Actress to be a new kind of royal
Prince Harry, American Meghan Markle announce engagement
She is an entertainment figure in her own right, and an outspoken woman comfortable talking about her background and her passions.
American actress Meghan Markle will be a new type of royal when she weds Prince Harry in the spring.
In some ways, Markle — a mixed-race American raised in California, and a divorcee — makes a surprising addition to Britain’s monarchy.
But the institution has moved on with the times, and the romance between Markle and Harry has a decidedly unstuffy, modern feel to it.
Markle, best known for her role as an ambitious paralegal in the hit U.S. legal drama “Suits,’’ surprised many when she shared her feelings for Harry in a September cover story for Vanity Fair.
Asked about the media frenzy surrounding their courtship, the 36-year-old said: “At the end of the day I think it’s really simple ... we’re two people who are really happy and in love.’’
It is unusual for a royal love interest to speak so publicly — and candidly — before becoming engaged. Harry’s past reported girlfriends all shied away from the media limelight, and his sister-inlaw, formerly known as Kate Middleton, stayed silent until she and Prince William gave a formal televised interview at Buckingham Palace after their engagement became public.
But then, unlike some other “commoners’’ romantically linked to Britain’s royals, Markle is no stranger to media exposure and the world of show business.
The actress’s most successful role is the feisty Rachel Zane in the TV legal show “Suits,’’ now in its seventh season.
Her career has also included small parts on TV series including “Fringe,’’ ‘’CSI: Miami,” ‘’Knight Rider” and ‘’Castle,” as well as movies including ‘’Horrible Bosses.”
Outside of acting, Markle founded a lifestyle blog called Thetig.com (which closed down in April without explanation), and has lent her celebrity status to humanitarian causes.
She has campaigned with the United Nations on gender equality, written in Time magazine about girls’ education and the stigma surrounding menstruation, and has travelled to Rwanda as global ambassador for the charity World Vision Canada. She has described how her mother took her to the slums of Jamaica to witness poverty first-hand, saying experiences like that shaped her social consciousness and charity work.
Harry and Markle held hands for their first official appearance together in September in Toronto at the Invictus Games, a sporting event for wounded service personnel that Harry spearheaded.
Markle said she met Harry through friends in London in July 2016, and that they had been dating quietly for several months before the romance hit the headlines.
The media attention then became so intense that Harry took the unusual step of officially confirming the romance in order to warn the media off. In a strongly worded statement issued through the palace, the prince pleaded for reporters to stop intruding on his girlfriend’s privacy.
Some tabloids had alluded to Markle’s mixed-race heritage, pointing out she has an African-american mother and a white father.
Markle was born Aug. 4, 1981, to a clinical therapist mother and television lighting director father. She grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Toronto.
She studied at a girls’ Roman Catholic high school before attending Northwestern University in Illinois, where she studied theatre and international relations.
Markle married film producer Trevor Engelson in 2011, but the pair divorced two years later.
In her Vanity Fair interview, Markle made clear the world’s attention on her romance did not faze her.
“I’m still the same person that I am, and I’ve never defined myself by my relationship,’’ she said. “The people who are close to me anchor me in knowing who I am. The rest is noise.’’