Meghan‘ Suits’up onelast time
Here’s a look at the showthat shot the future duchess to fame
Youmay not be aware of this, but when Meghan Markle marries Prince Harry onMay 19, it will actually be her secondwedding this year. Before then, on April 25, she’s due to marry a lawyer called Mike Ross— and thiswedding has been seven years in the making.
Before you’re tempted to shout “objection!”, this is a scene fromthe American TVdramaSuits, in which Markle has starred since it began airing on theUSA Network in 2011. But while her relationship with Prince Harry seems to have gone smoothly, her on- screen engagement hasweathered a last- minute postponement, betrayal, and even prison. If you haven’t beenwatching— even the Queen hasn’t caught up on all seven series yet, although Harry has reportedly shown her clips onYouTube— Suits focuses on the relationship between hotshot lawyer Harvey Specter ( Gabriel Macht) and his protege Mike Ross ( Patrick JAdams); a
brilliant college drop out whom Specter hires after being disappointed by aweedy crop of Harvard LawSchool graduates.
In between winning cases, the pair must keep the fact that Ross is not a qualified lawyer a secret, including from Specter’s long- time assistantDonna Paulsen ( Sarah Rafferty), and Rachel Zane ( Markle), an experienced paralegal who keeps fluffing her lawschool exams. This grows increasingly trickywhen Zane and Ross develop an on- off flirtation, finally becoming a couple in season three.
Why amI telling you all this? Well, the second half of the seventh series of Suits has just started in theUAE, giving the public their final look at Meghan Markle the actress before she transforms into Meghan Markle the royal ( she quit the $ 450,000, or Dh1.65 million, role in January). So whatwas once a perfectly entertaining legal drama— one often described as a “guilty pleasure” by its fans— is likely to becomeone of themost intensely sc rut in is ed TV show so four time.
Will Hollywood be missing out nowthat Markle has retired fromacting? Since joining Suits, other acting appearances have been limited to a couple of cheesy Hallmark Channel films; playing Sleeping Beauty in an episode of Castle, and a role in a poorly reviewed crime film directed byAmyWinehouse’s ex- boyfriend, Reg Traviss. Instead, sheworked on her lifestyle site, The Tig— launched in 2014, and closed discreetly last summer, followed by her social media accounts this January — and crucially, her humanita rian work. It’s difficult to fit in an indie comedywhen you’re getting a proper opportunity to fight for things that matter.
Earlier this year, Suits creatorAaron Korsh revealed to the Today programme that he had begun to write Markle out well before her engagementwas announced, with the writers deciding to “take a gamble” that her relationship with Harrywas likely to progress. “It’s much easier to undo that if it came to it than just plan on her staying forever and then find out she’s going to go— because the onlyway to write out a character like that is to have her be hit by a bus or something,” he said. Whichwouldn’t quite be an ending befitting of a future duchess.
The closest comparisonwe have to Markle’s final bowin Suits is GraceKelly’s performance in High Society— the last film she made before retiring and becoming a royal in Monaco. Back then, Kelly’s retirement signalled a happy- ever- after worthy of a fairy tale and her send- off couldn’t have been more apt: high society is where she spent the rest of her life.
Suits is no High Society, but it’s a fitting screen farewell forPrince Harry’s partner: she is, after all, simply leaving one firm to join another.