New book on Meghan Markle finds she’s no Diana
The writer who made his name with a bombshell biography of the Princess of Wales dissects Prince Harry’s fiancee and finds she’s no Diana 2.0, says
Andrew Morton had one great stroke of luck. Princess Diana appointed him her ventriloquist’s dummy for Diana: Her True Story back in 1992. He doesn’t know why she chose him and says now he wishes he had asked her about it when he could.
Although he has never found another source to compare, Morton has since become a serial biographer of other celebrities and royals, including most recently William and Catherine and, earlier this year, Wallis Simpson.
Now here’s his high-speed take on Meghan Markle. And, for a quickie, it’s a surprisingly solid piece of work.
Morton must know the market just now is for a hagiography, celebrating the way Meghan’s presence will make the monarchy more inclusive and relevant, but he can’t quite stop himself also spilling some beans and letting his opinions show.
She comes, he says, from a “fractured”, “dysfunctional” family. Her parents — her white father, Thomas Markle Sr, a previously married TV lighting director, and her black mother, Doria Ragland, a much younger make-up artist — split up when Meghan was just two.
Morton emphasises that both her family troubles and her bi-racial identity gave her a natural understanding of other people’s troubles.
Although her father’s career was erratic, Meghan was sent to expensive private schools in LA, the Little Red School House, followed by the Immaculate Heart High School, where she began to show a penchant for the limelight.
She gave a raunchy performance as “sexy South American vamp Lola Banana” in a school play, revealing her star quality.
“From a young age, Meghan dreamed of becoming a famous Hollywood actress. She fantasised about winning an Oscar one day, practising her acceptance speech in front of her bedroom mirror,” Morton says, sagely observing that “most actors come from broken homes”.
Morton notes that Meghan always took a good picture. “She knew her angles — after all, she had been taught by the best, her father — and always posed sweetly.” In one startling illustration here, she poses slinkily even as a schoolgirl with an early boyfriend, a giant called Luis Segura, who in comparison looks like a hapless waxwork.
After graduation from Northwestern University, in 2003, she tried for many years to break into acting, getting only tiny roles, until in 2006 she got work on the TV game show Deal or No Deal as one of the “26 beautiful smiling girls” who held out briefcases to the contestants.
Then, in 2010, she was cast as Rachel Zane in the successful legal drama Suits, starring for seven seasons, until she quit last year.
In 2004, Meghan started a relationship with a moderately successful film producer, Trevor Engelson, a tall, irrepressible New Yorker, whom she called “Trevity-Trev-Trev”. In September 2011, the couple married in Jamaica, but soon afterwards, as Meghan’s career took off, the long-distance relationship failed.
“A $500 Vitamix blender symbolised the growing divide,” Morton claims, stretching it a bit. It seems Meghan had moved her favourite kitchen appliance to Toronto, where Suits was filmed, rather than buying a new one, “a material reminder that her home was no longer in Los Angeles”.
In 2013, Meghan ended her marriage, allegedly sending her engagement and wedding rings back by registered post. “It was such a surprise to Trevor that, even at a distance of five years, he can barely contain his anger ... ‘I have nothing to say about her,’ he said to enquirers.”
One of Meghan’s lifelong friends, Ninaki Priddy, was shocked, too: “After listening to Trevor’s side of the story, she decided she no longer wished to associate herself with Meghan.”
Other old friends also experienced “the Meghan chill”, as Morton puts it.
Capitalising on her success, Meghan launched her social media site, the Tig, and worked hard to become United Nations women’s advocate on women’s leadership and political participation. Then came the famous blind date with Harry at a private room in Soho House in June 2016.
“They were mesmerised by one another, Harry enthralled by her beauty, sophistication and perceptiveness,” says Morton.
Morton’s tone by this point is quite casually disparaging, freely characterising her as “a networker to her fingertips”, “archly protective of Brand Meghan”, “a thirsty socialite”, even “a grizzled veteran”.
Twice he says that what she is acquiring in her relationship with Harry is “a megaphone”. The key comparison is with Diana. Morton reveals that, even as a teenager, Meghan was fascinated by her and owned a copy of his book. Priddy says: “She wants to be Princess Diana 2.0.”
In conclusion, Morton says: “In some ways, the groomed and camera-ready Ms Markle was the woman Diana always wanted to be.” Yet Diana’s “appeal as a celebrity lay as much in her vulnerability as in her star status. The word vulnerable does not immediately spring to mind when assessing Ms Markle’s many splendid qualities.”
After reading this biography, you appreciate the understatement.