Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Official Website
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- Early life and education
- Acting career
- Personal life
- Public life
- Further career and inves..
- Charity work and advocac..
- Public image and style
- Privacy and the media
- Titles, styles and arms
- Filmography
- Bibliography
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle, August 4, 1981), is an American member of the British royal family, media personality, entrepreneur, and actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III.
Meghan was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her acting career began at Northwestern University. She played the part of Rachel Zane for seven seasons (2011–2018) in the legal drama series Suits. She also developed a social media presence, which included The Tig (2014–2017), a lifestyle blog. During The Tig period, Meghan became involved in charity work focused primarily on women's issues and social justice. She was married to the film producer Trevor Engelson from 2011 until their divorce in 2014.
Meghan married Prince Harry in 2018 and became known as the Duchess of Sussex. They have two children: Archie and Lilibet. The couple Megxit in January 2020, moved to Meghan's native Southern California and launched Archewell Inc., a Beverly Hills-based mix of for-profit and not-for-profit (charitable) business organizations. In March 2021, she and her husband participated in Oprah with Meghan and Harry, a much-publicized American television interview by Oprah Winfrey. She has written the children's book The Bench, hosted a podcast Archetypes (2022), and has starred in the Netflix series Harry & Meghan (2022) and With Love, Meghan (2025). Her lifestyle and cooking brand, As Ever, was officially launched in April 2025.
Early life and education
Markle reportedly has a close relationship with her mother. Until the age of nine, both parents contributed to raising her; then, her father was left in charge of caring for her (while her mother pursued a career) so Meghan lived with him full-time before commencing university at age eighteen. Markle Sr. worked as a director of photography and lighting for General Hospital and Married... with Children, and Meghan occasionally visited the set of Married... with Children as a child. In later life, she became estranged from her father and paternal half-siblings, Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jr.
Growing up in View Park–Windsor Hills, Los Angeles, Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse. At age eleven, she and her classmates wrote to Procter & Gamble to gender-neutralize a dishwashing soap commercial on national television. She was raised as a Christians, though conflicting reports indicate she was raised either Catholic Church or Protestantism. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High School (Los Angeles), a fee-charging all-girls Catholic school. Markle took part in plays and musicals at the school, where her father helped with lighting. During her teenage years, she worked at a local frozen yogurt shop and a donut shop and later as a nanny and waitress. She also volunteered at a soup kitchen in Skid Row, Los Angeles.
In 1999, she was admitted to Northwestern University (NU) in Evanston, Illinois, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. With other members of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Markle did volunteer work with the Glass Slipper Project. After her junior year, her uncle Michael Markle helped secure her an internship as a junior press officer at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, and she considered a political career. However, she did not score high enough in the Foreign Service Officer test to proceed further with the US State Department and returned to NU. She also attended a study abroad program in Madrid. In 2003, Markle earned her bachelor's degree with a double major in theater and international studies from Northwestern's School of Communication.
Acting career
Markle appeared in small roles in the films Get Him to the Greek, Remember Me (produced by her then-partner Trevor Engelson) and The Candidate in 2010 and the film Horrible Bosses in 2011. She was paid $187,000 for her role in Remember Me and $171,429 for her role in the short film The Candidate. In July 2011, she joined the cast of the USA Network show Suits through to late 2017 and the seventh season. Her character, Rachel Zane, began as a paralegal and eventually became an attorney. While working on Suits, she lived for nine months each year in Toronto. She was reportedly paid either $50,000 per episode or $450,000 per year for her work in Suits.
Markle made her acting return in November 2025, being cast in Close Personal Friends.
Personal life
Early relationships and first marriage
Second marriage and motherhood
Markle's engagement to Harry was announced on November 27, 2017, by his father Charles III (then the Prince of Wales). The announcement was greeted with enthusiasm by the British media and prompted generally positive comments about a mixed-race person as a member of the royal family, especially in regard to Commonwealth countries. Markle announced that she would retire from acting and her intention to become a British citizen.
In preparation for the wedding, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, baptized Markle and confirmed her in the Church of England on March 6, 2018. The private ceremony, performed with water from the River Jordan, took place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace. The marriage ceremony was held on May 19 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Her wedding dress was designed by Clare Waight Keller. Markle later revealed that there was a private exchange of vows three days earlier, with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the couple's garden. However, this private exchange of vows was not a legally recognized marriage.
After the wedding, the Duke and Duchess lived at Nottingham Cottage in London, in the grounds of Kensington Palace. In May 2018, it was reported that they had signed a two-year lease on Westfield Large, located on the Great Tew Estate in the Cotswolds. They gave up the lease after photos of the house and its interior were published by a paparazzi agency. The couple considered settling at the twenty-one room Apartment 1 within Kensington Palace, but moved to Frogmore Cottage in the Home Park of Windsor Castle instead. The Crown Estate refurbished the cottage at a cost of £2.4 million, paid out of the Sovereign Grant, with the Duke later reimbursing expenses beyond restoration and ordinary maintenance, a part of which was offset against rental payments that were due at the time. Meghan gave birth to a son, Archie, on May 6, 2019. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's office moved to Buckingham Palace and officially closed on March 31, 2020, when the Sussexes withdrew from undertaking official royal engagements. After some months in Canada and the United States, in June 2020, the couple bought a house on the former estate of Riven Rock, Montecito, California. The next month, Meghan suffered a miscarriage. She gave birth to a daughter, Lilibet, on June 4, 2021. Meghan later revealed that she had suffered from postpartum preeclampsia. The Duke and Duchess have owned a Labrador named Pula and two named Guy and Mamma Mia. Meghan previously owned a Labrador-German Shepherd cross named Bogart.
Political views
In July 2018, Irish senator Catherine Noone tweeted that the Duchess was "pleased to see the result" of the Irish referendum on legalizing abortion. Meghan received criticism for potentially breaching the protocol that prohibits royals from interfering in politics; She deleted her tweet and emphasized that her statement was misleading and "the Duchess was not in any way political".
After she returned to the United States and as an eligible voter, she released a video with her husband encouraging others to register for the 2020 United States presidential election on National Voter Registration Day. Some media outlets took it as an implicit endorsement of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, which prompted then-president Trump to dismiss their messaging at a press conference. In October 2021, she penned an open letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, advocating for paid leave for parents. Her remarks were met by backlash from Republican representatives Jason Smith and Lisa McClain, who found her statement "out of touch" and criticized her interference with American politics while utilizing her British royal titles. Meghan has reportedly lobbied senators from both parties on the issue of paid family leave, including Democratic senators Patty Murray and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito and Susan Collins. She has also publicly spoken in support of federal voting protections.
In February 2022, she voiced her support for the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson. In June 2022, she publicly supported Moms Demand Action, an organization which campaigns for safer gun laws in the US. In the same month, in an interview with Jessica Yellin for Vogue, Meghan criticized the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that abortion is not a protected constitutional right and voiced her support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.
Public life
Royal duties
In July 2018, Meghan's first official trip abroad as a royal was to Dublin, Ireland, alongside Harry. In October 2018, the Duke and Duchess traveled to Sydney for the 2018 Invictus Games. This formed part of a Pacific tour that included Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. As representatives of the Queen, the couple were greeted warmly by crowds in Sydney, and the announcement of Meghan's pregnancy hours after their arrival delighted the public and media. During their visit to Morocco in February 2019, the Duke and Duchess focused on projects centered on "women's empowerment, girls' education, inclusivity and encouragement of social entrepreneurship". Meghan also participated in her husband's work as youth ambassador to the Commonwealth, which included overseas tours.
As part of establishing a separate office from that of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2019, the Duke and Duchess created an Instagram social media account, which broke the record for the fastest account at the time to reach a million followers. In July 2019, the Duchess's security team were criticized for creating an empty zone of about 40 seats around her at Wimbledon where she was watching a match between Serena Williams and Kaja Juvan. In August 2019, Meghan and her husband were criticized by environmental campaigners for using private jets regularly when taking their personal trips abroad, which would leave more carbon footprint per person compared to commercial planes. The criticism was in line with similar criticism faced by the royal family in June 2019, after it was claimed that they had doubled their carbon footprint from business travel.
In September and October 2019, a Southern African tour included Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. Archie traveled with his parents, making it "their first official tour as a family". Meghan completed 179 engagements in total in 2018 and 2019.
Stepping back and subsequent public appearances
They visited the UK and Germany in September 2022 for a number of charity events in Manchester and Düsseldorf. On September 8, 2022, while Meghan and Harry were in London preparing to attend a charity event, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and they remained in the United Kingdom for her funeral.
Meghan and Harry visited Nigeria in May 2024 to honor the work of the Invictus Games. Meghan had previously stated that a genetic test had found she was of 43% Nigerian ancestry. According to CNN, their trip focused on "sports rehabilitation, mental health, and women's empowerment". Meghan co-hosted a women's empowerment summit with the head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and she was honored in a ceremony by some of the Nigerian Chiefs.
Further career and investments
In June 2020, they signed with the Harry Walker Agency, owned by media company Endeavor, to conduct paid public speaking engagements. In September 2020, the Sussexes signed a five-year private commercial deal with Netflix. In December 2020, it was announced that Meghan had invested in Clevr Blends, a coffee company based in Southern California. In the same month, Meghan and Harry signed a multi-year deal with Spotify to produce and host their own programs through their audio producing company, Archewell Audio. A holiday special was released by the couple on the service in December 2020, while Meghan's podcast, titled Archetypes, premiered in August 2022. In June 2023, Spotify cancelled the podcast, which ran for a single season of 12 episodes.
The Bench, a picture book written by Meghan with illustrations by Christian Robinson, was published in June 2021 by Random House Children's Books. It is based on her perception of the relationship between her husband and their son. The book received a mixed response; it garnered praise for its illustrations and messaging but was criticized for its structure and writing. On June 17, the book reached number one in the children's picture books category of The New York Times Best Seller list. In July 2021, it was announced that Meghan would executive produce, alongside David Furnish, a Netflix animated series called Pearl. The series was originally pitched to Netflix in 2018. Pearl would have depicted the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who was inspired by influential women from history, but the project was canceled in May 2022. Also in July 2021, it was reported that Meghan and Harry had signed a four-book publishing deal with Random House, including a wellness guide by Meghan and a memoir by Harry.
In October 2021, Meghan and Harry announced their partnership with Ethic, a sustainable investment firm based in New York City, which also manages the couple's investments. According to state filings from Delaware, where the couple's Archewell foundation is registered, Meghan and Harry incorporated 11 companies and a trust beginning in early 2020 which include Orinoco Publishing LLC and Peca Publishing LLC to hold the rights for their books as well as Cobblestone Lane LLC and IPHW LLC which are holders of their foundation's logos. Frim Fram Inc., which ran The Tig, had been registered earlier as a new corporation in Delaware in December 2019.
Harry & Meghan, a docuseries about the couple directed by Liz Garbus, was produced by Netflix and the couple's Archewell Productions and premiered on December 8, 2022. The series received mixed reviews. In April 2023, it was announced that she had signed with talent agency WME, which would represent Archewell as well.
In March 2024, Meghan launched the lifestyle and cooking brand American Riviera Orchard, which was later renamed As Ever. In April 2024, it was announced that Archewell Productions was collaborating with Netflix to produce two new shows on lifestyle and on polo, respectively. Later in August, it was revealed that she had invested in the handbag brand Cesta Collective, which sold handwoven basket bags prepared by a group of women in Rwanda that were then completed in Italy. In November of the same year she invested in the haircare line Highbrow Hippie. Her lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan premiered on Netflix in March 2025. In August 2025, Archewell Productions renewed its partnership with Netflix under a multi-year first-look deal, which included plans for a holiday special of With Love, Meghan, as well as further development of the As Ever brand and other documentary and scripted projects. On August 26, 2025, the second season of With Love, Meghan was released.
In March 2025, it was announced that Meghan would host a second podcast series, Confessions of a Female Founder, with Lemonada Media. Between March and September 2025, she ran an online site via ShopMy, which allows content creators to share links to their favorite items while earning revenue through commissions.
Charity work and advocacy
In 2016, Markle became a global ambassador for World Vision Canada, traveling to Rwanda for the Clean Water Campaign. After a trip to India focused on raising awareness for women's issues, she penned an op-ed for Time magazine concerning stigmatization of women in regard to menstrual health. She has also worked with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women as an advocate. Her speech at the UN Women's 2015 conference as an advocate for political participation and leadership contained a number of sentences that were nearly identical to a 1951 speech by Eleanor Roosevelt. In 2017, Markle joined Harry in teaming up with the charity Elephants Without Borders to assist with the conservation efforts taking place in Botswana.
In January 2018, Markle became interested in the Hubb Community Kitchen run by survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. She visited the kitchen regularly and suggested that the displaced women publish a cookbook to assist in funding for the group. Together: Our Community Cookbook, her first charity project as Duchess of Sussex, was announced in September. In August 2020, Meghan used proceeds from the cookbook to donate £8,000 to the UK charity Migrateful, which supports refugees, asylum seekers and migrants by helping them organize cookery classes. In March 2021, she donated £10,000 from the proceeds to the UK-based charity Himmah to assist them with stocking the group's food bank, provide them with equipment and help the Salaam Shalom Kitchen, the only Muslim and Jewish community kitchen in the UK.
In March 2020, it was announced that Meghan's first post-royal project would be the narration of Disneynature's documentary Elephant, which was released on April 3. In support of elephants, Disneynature and the Disney Conservation Fund would donate to Elephants Without Borders for species conservation in Botswana. In June 2020, the couple backed the Stop Hate for Profit campaign and encouraged CEOs of different companies to join the movement. In July 2020, she spoke in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In April 2021, the couple were announced as campaign chairs for Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World, an event organized by Global Citizen to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations. They also announced their support for a vaccine equity fundraiser initiated by the same organization, and penned an open letter to the pharmaceutical industry CEOs urging them to address the vaccine equity crisis. In July 2021, Meghan and Harry were among people who were selected by UK-based charity Population Matters to receive the Change Champions Award for their decision to have only two children and help with maintaining a smaller and more sustainable population. In August 2021, to mark her 40th birthday, Meghan launched 40x40, a campaign that asks people around the world to spend 40 minutes of their time mentoring women reentering the workforce. In October 2021 and ahead of the 2021 G20 Rome summit, the couple penned an open letter together with the Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom, asking the G20 leaders to expedite efforts for the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
In February 2022, the couple were selected to receive NAACP's President's Award for their work on causes related to social justice and equity. In the following month, they were among more than a hundred people who signed an open letter published by the People's Vaccine Alliance, asking for free global access to COVID-19 vaccines and calling out the UK, EU and Switzerland for opposing a waiver that would allow vaccine intellectual property protections to be lifted. In October 2022, Meghan and Harry were named as Ripple of Hope Award laureates for their work on racial justice, mental health and other social initiatives through their foundation Archewell. In April 2023, she was named as a recipient of the Ms. Foundation for Women's Women of Vision Award. In October 2025, she and her husband received the Humanitarians of the Year award at Project Healthy Minds' annual gala in New York City in recognition of their commitment to mental health support. In the same month, they joined a coalition of public figures, scientists, and tech experts in signing an open letter calling for a global ban on the development of artificial superintelligence until there is strong scientific consensus and public support ensuring it can be created safely and ethically, emphasizing the existential risks such unchecked AI could pose to humanity.
Patronages and interests
In 2019 Meghan was a contributor and guest editor for the September issue of British Vogue and highlighted the works of 15 women from different areas, who were described as "Forces for Change". Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief of the British Vogue, later revealed that the issue had become the "fastest-selling issue in the history of British Vogue". In the same issue, it was announced that she had collaborated with a number of British fashion houses and stores to launch a capsule collection, called The Smart Set, in September 2019 to benefit the charity Smart Works. The collection sought to help "unemployed and disadvantaged women", through selling items "on a one-for-one basis, meaning an item is donated for each item purchased". Taking advantage of the "Meghan Markle effect" (driving consumer purchases), in 10 days the collection provided a year's worth of clothes for the charity.
Sussex Royal and Archewell
In March 2021, it was reported that the Charity Commission for England and Wales was conducting a review of the Sussex Royal organization in a "regulatory and compliance case" regarding its conduct under charity law during dissolution. Representatives for the couple claimed that Sussex Royal was "managed by a board of trustees" and that "suggestion of mismanagement" directed exclusively at the Duke and Duchess would be incorrect. The commission later concluded that the foundation did not act unlawfully, but criticized the board of directors for expending a "substantial proportion of funds" to setting up and closing the charity.
In April 2020, Meghan and Harry confirmed that an alternative foundation (in lieu of Sussex Royal) would be called "Archewell". The name stems from the Greek word "arche", which means "source of action"—the same word that inspired the name of their son. Archewell was registered in the United States. Its website was officially launched in October 2020.
Public image and style
Markle became known through The Tig for her fashion sense, releasing two fashion collections with Canadian clothing company Reitmans in 2015 and 2016. The lines were based on her personal style and that of her Suits character. Markle has cited Emmanuelle Alt as her style inspiration. In 2016, she hosted USA Network's video series Power Lunch with Meghan Markle in collaboration with Lexus and Eater, discussing the culinary inspirations of five different New York kitchens.
In 2015, Markle visited Malta after discovering an ancestor had been born there. Her trip was documented by Elle UK. She was featured in the cover story for the October 2017 issue of Vanity Fair and the December 2017 issue of Elle France. Shortly after her engagement to Harry in 2017, she caused a surge of interest in Scottish retailer Strathberry after carrying one of its handbags to a public event. This was reported as an indication that her fashion choices would produce results similar to the Kate Middleton effect. After Markle and Harry's first appearance as a couple, brands Mackage, Birks Group, R&R Jewelers, Crown Jewelers, and Everlane noted an upswing in their website hits and sales. It was speculated that Markle's effect would be broader internationally because she already had a strong American appeal. Consequently, the United States saw a boost in yellow gold jewelry sales in the first quarter of 2018.
In 2018, Tatler included Meghan with other senior royal women on its list of Britain's best dressed people. Following the announcement of her pregnancy, she appeared in a Karen Gee dress that resulted in the Australian designer's website crashing. Fashion website Net-a-Porter ranked Meghan as one of the best dressed women in 2018. She was nominated for the 2018 Teen Choice Awards in the category Choice Style Icon. In 2019, British brand Reiss reported a growth in profits after Meghan was seen wearing a mini dress by them on International Women's Day. In 2022, the black Armani dress worn by Meghan during her Oprah interview was selected by the Fashion Museum, Bath, as Dress of the Year 2021. In the same year, she was featured in the cover story for the 2022 Fall Fashion issue of The Cut. There was controversy over her claim in the interview that she had been told at the premiere of The Lion King that her marriage resulted in rejoicing in South Africa similar to that seen at Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.
In 2018, Time selected Meghan as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and placed her on its shortlist for Person of the Year. Her name appeared again on the listicle in 2021, and she and her husband were featured on one of the magazine's seven worldwide covers. In 2019, the magazine named Meghan and Harry among the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet. She was also chosen as one of the 25 most influential women in the United Kingdom by British Vogue magazine in 2018, 2019, and 2021. Her influence was also recognized in both the 2019 and 2020 editions of Powerlist, the 100 most influential Britons of African and Afro-Caribbean descent. In 2022, she was named as one of the 50 Women Changing the World over the past year by Worth magazine. In the same year, Variety named her as a stellar honoree for its Power of Women issue, and Financial Times included her on its list of "25 most influential women of 2022". In December 2022, Meghan was found to be the second most disliked member of the British royal family by statistics and polling company YouGov, behind her husband's uncle Prince Andrew. In March 2023, The Independent included her on its "Influence List 2023". Meghan and Harry's exit from the royal family was satirized in a 2023 episode of South Park. In the same year, James Hibberd of The Hollywood Reporter named Meghan and Harry among the Hollywood losers of 2023.
Following Meghan and Harry's trip to Nigeria in May 2024, Lucia Stein of the ABC argued that the couple could have been used by the royal family, and added that "perhaps how helpful they would have been" had an agreement on a "hybrid working model" been achieved. Among other things, she noted Meghan's style and meetings were extensively covered internationally. In October 2025, Ranker rated her the most disliked celebrity in the United States, in its poll of 48,000 people.
Privacy and the media
Court cases
Associated Newspapers Limited
An appeal was subsequently launched by ANL in November 2021. In December 2021, three senior appeal judges upheld the judgement of the High Court against ANL, prompting Meghan to call for reform of the tabloid industry. In the same month, ANL's The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline published a front-page statement on Boxing Day acknowledging Meghan's victory, adding that there had been an agreement on "financial remedies". In addition to covering a portion of Meghan's legal costs, the outlet agreed to pay her £1 in damages for invading her privacy and a confidential sum for infringing her copyright. They were also banned from naming Meghan's friends, who had spoken to People magazine about the letter in 2018.
Other cases and complaints
In March 2021, ITV News reported Meghan had complained directly to ITV's CEO about Piers Morgan's comments on mental health following her interview with Oprah Winfrey. Ofcom received over 57,000 complaints about the program including one from the Duchess of Sussex. In the same month, it was reported that an American private investigator unlawfully handed over personal details about Meghan to The Sun, including her Social Security number, cell phone number and address, when she first started dating Harry in 2016. Meghan and her husband condemned the "predatory practices" of the British tabloids, while The Sun stated that the investigator "was instructed clearly in writing to act lawfully", and they did not "use the information he provided for any unlawful practice".
In July 2021, Meghan filed legal complaints against The Times for two separate articles, with the first one covering an unproven allegation from Robert Lacey's book that she had left an engagement in Fiji for not being appointed by UN Women as a goodwill ambassador and the second one claiming that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had refused to talk to Harry after Prince Philip's funeral due to fears of a potential leak. In January 2022, the couple jointly filed a legal complaint against The Times for an article reporting on Archewell raising less than $50,000 in 2020. In the same month, she complained to the BBC regarding their five-part podcast Harry, Meghan and the Media, in which the presenter Amol Rajan stated that Meghan had "apologized for misleading" the Court of Appeal in her case against the Mail on Sunday. The BBC responded by issuing a statement on its "corrections and clarifications" website to emphasize that she had "apologized to the court for not remembering email exchanges".
In March 2022, Meghan's half-sister, Samantha Markle, filed a defamation lawsuit against her in Florida, accusing her of lying in the Oprah interview and disseminating false statements via her communications secretary for the book Finding Freedom and sought damages in excess of $75,000. In June 2022, Meghan's initial motion to dismiss the case was rejected by a judge following amendments made by Samantha in her complaint. She filed a second motion in the same month. In addition to applying for the case to be dismissed, Meghan's lawyer also applied for the discovery process to be delayed, pending the outcome of the dismissal application. A Florida judge later denied the application to halt the discovery process, but dismissed the lawsuit in March 2023. In April 2023, Samantha refiled the lawsuit with another amended complaint that covered statements made by Meghan in her Netflix docuseries as well. The lawsuit was later dismissed with prejudice in March 2024, after a judge ruled that the claimant was unable to provide evidence of defamation. Samantha later appealed the decision.
Between December 2022 and January 2023, more than 25,000 complaints were submitted to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) about a column by Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun, in which he stated that he hated Meghan "on a cellular level" and dreamed "of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her." On December 20, 2022, Conservative MP Caroline Nokes wrote to The Suns editor, Victoria Newton, calling for "action to taken" against Clarkson. The letter was signed by more than 60 cross-party MPs. On December 23, The Sun issued an apology, stating "columnists' opinions are their own" but they "regret the publication of this article" and are "sincerely sorry". On the following day, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex described the apology as "nothing more than a PR stunt". Clarkson said his column was a reference to a scene from the television series Game of Thrones and he later revealed that he had emailed Meghan and Harry on Christmas Day 2022 to apologise. A spokesperson for the couple said Clarkson wrote solely to Harry and the article was not an isolated incident. In February 2023, IPSO announced that it was launching an investigation about the article. In June 2023, IPSO concluded that the column was sexist and contained a "pejorative and prejudicial reference" to Meghan's sex, but it rejected complaints that the piece raised an issue of fact, or was meant to harass her or included discriminatory references on the grounds of race.
Bullying allegations and Oprah interview
The television special Oprah with Meghan and Harry was broadcast on CBS on March 7, 2021. Meghan spoke about her personal and royal life and public pressure. She claimed to have been contemplating suicide during her time as a working royal and complained of a lack of protection for her and her son while being part of the royal institution. There was a wide and polarized reaction to the interview.
In an updated epilogue for the couple's unauthorized biography, Finding Freedom by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors claimed that "two of the individuals mentioned in Knauf's email asked for any allegations made to HR about their experiences with Meghan to be rescinded". Speaking on behalf of the Duchess in a BBC documentary, Jenny Afia, a lawyer who represented Meghan in her case against ANL, stated that the bullying allegations were "just not true". In June 2022, The Times reported that the results from the inquiry made Buckingham Palace modify some of the policies and procedures in its HR department, but the report would not be published to ensure the privacy of those who took part in it. In September 2024 The Hollywood Reporter reported on complaints raised by American staff members about Meghan's behavior. Her spokesperson declined to comment. In January 2025 Vanity Fair, who spoke with Meghan's employees, reported on their descriptions of her varying from "lovely, genuine person" to "cold and withholding", adding that a staff member with ties to Archetypes took a leave of absence while a number of others talked about quitting their jobs, taking long absences from work to avoid attention, or going through long-term therapy after working with her.
On Twitter and other platforms
In October 2021, Twitter analytics service Bot Sentinel alleged they found 83 accounts with a combined number of 187,631 followers that were possibly responsible for approximately 70% of the negative content posted about Meghan and Harry. The report prompted an investigation by Twitter. The company stated that it found no evidence of "widespread coordination" between the accounts and said that it had taken action against users who violated Twitter's conduct policy. Bot Sentinel released three more reports in the following months.
In January 2022, the BBC named Meghan and Harry among people whose photos and videos were used in fake instant profits advertisements and bitcoin-related investment schemes.
Among theories widespread on social media, including Twitter and YouTube, were unfounded assertions that Meghan had faked her pregnancies, instead using surrogate mother, or that her children do not exist at all. Meghan's half-sister, Samantha, was reported to have run multiple Twitter accounts that targeted Meghan.
Titles, styles and arms
Following the Duke and Duchess's Megxit from royal duties in 2020, the couple agreed not to use the style of Royal Highness in practice or publicly, but they are still referred to as "His/Her Royal Highness" in legal and private settings.
During Meghan's trip to Nigeria in May 2024, Igwe Alfred Achebe, the Obi of Onitsha, and Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, the Oluwo of Iwo, gave her the chieftaincy titles Ada Mazi () and Adetokunbo ().
Filmography
Film
| +Key | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
| 2005 | A Lot like Love | Natalie "Hot Girl" | Cameo |
| 2010 | Remember Me | Megan | |
| Get Him to the Greek | Tatiana | Uncredited | |
| The Candidate | Kat | Short film | |
| 2011 | Horrible Bosses | Jamie | |
| 2012 | Dysfunctional Friends | Terry | |
| 2013 | Random Encounters | Mindy | British title: A Random Encounter |
| 2015 | Anti-Social | Kirsten | |
| 2020 | Elephant | Narrator | Disneynature film; credit: Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex |
| TBA | Herself | Post-production |
Television
| 1995 | Married... with Children | Student | 1 episode "The Undergraduate" (season 9: episode 26); uncredited |
| 2001 | General Hospital | Jill | 2 episodes |
| 2004 | Century City | Natasha | 1 episode "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Lose" (season 1: episode 4) |
| 2005 | Cuts | Cori | 1 episode "My Boyfriend's Back" (season 1: episode 5) |
| Love, Inc. | Teresa Santos | 1 episode "One on One" (season 1: episode 9) | |
| 2006 | 1 vs. 100 | Herself | 1 episode "Mob member number 7" (Episode 101) |
| The War at Home | Susan | 1 episode "The Seventeen-Year Itch" (season 1: episode 17) | |
| Deceit | Gwen | Television movie | |
| Veronica Perez | 1 episode "Murder Sings the Blues" (season 3: episode 7) | ||
| 2006–2007 | Deal or No Deal | Herself | Holder of Case #24; 34 episodes |
| 2008 | 90210 | Wendy | 1 episode "We're Not in Kansas Anymore" (season 1: episode 1) "The Jet Set" (season 1: episode 2) |
| 'Til Death | Tara | 1 episode "Joy Ride" (season 3: episode 2) | |
| The Apostles | Kelly Calhoun | Television movie | |
| Good Behavior | Sadie Valencia | Television movie | |
| 2009 | Knight Rider | Annie Ortiz | 1 episode "Fight Knight" (season 1: episode 14) |
| Without a Trace | Holly Shepard | 1 episode "Chameleon" (season 7: episode 15) | |
| Fringe | Junior FBI Agent Amy Jessup | 2 episodes "A New Day in the Old Town" (season 2: episode 1) "Night of Desirable Objects" (season 2: episode 2) | |
| The League | Meghan | 1 episode "The Bounce Test" (season 1: episode 2) | |
| 2010 | Officer Leah Montoya | 1 episode "Backfire" (season 8: episode 20) | |
| The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down | Dana | Television movie | |
| 2011–2018 | Suits | Rachel Zane | Series regular (seasons 1–7), 108 episodes (Markle's final scene was filmed in 2017) |
| 2012 | Castle | Charlotte Boyd / Sleeping Beauty | 1 episode "Once Upon a Crime" (season 4: episode 17) |
| 2014 | When Sparks Fly | Amy Peterson | Hallmark Channel television movies |
| 2016 | Dater's Handbook | Cassandra Brand | |
| 2018 | Queen of the World | Herself | HBO documentary |
| 2019 | Harry & Meghan: An African Journey | ITV documentary | |
| 2021 | Oprah with Meghan and Harry | CBS Special interview | |
| 2022 | Harry & Meghan | Netflix series | |
| Live to Lead | |||
| 2023 | Heart of Invictus | ||
| 2024 | Polo | ||
| 2025 | With Love, Meghan |
Bibliography
Books
- HRH The Duchess of Sussex, "Foreword", in:
-
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex (2026). 9780593434512, Random House Children's Books. ISBN 9780593434512
Authored articles and letters
- , republished online, November 6, 2018.
- , republished online, December 22, 2016.
Further reading
-
(2026). 9780063046108, Dey Street Books. ISBN 9780063046108
External links
- The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the official website of the British royal family
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