Meghan Markle’s ‘Happiest’ Times Before Prince Harry Involved a ‘Passion Project’
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is living in California with Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and their 1-year-old son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
Now a parent and a British royal, Meghan’s life looked different before her first date with Harry in 2016. But what made her the “happiest” she’d ever been before Harry? One of the now-39-year-old’s pursuits she said goodbye to before becoming a duchess.
Meghan Markle had a successful acting career before Prince Harry
Prior to her first date with her future husband, which took place in early July 2016, Meghan was an established actor. She starred on Suits, a popular USA Network series, playing paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane.
After meeting Harry, Meghan continued to work on the legal drama. As she and Harry explained in their first joint interview following their engagement, they made time to see each other.
As they told the BBC, they never went more than two weeks without seeing each other. That meant Meghan and Harry would fly between Toronto — where Meghan lived while filming Suits — and London.
Prior to starring on Suits, Meghan had smaller acting gigs including a stint on the game show, Deal or No Deal as a briefcase model.
The Duchess of Sussex once said 2014 was the ‘happiest’ time for her
Besides acting, Meghan devoted much of her pre-royal life to philanthropy and her lifestyle blog. Meghan launched The Tig — a nod to her favorite wine named Tignanello — in 2014. As the year came to a close she reflected on it with her Tig readers saying they were a big part of her happiness.
“Without question, this is the happiest I have ever been – personally, professionally, wholly. You are a very large part of that, and I thank you from the bottom of my beating heart,” she wrote on The Tig in December 2014.
About a year-and-a-half before she’d meet Harry, Meghan’s blog helped deliver some of the happiest times in her life. She later shut down The Tig in April 2017, which many took as a sign she’d be joining the royal family.
Spoiler: It was. Meghan and Harry announced their engagement in November 2017 before getting married in May 2018.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are working on Archewell
After a whirlwind year, Meghan and Harry are moving forward with their Archewell foundation. They signed a lucrative deal with Netflix which would involve their production company working on various types of programming for the streaming service.
And in December 2020, the couple announced a partnership with Spotify. Besides working on Archewell, Meghan and Harry have shared small details about their personal lives.
The Duchess of Sussex reflected on her “Not OK” comment in an October 2020 podcast. She also revealed she’d had a miscarriage earlier in the year while writing an op-ed for The New York Times.
