by Susan Flantzer
By Genevievederivative work: Firebrace (talk) – DSC_3441, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24725000
Rachel Meghan Markle, born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California, is the daughter of Thomas Markle and Doria Radlan. Her father is a cinematographer and lighting director and worked on the primetime shows Married With Children and Facts of Life and the daytime shows General Hospital and Santa Barbara. He is the winner of two Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series and was nominated six other times. Meghan’s mother has a master’s degree in social work and works as a clinical therapist and yoga instructor. Meghan told Elle magazine in 2016, “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.” Meghan has two much older half-siblings from her father’s first marriage: Samantha Markle Grant born in 1965 and Thomas Markle Jr. born in 1966.
Meghan grew up and was educated at private schools in Los Angeles, California. She attended elementary school at Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse and then attended Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girls high school. Meghan graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago Illinois in 2003 with a double major in theater and international relations. In 2011, Meghan married her long-time boyfriend Trevor Engelson, a film and television producer. The couple divorced in 2013.
Growing up in Hollywood and with a lighting director as a father, Meghan was around the entertainment industry and knew she would end up in show business in some capacity. Her first acting job was a one episode role on the daytime show General Hospital in 2002. Thereafter, she had small roles on television shows and in several films. To help support herself, Meghan took on freelance calligraphy jobs. Starting in 2011, Meghan appeared on Suits, an American legal drama television series, playing Rachel Zane, a senior paralegal with dreams of going to law school.
Meghan Markle attends the Wimbledon tennis tournament in June 2016
On November 8, 2016, Kensington Palace confirmed Meghan was “a few months” into a relationship with Prince Harry in a statement from the prince asking for the media harassment of Meghan and her family to end. Harry and Meghan were introduced by a mutual woman friend.
In March 2017, after finished filming the seventh season of Suits, it was announced that Meghan was “ready to be done with Suits” and with “acting in general.” A source told E! News, “Even before Harry, she was starting to think about transitioning out of acting. She wants to focus on other worldly endeavors she is passionate about, like her philanthropy.” In 2016, Meghan had become the Global Ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign. She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an Advocate.
Embed from Getty Images
Meghan and her mother Doria Radlan attend the Invictus Games with Prince Harry
In September 2017, Prince Harry and Meghan made their first public appearances together at an official royal engagement, the wheelchair tennis event and the closing ceremony of the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada.
Meghan is a direct descendant of John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, Chamberlain to King Henry VIII’s daughter Mary, the future Queen Mary I. Lord Hussey’s wife Lady Anne was one of Mary’s attendants. Lord Hussey was beheaded for his participation in the 1536 uprising the Pilgrimage of Grace. Prince Harry and Meghan share common ancestors: Richard Bowes (circa 1497 – 1558) and his wife Elizabeth Aske (1505 – circa 1572). Meghan’s maternal great-great-great grandfather was a slave on a Georgia plantation before being emancipated when slavery was abolished in 1865.
The engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was announced on November 27, 2017. The couple will marry on May 19, 2018, at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle where many royal weddings have been held and will reside in Nottingham Cottage adjoining Kensington Palace in London.
Meghan Markle’s engagement ring was reportedly designed by Prince Harry with the help of Cleave and Company, court jewelers to The Queen. The ring which is on a gold band features a cushion diamond from Botswana and two outside stones from the personal collection of Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Meghan made her first appearance with the British Royal Family on Christmas Day 2017 as they walked to church at the Sandringham Estate.