You've Come A Long Way, Meghan

Tomboy, student, actress and now royal bride – we track Meghan Markle’s incredible journey

- Kirstin Buick

IN THE space of 18 months she’s gone from a relatively wellknown TV actress to one of the most famous women in the world – a sparkling American beauty who won the heart of a prince, captivated the British public and breathed fresh air into the royal family.

Yet for Ava Burrows, the second wife of Meghan Markle’s granddad, the idea of the wild-haired little girl she knew wedding a blue-blood is nothing short of bizarre. “Meggie marrying a prince? Who’d have thunk!” she said, slapping her knee and laughing when a journalist came knocking.

And you can’t really blame her. To the outside world Meghan (36) may be impossibly glossy and enviably confident but once upon a time she was a cute tomboy fooling around in the backyard.

She’s come a long way, transforming from a happy-go-lucky Los Angeles lass to a glossy Hollywood actress – and now a dazzling duchess.

Here’s an in-depth look at Meghan’s life.

WHEN THOMAS MET DORIA

Thomas Markle (now 73) was a lighting director with a promising career when he moved to Los Angeles in his mid-thirties, newly divorced from Roslyn Loveless whom he’d married fresh out of high school. They had two children, Samantha and Tom Jnr, who lived with their mom in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Footloose and fancy-free, Thomas met Doria Ragland (now 61), a beautiful African-American twenty something working as a temp on the set of the TV show General Hospital.

“I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro,” Meghan said. “Plus their shared love of antiques. Whatever it was, they were married and had me.”

Meghan was born in LA on 4 August 1981 – the Queen Mother’s 81st birthday.

Tom Jnr and Samantha, then 14 and 16, came to live with their dad around then. According to Tom Jnr, their dad became a changed man after Meghan was born.