Meghan was a wild child... just like Harry
Ex uni pals of prince’s gal tell of life of larks
While 36-year-old Meghan Markle may seem like the ideal princess-inwaiting, we can reveal she had a wild youth just like 32-year-old Harry.
Meghan’s days at Northwestern University in Chicago in the early 2000s have rarely been spoken about.
But a visit to her old stomping ground by the Sunday Mirror has revealed she was a typical party-loving student who allegedly used fake ID to go clubbing.
One of her favourite haunts is said to have been a bar that has since been shut down following a battle with authorities over underage drinking.
We also uncovered an article from the college news magazine in which Meghan herself joked she put on a stone after bingeing on Burger King in her Freshman year.
Interviewed by the magazine in 2014, after returning to the Northwestern campus for a Q&A session alongside fellow cast members of TV show Suits, she said: “It’s surreal because I haven’t been back since I graduated.
FUN-LOVING
“And as I’m walking around I remember things like the schlep of getting to South Campus from up north.
“The 24-hour Burger King also definitely helped me put on the Freshman Fifteen.”
Meghan attended the university’s School of Communication at the same time as fun-loving Prince Harry was getting into trouble for heavy drinking.
In his late teens, the young prince was making headlines for his wild nights out in Gloucestershire pubs around Highgrove – Prince Charles’s country home.
One pub in particular, the Rattlebone Inn, which has since changed hands, was infamous for its boozy lock-ins.
Prince Harry even set up a nightclub for his posh friends in the basement of Highgrove, calling it Club H.
And while the prince partied with his exclusive group of pals, Meghan was at college mixing with members of her own posh pack.
Hers was an all-female society, called the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, with a reputation for hard partying and social climbing.
Current KKG member Melania Hidalgo told the Sunday Mirror that Meghan had been a popular member of the student body.
She said: “We’re intelligent hot messes. The thing we all have in common is that we’re all very driven, ambitious and passionate.
“Meghan was the recruitment chair of the sorority during her time here.
“She was in charge of bringing in new girls – you have to be a very friendly and outgoing person for that role.
“I lived in the house for a year and it’s a very fun experience, you end up becoming friends with people you never thought you’d mix with.
“All of the late nights, and coming home from going out, watching movies… you develop very strong friendships.”
Meghan is not the only famous actor to have graduated from Northwestern. David Schwimmer, Warren Beatty, Stephen Colbert, Julia Louisdreyfus and Zach Braff also learned their trade at the school.
Former pals told how Meghan had her eyes firmly set on Hollywood even back then – and would often sneak off for secret auditions for TV commercials.
But she still found time to let her hair down in the Windy City. One former student told us: “Meghan had a fake ID during her time at university and told us about it when she visited the campus
in 2014. She said she used it to drink at The Keg, which was a popular student bar for years, and she also got a job at a club in the city. “You can get two fake IDS for about $100 in Chicago – it’s a little bit sketchy though and not everyone has one. “She seems like the perfect modern princess now, but she lived university life like most teenagers and was really popular on
campus. Everyone talks about her going here.” The Keg of Evanston later lost its liquor licence – after 36 years as a students’ favourite – following a battle with city officials over underage drinking.
It is now a trendy bar and restaurant, Bangers and Lace, and new management say The Keg will not be missed.
“It was a sh**hole, full of underage girls drinking and crazy boys starting fights,” general manager Chris Nora said. “It doesn’t surprise me Meghan had a fake ID.
“Door staff used to joke when girls finally handed over a real one, saying, ‘It’s about time!’” Already an accepted part of the family, Meghan is in the UK this week to give Prince Harry much-needed support on the 20th anniversary of mum Diana’s death. She spent the anniversary behind closed doors at Kensington Palace, sharing the difficult time with Harry and his brother William, along with William’s wife Kate and Harry’s nephew and niece, George, four, and Charlotte, two.
Our trip to Northwestern also shed some light on the mystery surrounding Meghan’s birth name, Rachel. For while the world knows her as Meghan, that is actually her middle name. Rachel is the name given by her parents Thomas and Doria. And photos discovered in the KKG house on campus show one picture of the actress captioned “Rachel Markle” – and another captioned “Meghan Markle”. The find suggests it was during her college years that she switched her names. And as speculation grows that the world’s most eligible bachelor could be about to pop the question, Meghan Markle is the name that will soon be known in every corner of the globe.
She seems the perfect modern princess, but her university life was like most teenagers
FORMER STUDENT TALKING OF MEGHAN’S SORORITY INSOBRIETY