In their first joint interview after announcing their engagement, Meghan Markle confirmed that she would give up her acting career now that she is to marry Prince Harry.
The 36-year-old star of USA Network’s Suits just finished filming the seventh season of the hit show in Toronto and will not return for the eighth season should the network order it. Meghan has worked on shows such as General Hospital, Fringe, Castle and Deal or No Deal. She has also had some small roles movies including Horrible Bosses, Remember Me and Get Him to the Greek. Additionally, she starred in two made-for-tv Hallmark movies Dater’s Handbook and When Sparks Fly.
Markle, who found her love of acting at a young age as the daughter of an Emmy Award-winning director of photography, told the BBC’s Mishal Husain, “I don’t see it as giving anything up. I see it as a change. It’s a new chapter.”
She turned to Prince Harry and said, “Now it’s time to work as a team with you.”
Harry expressed his confidence in Meghan taking on the royal role and said they make a “fantastic team.”
The California native said she would focus on her humanitarian causes which include work with the United Nations, World Vision Canada and One Young World. They admitted that their shared commitment to philanthropic causes was one of the first things they bonded over.
Markle is a United Nations women’s advocate for Political Participation and Leadership and has been active in the HeForShe campaign. She spoke at a UN Women event where she told of how she has been advocating for gender equality since she was 11. She also wrote about this on her now-closed website The Tig:
“I was just 11-years-old when I was in my classroom at Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse, and a commercial came on for a popular dishwashing liquid. The tagline of the campaign said, ‘Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.’ The boys in my classroom yelled out, ‘Yeah, that’s where women belong. In the kitchen.’ My little freckled face became red with anger. I went home and wrote letters to powerhouse feminist attorney, Gloria Allred; to a host of a kids news program; to the soap manufacturer; and to Hillary Clinton (who was our First Lady at the time). With the exception of the soap manufacturer, they all pledged support — and within a few months, the commercial was changed to, ‘People all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.’”
Additionally, she has said regarding humanitarian work, “With fame comes opportunity, but in my opinion, it also includes responsibility — to advocate and share, to focus less on glass slippers and more on pushing through glass ceilings, and if I’m lucky enough –- then to inspire.”
Local woman does very well indeed. Not much of a looker, but has obviously been blessed with an abundance of the “smarts”.