THE Reinvention Meghan

After much reflection, the mom of two is poised to launch her new lifestyle brand and kick off her self-described chapter of joy”

- JAIME HARKIN & JUSTIN RAVITZ

Once upon a time, Meghan Markle was a TV actress who worked on a successful show and ran a popular lifestyle blog called The Tig on the side. In her adopted home of Toronto, Canada — where Suits filmed for seven seasons — she spent most of her time hanging out with her castmates, practicing yoga and taking her beagle, Guy, for walks. Then she met Prince Harry.

The pair wed in May 2018 and welcomed son Archie the following year. Meghan had found her Prince Charming, but life behind palace doors was no fairy tale. There was tension with Prince William and Princess Kate, and Meghan took a beating in the U.K. press. “You’re established in one world and then you enter another and your narrative is dictated by external forces,” says a family friend. Amid intense backlash, Meghan, 43, and Harry, 39, left the U.K. in early 2020. They eventually landed in scenic Montecito, Calif. (they purchased their $14 million mansion in July 2020), and had their second child, daughter Lilibet, in June 2021.

While trying to process the events of the previous few years, she and Harry spoke candidly about some of the trauma they say they faced within the monarchy, first in a March 2021 bombshell TV sit-down and again in their hit 2022 Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. Harry covered similar ground in his more expansive 2023 memoir, Spare. Meanwhile, Meghan shared additional revelations about royal life on her Spotify podcast, Archetypes, until mutually parting ways with the streaming giant in June 2023.