Meghan Markle

Timeline of Meghan Markle. View all important life events of Meghan Markle in a beautiful timeline format. From famous actrice to princess and husband of prince Harry.

3 October 1981

Born in LA, United States

Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981, at West Park Hospital in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California. Her parents divorced four years after they split when she was two years old. Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle Sr. (b. 1944), worked as a director of photography and lighting on the television series Married... with Children, and she frequently visited the set as a youngster.

Born in LA, United States

9 December 1992

Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse

Markle and her classmates sent a letter to Procter & Gamble when she was 11 years old requesting that the company gender-neutralize a television advertisement for dishwashing soap. She attended the all-girl Catholic Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles after being reared as a Protestant. Markle participated in school plays and musicals, where her father assisted with the lighting. She held jobs as a waitress and nanny after beginning her working career as a teenager at a neighborhood frozen yogurt restaurant. She also helped out at a soup kitchen in Los Angeles' Skid Row.

Markle attended Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse

View of front facade of the Immaculate Heart College, a Catholic girls school on Franklin Avenue at the head of Western Avenue, 1905 Photograph of a view of front facade of the Immaculate Heart College

31 August 1999

Accepted Northwestern University

Meghan Markle was accepted to Northwestern University (NU), located in Evanston, Illinois, in 1999, and joined the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma there. Meghan participated in volunteer work for the Glass Slipper Project together with other Kappa Kappa Gamma members. With the assistance of her uncle Michael Markle, she was able to gain a position as a junior press officer at the American embassy in Buenos Aires after her junior year and contemplated a future in politics.

Accepted Northwestern University

Aerial Photograph of Northwestern University from Lake Michigan

13 November 2002

First on-screen appearance on TV show

Being "ethnically ambiguous" meant Meghan Markle struggled to land jobs early in her career because "I wasn't black enough for the black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones." Meghan Markle taught bookbinding and worked as a freelance calligrapher to support herself in between performing gigs. Her father was the lighting director for the daytime soap opera General Hospital, where she made her first on-screen appearance in a minor nurse role.

7 December 2003

Graduated from Northwestern University

Markle graduated from Northwestern University's School of Communication in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in drama and international studies as her dual majors.

Graduated from Northwestern University

Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts

9 December 2004

Markle appears on several television programs

Markle appeared in brief cameo appearances on the television programs CSI: NY, The War at Home (2006), and Century City (2004). (2006). She misled the casting directors about her SAG-AFTRA membership while applying for her role in Century City, but the Taft-Hartley Act required her employers to assist her in joining the union once she was cast. Additionally, Markle worked as a contract model and actor.

30 November 2006

Deal or No Deal

She participated in 34 episodes of the US edition of the game show Deal or No Deal between 2006 and 2007 as a "briefcase girl." In the first two episodes of the second season of the Fox television series Fringe, she made an appearance as Junior Agent Amy Jessup.

30 June 2011

Meghan Markel joined Suits

Meghan Markel joined the cast of the USA Network drama Suits in July 2011 and remained there through the seventh season's release in late 2017. She played Rachel Zane, who started out as a paralegal and later became an attorney. She spent nine months of every year in Toronto while she was a Suits cast member. According to Fortune magazine, she received an estimated $50,000 every episode, or $450,000 per year.

9 August 2016

Meghan starts dating prince Harry

Midway through 2016, Markle started dating Prince Harry, the Queen Elizabeth II's grandson. Although they have also claimed that a common acquaintance set them up on a blind date in July 2016, the couple claims that they originally met on Instagram. The prince asked his communications director to issue a statement on his behalf in November to convey his personal worry with negative and untrue remarks made about his girlfriend in the media and online. Later, Markle's representatives protested about the harassment from journalists in a letter to a British media regulator. Markle and Prince Harry made their first public appearance together in Toronto in September 2017 for the Invictus Games, of which Harry is the founding sponsor.

Meghan starts dating prince Harry

Markle and Prince Harry on Christmas Day 2017

18 May 2018

Marriage

On 19th of May 2018, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are married. The wedding took place at Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel. Clare Waight Keller was the designer of her wedding gown. Markle later disclosed that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the couple exchanged vows privately in the garden three days previously. This private vow-exchanging ceremony, though, was not a marriage that was recognized by the law. According to reports, it was pre-arranged that any extra money made from the BBC's broadcast of the wedding would be donated to the newlyweds' charity of choice.

Marriage

Carriage procession through streets of Windsor, May 2018

31 December 2019

Stepping back

Meghan and Harry announced in January 2020 that they were stepping down from their position as senior members of the royal family and would split their time between the United Kingdom and North America after returning to the UK after a holiday in Canada. The Duke and Duchess were to stop performing royal duties as the Queen's representatives, and as a result, they would no longer get the necessary financial support, according to a palace statement.

7 December 2022

Documentary Harry & Meghan

On December 8, 2022, Netflix and the Sussexes' Archewell Productions debuted Harry & Meghan, a documentary about the family. Liz Garbus serves as the director.