Actress, blogger ... and a breath of fresh air for royals
BRITAIN: If she was auditioning for the role of a lifetime, it would seem she has won the part. Meghan Markle, the actress, yoga lover and now fiancee of a prince, has stepped officially into the warm embrace of Britain’s royal family, crossing the Atlantic to start a new life.
The engagement announcement was not exactly a surprise, after weeks of breathless speculation and rumours. Nor is Markle an unknown entity. A refreshingly far cry from the sheltered aristocratic ingenues lined up as royal consorts of yore, she has taken pains to introduce herself to the world on her own terms.
Born Rachel Meghan Markle in 1981, she spent her formative years in Los Angeles with her parents: a yoga-teaching social worker mother and Emmy-winning lighting director father.
At 36, she is three years older than Harry and - unusually for royal brides - has already lived a substantial independent life, pursuing a career she would have been happy to continue had fate not stepped in.
According to her own description, given in 2016 before she scaled back her public life, she is ‘‘an actress, a writer, the editor-inchief of my lifestyle brand, The Tig, a pretty good cook and a firm believer in handwritten notes’’. A yoga devotee, she attracted a following for a picture-perfect Instagram lifestyle starring pet dogs, stylish friends and wholesome nights in.
A self-confessed romantic at heart, she has blogged on topics from spending Valentine’s Day alone to healthy living, featuring green juicing, organic food and a daunting devotion to ‘‘wellness’’.
In words that will either come to define her role in royal life, or come back to haunt her, she has said: ‘‘I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches; I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works.’’
And work she has: as a freelance calligrapher to pay the rent, as a jobbing actress and model, and finding fame as a saintly paralegal in the Netflix drama Suits. Like most actresses, her early roles were far from A-list: a part in daytime soap opera General Hospital, a stint as a ‘‘briefcase girl’’ on Deal Or No Deal , and a host of small roles on television, from 90210 to CSI: NY.
An early passion for campaigning saw her take on a range of philanthropic missions perfectly aligned with Harry’s own causes.
At 11, she wrote to a soap company complaining about a sexist advertisement featuring women in the kitchen - and got it changed. Following it up with a degree in international relations, she went on to work with UN Women, as global ambassador for World Vision Canada, and an agitator for gender equality.
During a visit to Rwanda to highlight a water crisis, she was photographed surrounded by smiling children, in what could prove a fateful foretelling of her future royal charity work.
Unlike Harry’s former girlfriends and the former Catherine Middleton, Markle has been well trained in media relations and PR. The perils of royal life - constant press interest, social media intrusion and the ubiquitous camera phones following her every move - are unlikely to daunt her.
Not that her extended family have always helped. Her half-sister Samantha, 16 years her senior, has painted an unflattering picture of the actress in what has become a running commentary, and is set to publish a tell-all memoir.
Her ex-husband, Trevor Engelson, whom she married in Jamaica in 2011 before separating two years later, has not shared his story but has sold the rights to a comedy series about a man whose wife leaves him for a British prince.
Profiles suggesting a gritty urban upbringing are wide of the mark. A family lottery win when she was 9 gave the family a head start, according to her halfbrother, funding the best schools and opportunities to pursue drama.
Though Markle’s parents divorced when she was 6, she has publicly praised them for how they brought her up, helping her navigate what she has described as a ‘‘confusing’’ time as a mixed-race child. – Telegraph Group