Growing up in LA, Meghan knew from a young age that she wanted to be a star.
Her father, a successful TV lighting director, paid for her to have the very best of everything and took her as a plus one at the Emmy Awards when he was nominated.
Tina Brown wrote in her book, The Palace Papers: ‘At college, she had her pick of the sought-after basketball hunks.
‘She was always very clear about who she wanted, her father told me.’
Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, has become an outspoken critic of his daughter since the controversy surrounding his absence at her wedding.
He reportedly told Brown: ‘Her first year at college, she pointed at one guy and said: “That boy is going to be my boyfriend”.
‘And he became her boyfriend… She’s very, very effective with men.’
Meghan’s first boyfriend was reportedly a basketball star called Steve Lepore, whom she met in her first year at Northwestern University.
Meghan Markle is pictured with her father, Thomas Markle, at her college graduation
Tina Brown wrote in her book, The Palace Papers: ‘At college, she had her pick of the sought-after basketball hunks’
The couple only dated for five months, with their romance being dashed when Steve accepted an offer to a college in North Carolina.
According to royal biographer Andrew Morton, the former couple were described as ‘quite the pair’.
Meghan later dated fellow actor Shaun Zaken, whom she is believed to have met while studying, with the pair dating for six months in 2003.
Following this, she dated fellow actor Brett Ryland for five months, who went on to become a writer for Two Broke Girls.
And before meeting Harry, Meghan was dating American film producer Trevor Engelson.
The two reportedly met in a bar when they were 23, with Brown describing them as having a ‘tender dynamic’.
But the former Vanity Fair editor wrote: ‘Meghan did not feel that her producer boyfriend was helping her get good parts.
‘Though Engleson was more successful, Meghan exhibited greater ambition. She nagged him to be more aggressive.
Before meeting Harry, Meghan was dating American film producer Trevor Engelson. The two reportedly met in a bar when they were 23, with Brown describing them as having a ‘tender dynamic’
‘Friends remember how she urged him to make a more professional impression when they socialised with industry players who were potentially powerful.
‘It irritated Meghan, too, that he seemed to have some exquisite integrity hang-up about pushing on her behalf for better roles – even though he knew plenty of people who could help her.’
Trevor and Meghan got married in August 2011, which earned a brief write-up in the Hollywood Reporter.
Brown quoted one wedding guest as saying: ‘The only jarring note is that Meghan sent out a note requesting “no social media, please”.
‘We were all laughing because she had been on Suits for a few months and at that point, we were like, is she kidding me?
‘She was like, “I’m a really big actress.”‘
The couple separated in 2013, citing ‘irreconcilable differences, ‘ and divorced the following year.
Brown wrote that Trevor felt ‘used’ and claimed that Meghan sent a package by registered mail to her ex-husband containing her diamond engagement ring and gold wedding band.
Meghan’s last relationship before meeting Harry was with Canadian chef Cory Vitiello. The pair met shortly after her divorce from Trevor was finalised and the pair are believed to have dated for two years before ending things in 2016.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about their relationship after it ended, Cory said: ‘I’ve got a lot of respect for Meghan and, from my end, to make it seem like I’m part of the story [her marriage to Harry] would seem self-serving and opportunistic.
‘I’m pleased for Meghan. She’s a great girl. There is no bitterness. I respect people’s private and personal lives, and although she has put herself in the public spectrum, I still hold to that.’
But when it comes to how much Meghan knew about Harry before their ‘blind date’, the Queen’s famous phrase, ‘recollections may vary’ seems to apply.
Talking to Oprah in a bombshell interview in 2021, Meghan initially said: ‘Well, I didn’t do any research about what that would mean… I’d never looked up my husband online.’
Harry also backed this up in his 2023 memoir Spare, in which he said Meghan ‘definitely hadn’t googled us’ as he recalled a moment when she did not recognise who his uncle Prince Andrew was.
But biographers Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie stated otherwise in their book, Finding Freedom.
When writing about Harry and Meghan’s first date at Dean Street Townhouse in 2016, they suggested that Meghan and Harry would have both done ‘their homework’ on one another before meeting.
They wrote: ‘Naturally, both participants in this blind date did their homework with a thorough Google search.’
Commentator Tom Fitzgerald previously told Vanity Fair: ‘Meghan is the type of woman who would check a menu out online before going to a restaurant to pick what she was going to eat.
‘So the idea that she didn’t know she was supposed to curtsy for the Queen, I just didn’t find it particularly believable, because based on everything she ever told us about herself, I cannot imagine that she went into meeting the Royal Family completely cold, with no research whatsoever.’
Biographers Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie stated in their book, Finding Freedom, that Meghan and Harry would have both done ‘their homework’ on one another before meeting
Speaking in 2018, Meghan’s childhood friend Ninaki, whose friendship with the former Suits actress ended before the duchess began seeing Harry, said: ‘I know the Royal Family was something she found fascinating.
‘She had Diana: Her True Story on her bookshelf. I wasn’t shocked or even surprised to hear about Prince Harry. I know she used to love The Princess Diaries — films about a commoner who becomes part of a Royal Family. She was very taken with that idea.’
In a 2014 post on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig, Meghan even suggested that she’d dreamt about being a princess as a little girl, before explaining how ‘grown women seem to retain this childhood fantasy‘.
‘Just look at the pomp and circumstance surrounding the royal wedding and endless conversation about Princess Kate,’ the former Suits actress wrote.
Since stepping down as a senior working royal, Meghan has carefully curated her public image on her own terms through her Netflix series and lifestyle brand.
In the past five years, Meghan and Harry have launched a docuseries, a book, two podcasts, Meghan’s lifestyle brand, her lifestyle series, and many other projects.
And, as they’ve recently extended their deal with Netflix, it seems they have a lot more to come.
Living in her grand Montecito mansion with her Prince Charming, it seems Meghan has successfully become the star of her show.
