13 surprises about Meghan Markle

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is best known as a former actress who appeared on the USA series Suits for seven seasons. But the former Ms Markle wasn’t always a drama ‘queen:’ She prepared for a role in global affairs, too. “I had always loved politics, so I ended up double-majoring in theatre and international relations,” the Northwestern graduate told Marie Claire. “I applied for an internship at the US Embassy, so I ended up working in the [US] embassy in Buenos Aires for a few months. I thought for sure I would still have a career in politics.” Little did she know she’d be joining the royal family of another country, putting her international expertise to use in a different way.

Some aspiring actors pay the bills waitressing, but Duchess Meghan had a different kind of side gig: as a calligrapher, thanks to handwriting classes she had to take in school. “I did calligraphy for invitations, [such as] Robin Thicke and Paula Patton’s wedding,” she told Esquire. “I used to do it for Dolce & Gabbana’s celebrity correspondence over the holidays. I would sit there with a little white tube sock on my hand so no hand oils got on the card.” The Duchess says it’s a lucrative business because not many people can do it anymore. What’s the trick to this lost art? “The number-one thing is you have to take your time,” she says. “Just do fluid strokes, you don’t have to have a fancy pen by any means, and write in a way that’s authentic to you.”

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A Los Angeles woman at heart, Duchess Meghan spent her early years watching her father work in television. “My dad was a lighting director and director of photography for Married…with Children, she told Esquire. “Every day after school for ten years, I was on the set of Married…with Children, which is a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school uniform to grow up. There were a lot of times my dad would say, ‘Meg, why don’t you go and help with the craft services room over there? This is just a little off-colour for your 11-year-old eyes.’”

Royal watchers know Duchess Meghan is passionate about her causes and her activism goes way back. When she was just 11, she successfully campaigned to get Proctor & Gamble to rethink the language on a dish-washing ad. “They changed it from, ‘Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans’ to ‘People all over America.’ It was at that moment that I realised the magnitude of my actions,” she would later tell the UN Women’s Conference. “At the age of 11, I had created my small level of impact by standing up for equality.”

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Duchess Meghan may not have time to go out to gourmet restaurants. But that’s OK, because she’s a natural in the kitchen – and she doesn’t shy away from her guilty pleasure food. “I love to cook…I’m always on the quest to find amazing new recipes,” she told Marie Claire. Her love of cooking hasn’t altered even during Meghan’s transformation since becoming a royal. “Meg cooks for herself and Harry every single day,” a friend told People before Master Archie’s birth (hopefully Prince Harry’s helping out now). Another pal who spoke to People said of a recent visit, “She made the most lovely meals. She made tea every day. How much she loves feeding you, taking care of you – none of that has changed.”

In fact, the way to Prince Harry’s heart may have been through his stomach. During their official engagement interview, Duchess Meghan revealed that she had been roasting a chicken with the Prince when he popped the question. In an earlier interview with Good Housekeeping, the Duchess revealed her favourite recipe: “There is nothing as delicious or as impressive as a perfectly roasted chicken,” she said. “If you have an Ina Garten-level roasted-chicken recipe, it’s a game-changer.” Barefoot Contessa chef Garten, who has a recipe for ‘engagement chicken,’ so-called because an urban myth has it couples get engaged over the meal, has jokingly taken credit for the royal match. “Without me, it would’ve never have happened,” she said on Sunday Today with Wille Geist.

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The Duchess also discovered a love of wine and used it as a metaphor for uncovering your own personal taste when she named her lifestyle blog, The Tig. “It’s named after a wine called Tignanello,” she told Allure in 2017. “I had a sip of it six years ago, and it was my first ‘a-ha’ moment. You spend years going, ‘Oh, I’ll just have red or white. I don’t really know what the difference is.’ But then one day you take a sip of something and you’re like, I get it. So, The Tig became this personal idea of getting it – fashion, travel, beauty, all of it.” Sadly, she had to close her blog as she became part of the royal family. But you can still find her on social media.

All eyes were on Duchess Meghan with the Queen – not Queen Elizabeth II, but Queen Bey at the Lion King premiere in London in July 2019. Beyoncé, who stars in the film as the lioness Nala, reportedly called the Duchess “my princess”. Hugs were given all around, even though they just met – some thought it was breaking protocol to hug a royal, but it’s OK as long as the royal initiates the contact. All smiles, Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z discussed parenting with new mum and dad Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry. The Duchess was also heard at the premiere saying, “It’s date night for us!” Every new parent, even a royal, needs a break now and then.

Duchess Meghan, whose mother is black and whose dad is white, faced criticism over her background when her relationship with Prince Harry was announced. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first time she encountered bias. Writing about it in Elle, she talked about a form she had to fill out in school indicating her ethnicity. “You could only choose one [box], but that would be to choose one half of myself over the other,” she wrote. “I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I left my identity blank, much like how I felt.”

Later, she described the difficulty in getting roles. “I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones,” she said. But eventually, she came to an understanding about her background. “While my mixed heritage may have created a grey area surrounding my self-identification, keeping me with a foot on both sides of the fence, I have come to embrace that,” she wrote. “To say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman.”

Duchess Meghan’s engagement ring features a centre diamond from Botswana, flanked by diamonds from his mother’s collection, as Prince Harry explained in their engagement interview. It’s one of the things Duchess Meghan inherited from Princess Diana. But look closely at the latest photos of her ring to spot some changes: the yellow gold band has been altered to a micro-pavé one, a row of tiny diamonds on the band. Why the change? She may have needed to resize the band due to her pregnancy, and also to match the eternity band Prince Harry gave her to celebrate their first anniversary. Along with her Welsh gold wedding band, the Duchess now wears all three rings together.