CELEBRITY CHEF LOVER
when Harry was in Toronto, in May 2016, to promote the Invictus Games, the international Paralympic- style sporting event for Armed Forces personnel, which the Prince founded.
Others insist Meghan was not even in Canada at that time, and that they first met at a dinner at Soho House in London in June 2016, introduced by Markus Anderson, a consultant for the private members’ club. He just happens to be one of Meghan’s ‘closest friends in the world’.
However, the truth appears to have emerged when I spoke to actor Max Topplin, a close friend of Meghan who plays alongside her in Suits.
Though Topplin was at pains to be discreet about her relationship with Harry, at one point in our conversation he remarked: ‘ It’s shocking that all this happened, and he was in Toronto — and that’s where they met.
‘Just random. And now she could be a princess!’ WHen Meghan was cast as Rachel Zane, the smart, sassy legal assistant in Suits, her life was totally transformed. Until then, as she wrote in an eloquent article for elle magazine in 2015 about the challenges of being of mixed race, her heritage had blighted her career. Casting directors saw her as ‘ethnically ambiguous’, she said.
She ‘wasn’t black enough for the black roles, and wasn’t white enough for the white ones . . . an ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job’.
It was only when she auditioned for Suits that being racially ‘undefinable’ was regarded as a virtue.
The series, which premiered in 2011, was an instant success, and Meghan, hitherto never more than an attractive extra, suddenly found herself in the spotlight. In Toronto, where glamorous stars are in short supply, she was invited to the most chic of parties and events.
She was quick to capitalise on her popularity, augmenting her reputed £250,000 salary by setting up a quirky food, fashion, travel and beauty blog called The Tig (a name abbreviated from that of her favourite Italian wine, Tignanello), starting her own fashion line, and accepting invitations to represent organisations such as World Vision Canada and Women for the Un.
She has visited Canadian troops in Afghanistan, Rwandan refugee camps and worked with children in India.
Away from the studios, she appeared content to live simply, renting a house in the middle-class Seaton Village district of Toronto, nipping out to shop in nearby Loblaws supermarket, attending yoga classes, and walking her two rescue dogs, a labrador/German shepherd called Bogart, and Guy, a beagle.
However, she began to acquire some decidedly high- powered friends, notably Jessica Mulroney, the daughter- in- law of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney (now one of her closest confidantes and her stylist), and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of the current prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
Then there were sports celebrities such as Serena Williams and Rory McIlroy, with whom she teamed up for the ‘ice-bucket challenge’ — a global internet charity fundraiser in 2014 — prompting ludicrous stories alleging she and McIlroy were an item.
Another new, trusted friend is Martina Sorbara, 38, the lead singer of Toronto pop group Dragonette and the daughter of yet another leading Canadian politician, Greg Sorbara.
FORa girl from a tough neighbourhood of Los Angeles, and a hillbilly-like family riven by feuding and financial problems ( both of Meghan’s parents have filed for bankruptcy over the years, although there is no suggestion they are still in financial trouble), it must have seemed surreal to be moving in such elevated circles.
She now has a very different group of friends.
Meghan’s taste in men also seems to have changed. early in 2014, not long after her divorce from Hollywood producer Trevor engelson was finalised, she began stepping out with Cory Vitiello, a celebrity chef.
With his rugged looks, frequent TV appearances, and chain of rotisserie restaurants, Vitiello might sound like Canada’s answer to Gordon Ramsay, but he is altogether more laid-back.
‘ never grandiose but quietly confident,’ is how he is described by Candice Best, a Toronto PR, who has known him a long time.
The self- taught Vitiello, who started cooking in his parents’ kitchen when he was 15, combines ‘ swagger with substance’, she adds. Vitiello played down his
TOMORROW: A jealous sister . . . and Harry’s VERY unusual potential in-laws
celebrity with becoming modesty: ‘There’s no downside to being a well-known chef. There are thousands of great cooks in the city, and there are chefs who are more deserving of the celebrity than myself,’ he told Toronto Life.
He was clearly smitten — and hugely impressed when Meghan was made an ambassador for the international children’s aid charity World Vision while they were going out together.
‘So proud of my lady @ meghanmarkle being named Global Ambassador for @worldvision #worldwaterday,’ he tweeted.
For her part, she revelled in the domestic harmony the relationship provided.
They moved into the smart townhouse where she lived under the name Meghan Engelson, close to a park where they walked Guy and Bogart.
Meghan’s live-in relationship with Vitiello lasted for two years, and there was talk of a possible engagement. Then, last spring, somewhat abruptly, they split up.
That has led some insiders to surmise they were still together when she met Prince Harry, and that her attraction to him caused the break-up.
WHATEVErthe reason they parted, the upwardly mobile Meghan was soon slipping away from the Suits studios for trysts with Harry. The cast was sworn to secrecy, but inevitably the news got out, and at first she struggled to cope with the pressure.
‘I talked to her a few months ago [ when the romance was first reported] and she was like: “This is crazy. This is so overwhelming,” ’ says her Suits colleague Max Topplin.
Like others who know her, though, he has no doubt that Meghan will quickly adjust to life under the microscope. ‘This is like a whole new ball-park [but] she is an actress. This is what she signed up for,’ he says.
Meghan has supported a charity that Topplin set up, to help disaster victims in Haiti, and he says he feels sure she will use her royal status for the public good.
Indeed, some believe she has already exercised her influence — by encouraging Harry to speak out, earlier this year, about his struggle with depression following his mother’s death and his decision to seek therapy.
Her half-brother, Thomas Jr, is among those who thinks she might have had a hand in his decision — saying that Meghan has personal experience of her father’s struggles and low moods since his retirement.
In his heyday, Thomas Markle Sr was an Emmy Award-winning cinematographer who worked on major TV shows such as General Hospital and Married With Children, and was chosen to oversee the lighting for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Oscar ceremony.
He worked ferociously long hours — Meghan credits him with instilling her work ethic — but mingled with the biggest stars and took huge pride and satisfaction from his job.
Today, aged 72, he lives a lonely existence, retaining a poky apartment in Los Angeles, but spending most of his time among fellow American retirees in the Mexican resort of rosarito Beach, where he rents a modest house.
Since he and Meghan’s mother, Doria, were divorced, he has never settled down with another woman, and, according to his son, he spends his days of leisure by taking photographs, drinking coffee and eating junk food in the shopping mall (his weight has ballooned to more than 20st) and pootling about in his battered old truck.
Added to this, he has suffered a series of personal setbacks.
He lost his mother, Doris, a few years ago, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He and Meghan would visit her every weekend, in a nursing home, during her final months.
According to his son and his exwife, he also paid tens of thousands of dollars for his daughter — Meghan’s half-sister — Samantha Grant, 52, who has multiple sclerosis, to receive stem- cell treatment (although she reportedly failed to follow the treatment programme).
According to Thomas Jr, his father claims he was ‘ripped- off’ by a potential partner with whom he planned to set up a business selling trinkets.
All this might help to explain why a man who had earned a very good living in Hollywood filed for bankruptcy last year, stating that he was unable to repay relatively modest credit card debts of $30,000 (£23,000).
‘It’s been hard for him,’ says Thomas Jr.
It has to be said that his son has done little to alleviate his father’s stress, by succumbing to alcoholism, and getting himself arrested, earlier this year, for pulling a gun on his girlfriend during a drunken row.
‘Dad’s is not taking to retirement very well. He has gone from one extreme to the other,’ Thomas Jr tells me. ‘He has not only lost his work, he has lost his status, and his whole social circle. That takes a very big adjustment.’
Might he have confided in Meghan, to whom he remains extremely close?
‘My Dad is the strong silent type. He has always pretty much kept himself to himself. There’s no way in the world he would talk about it.’
However, he says, Meghan would surely be aware of her father’s past difficulties, and the experience of seeing him suffer silently, without reaching out for help, might well have led to her to advise Harry to follow a different course.
Whatever the truth, Thomas Jr is certain of one thing: if and when the couple marry, his father will walk Meghan down the aisle.
‘ Dad wouldn’t miss it for anything. He’ll be the proudest man in the church,’ he says.
Quite so. But who else might Meghan invite to the wedding? Find out tomorrow, when I reveal her extraordinary ancestry and some intriguing family members.
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