Exclusive: Meghan and mum, hours before her wedding (to her FIRST husband, that is!)
WITH swaying palm trees in the background and her mother at her side, Meghan Markle smiles as she celebrates marrying her film producer boyfriend.
The American actress, then 30, tied the knot with Trevor Engelson, her partner of seven years, in 2011.
They partied alongside 100 friends and family over four days in Jamaica, complete with rum punch and games on the beach.
Miss Markle is seen relaxed and make-up free, wearing a trilby and yellow bikini. It was a very different image from those broadcast around the world on Monday, when dressed in a long white coat and nude heels, she beamed beside Prince Harry as they announced their engagement.
Her first wedding in September 2011 was a world away from the pomp and formality of the ceremony she and her fiance are now planning for next May. This will be paid for by the Royal Family and broadcast from Windsor Castle.
At her first wedding she was joined by her yoga instructor mother, Doria Ragland, 61, who was described as ‘amazing’ by Harry this week.
For the ceremony itself she wore a long white dress with silver details, her tan lines clearly visible from days soaking up the sun.
Within two years, however, Miss Markle had split from Mr Engelson, citing ‘irreconcilable’ differences in divorce proceedings.
Her friends admitted the distance between her filming in Canada and the couple’s home in California took a toll on their marriage. Miss Markle, now 36, has rarely spoken of her first husband and he has refused to comment on her romance with Harry.
But in a rare insight into the relationship, speaking in 2013, months before their divorce, she told of holidays with her husband and her love of travelling.
Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, when asked if she was an ‘adventurous eater’, Miss Markle answered: ‘Oh gosh. I eat everything! My poor husband has to try to keep up with me. In Vietnam two years ago, I was eating everything I had seen [US celebrity chef] Anthony Bourdain eat. My husband just got sick.’
Today’s picture of Miss Markle is part of a series of exclusive images which will appear in tomorrow’s Daily Mail. The photos chart the woman who will soon become part of the Royal Family from a young child to recent years, when she became known for playing Rachel Zane in u S legal drama Suits.