued ventures, including charity work and video and audio production through their organization, Archewell.
Markle was born Rachel Meghan Markle on August 4, 1981, to parents Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle. She has two paternal half-siblings. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Markle started attending Little Red Schoolhouse when she was two years old. Her father was a lighting director working in Hollywood. As a result, Markle spent a large portion of her childhood on the set of Married... With Children, in which she later played an uncredited role. She was involved in social awareness issues from a young age. At age eleven, she wrote to the company Procter & Gamble and asked them to use gender-neutral language in an ad for dishwashing liquid.
Markle attended Immaculate Heart High School beginning in 1992. From ages thirteen to seventeen, she regularly volunteered at a soup kitchen in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles. After high school, Markle enrolled at Northwestern University, where she majored in both theater and international studies. She was a member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. She spent one semester abroad in Madrid; another part of her time at university was spent as an intern at the American embassy in Buenos Aires. Markle graduated from Northwestern with a bachelor's degree in 2003.
Markle's first credited acting role was in a 2002 episode of the long-running soap opera General Hospital. Prior to that, she had an uncredited role in the TV series Married... With Children in 1995. Over the course of her acting career, she has guest starred in multiple TV series such as Castle, The League, Fringe, 90210, and CSI: Miami, and held minor roles in movies including Horrible Bosses, Remember Me, and Get Him to the Greek. The biggest role of her career was as Rachel Zane in the television series Suits, which aired from 2011–2018. She appeared as a briefcase model in thirty-four episodes of Deal or No Deal from 2006–2007. Markle has also been in several commercials for brands including Tostitos, Miller Lite, and Clevr. Markle has stated that she faced difficulty obtaining acting roles because she is "ethnically ambiguous," as her mother is Black and her father is white.
Archewell, a nonprofit organization launched by Markle and Prince Harry, was established in October 2020. Archewell is the holder of The Archewell Foundation, Archewell Audio, and Archewell Productions. The Archewell Foundation states that its main focuses are to "build a better world online, to restore trust in information, and above all, to uplift communities." Archewell Audio is an audio production company partnered with Spotify. Archewell Productions is a video production company. It is partnered with Netflix.
Before getting married to Prince Harry, Markle was married to American actor and producer Trevor Engelson. They got married in September 2011 and divorced almost two years later, in August 2013. Markle was thirty years old when she initially got married, and the couple had been together for seven years before their nuptials.
In mid-2016, Markle got into a relationship with Prince Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II. The couple stated that they initially connected with each other through Instagram and added that a mutual friend set them up on a blind date in July 2016. On November 27, 2017, Markle's engagement to Prince Harry was announced by Harry's father, Charles (then the Prince of Wales).
On May 19, 2018, the marriage ceremony was held at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. On May 6, 2019, Meghan gave birth to a son, Archie. In July 2020, she suffered a miscarriage. On June 4, 2021, Markle gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet.
In January 2020, Meghan and Harry returned to the United Kingdom from a vacation in Canada. In June 2020, after some months in Canada and the United States, the couple bought a house on the former estate of Riven Rock, Montecito, California. They then announced that they were stepping back from their roles 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 stop undertaking royal duties as representatives of the Queen and would no longer receive relevant financial support. They would both retain their HRH styles but not use them. The formal role of the Duke and Duchess was subject to a twelve-month review period, which ended in March 2021.
In March 2020, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Los Angeles after living in Canada for a few weeks. Before that, they had been residing in Vancouver Island, following their announcement about stepping down as senior members of the Royal Family. Meghan and her husband moved to her home country, which is also where her mother, Doria, lives.
On March 7, 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released a two-hour-long interview with Oprah, which aired in the United States. In the interview, the couple shared details about their son, Archie, and their exit from the Royal Family, amongst other things.