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,” a family friend shares in the latest issue of Us Weekly. Amid intense backlash, Meghan, 43, and Harry, 39, left the U.K. in early 2020. They eventually landed in scenic Montecito, California (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.
She briefly appeared to take a breather. But in recent months, Meghan’s been back in the game full throttle. She’s set to launch her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, and her new Netflix series, centered around cooking, entertaining and gardening, has finished filming. In July, she joined a slew of Hollywood heavyweights, including Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow, at the Hamptons home of power broker Amy Griffin for a one-day business summit. “Meghan was there to network,” says an insider. “She was very kind and humble and eager to learn.”
She’s been busy with philanthropic endeavors, too. In August, Meghan and Harry sat down with CBS News to discuss their new campaign, The Parents’ Network, which aims to protect kids from online harm. Two weeks later, they wrapped up a four-day visit to Colombia, marking their second international tour of the year following their May trip to Nigeria. “[I’m] looking at this as my chapter of joy,” Meghan said while attending an August 18 panel.
“Meghan has transitioned from actress to royal to entrepreneur,” says a second insider. “She’s worn many hats, but she believes age and experience have [prepared her] for a bigger purpose in life. She’s very happy with the role she’s carved out.”
Here, Us talks to insiders close to Harry and Meghan about how she’s boldly stepping into her next act.
Its taken some time for Meghan to process everything that happened after she married into the royal family. She’s been candid about her struggles to fit in within The Firm — she and Kate famously fell out following a disagreement over Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress in the days leading up to the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding — and how affected she was by attacks on her in the British media. “I believe part of our healing journey, certainly part of mine, is being able to be really open about it,” she said in her CBS News interview.
Now she’s ready to look forward. “After Spare, [Harry and Meghan] realized, ‘OK, we’re ready to move on. We want to focus on our future,’” the family friend tells Us. “‘We can have meaning and importance separate from the lives we had previously.’”
That means not holding grudges. “So much of how I approach things is less about the fight,” she said during the August 18 summit in Colombia, “and more about how do we show up in the space and wash things over with love and kindness and generosity.” Adds the family friend: “Meghan doesn’t harbor any negative feelings. She just wants peace, and knows you can’t find peace if you harbor resentments.”
In March, after Kate revealed her cancer diagnosis, Meghan and Harry released a statement saying, “We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace.” The family friend says they are otherwise moving on from royal headlines. “Meghan’s team gets asked daily to comment on stuff that has nothing to do with their lives now. They have left it behind.”