Meghan Markle: the modern duchess from Hollywood
After starting as an actress, Meghan Markle joined the British royal family by marrying Prince Harry, with whom she has a son, Archie. Highly publicized, she is also, and above all, a proud and committed feminist for a long time.
Former actress, Meghan Markle is the wife of Prince Harry and the mother of a little boy named Archie, She will soon welcome a second child. After their gradual split from the British royal family, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to Los Angeles to start their new life, far from the British tabloids.
A shared childhood
Born in Los Angeles on August 4, 1981, Meghan Markle, real name Rachel Meghan Sparke, is the daughter of an African-American mother and an Irish-Dutch father. A pride for the actress, who claimed her origins in an interview: "I intend to embrace this diversity, to say who I am, to share where I come from, to express my pride in being a strong, confident and mixed race woman. "
From her father's first marriage, she has a half-sister, Samantha, and a half-brother, Thomas.
If Meghan Markle likes to travel, gastronomy is also one of her favorite hobbies. As proof, his old blog, The Tig, which dealt mainly with cooking recipes and good restaurant addresses, bore the abbreviation of an Italian wine: Tignanello.
After receiving a Catholic education at "Immaculate Heart High School in the City of Angels", Meghan Markle studied theater and international relations at Northwestern University in the United States. Before branching out into comedy, she also worked at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires.
Suits: his Hollywood springboard
For her first TV appearance, Meghan Markle was a suitcase opener in the American take it or leave it version of. At the age of 21, she got a role in the series "Hospital central" and then "Fringe" where she played an FBI agent.
To this day, Meghan Markle is best known for the character of Rachel Zane in the series Suits: Custom Lawyers (Netflix), which she landed in 2011. In October 2017, she announced her departure from the series, and her career as a actress comes to an end. Rumors of marriage to Prince Harry are rife. We will have to wait for the formalization of their engagement, on November 27, 2017, to clarify everything.
Meghan Markle, a committed woman
Even before being an actress, Meghan Markle was an activist. From the age of 11, she wrote a letter to a brand of dishwasher product, protesting against sexist advertising. She wins, and the publicity is changed. Her initiative is causing a stir: the teenager is interviewed on television, and receives a letter of encouragement from Hillary Clinton.
Thereafter, she does not hesitate to put her fame at the service of important causes. From the fight against poverty, to gender equality, including the place of women in politics, the former actress is an activist. After her marriage to Harry, she is officially presented as a "feminist" on the official Buckingham website. A first for a member of the British royal family.
In 2014 and 2016, she was chosen to speak at the annual One Young World Summits. Themes such as gender equality and modern slavery are discussed there.
In March 2015, the American actress gave a speech at the World Conference on Women organized by the United Nations.
When I was just 11 years old, I almost accidentally became a women's rights activist.
In 2018, Times magazine named her one of the "100 most influential people in the world".
In 2020, Harry and Meghan call on Americans to vote against Donald Trump in the presidential election, and repeatedly support #BlackLivesMatter, the organization that fights against racist police violence.
In the summer, Meghan Markle reveals her miscarriage in an article published by the New York Times: "I knew, as I hugged my first child, that I was losing the second." In a poignant text, she returns to "the almost unbearable grief" experienced by many but which no one dares to speak of openly, and remains a taboo subject.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
Married for three years to film producer Trevor Engelson, Meghan Markle divorced in 2013.
She formalizes her relationship with Prince Harry on November 8, 2016. If the status of divorced woman is common, it is not always well accepted by the royal family. Exception for Meghan Markle who, according to rumors, has drawn the graces of Queen Elizabeth. Thanks to past stories, and also to Camilla Parker-Bowles' status as a divorced woman, now accepted by the Queen, the British royal family has been able to modernize and change their point of view.
Moreover, since 2002, the Anglican Church has allowed second marriages. Initiative taken in connection with Prince Charles' marriage to Camilla.
A year later, on November 27, 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement. The ring, designed by Prince Harry himself, consists of a gold ring and three diamonds. The one in the center comes from Botswana, a country in southern Africa where Prince Charles took his sons William and Harry to recharge their batteries in 1997 after the tragic death of their mother Diana Spencer.
The two diamonds which surround it come from a jewelry box of Diana, so that she "accompanies them in their crazy adventure", as the prince declared in an interview with the BBC, the day of the officialization. engagement. The wedding took place at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018. A high profile, live broadcast ceremony that drew over 11.5 million viewers.
Following the announcement of her first pregnancy in October 2018, Meghan Markle gives birth to a boy, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, on May 6, 2019.
On Valentine's Day, February 14, 2021, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex announced on their official Instagram account to be expecting their second child.
Removal from the royal family and new projects
Faced with media pressure and the relentlessness of the tabloids, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided, in January 2020, to distance themselves from Buckingham, and to be financially independent. On March 31, 2020, the "Megxit" takes effect: the Duke and Duchess of Sussex no longer make official commitments on behalf of the crown. After making a short stopover in Canada, the family moved to Los Angeles, United States, in March 2020.
"We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother."
They have since taken on a few projects, announcing editorial partnerships with Netflix and Spotify. The couple are also considering the idea of creating a charitable foundation.
For her part, Meghan Markle recorded the voice over of the documentary released in April 2020, “Elephant” produced by Disney.
In their desire to protect their privacy, the couple have taken legal action against tabloids. On February 11, 2021, Meghan Markle won her case against Associated Newspapers Limited, following the publication of a private letter to her father.
