It Was Destiny! Meghan's Road To Royalty

Many little girls dream of marrying a prince – and this one really did!

As far as Meghan Markle is concerned, she’s always been royalty. Home videos of an eight-year old Meghan prancing around a friend’s backyard, a plastic crown atop her head, show the youngster had an affinity for the grand life from a young age – and her road to royalty has been suitably colourful since.

Born Rachel Meghan Markle in 1981 to Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, Meghan grew up a California girl with a love of sun and surf. Thanks to her dad’s job as a lighting director on the sitcom Married… With Children, Meghan spent her afternoons after school on-set and it’s here her love of the limelight first grew.

After her parents split when she was six, she lived mostly with Doria, but spent a great deal of time with her father. When Thomas won more than $1 million in a lottery, he used a chunk to send his daughter to the best private schools in Los Angeles, where Meghan was a conscientious student.

Helped by her mother, she also developed a social conscience early on. At age 11, Meghan succeeded in having a sexist advertisement for washing-up liquid banned, which featured the tagline, “Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans”.