From eating TV dinners and navigating life as a biracial child to becoming part of the royal family, this celebrity’s path has been far from smooth. Her story has been one of self-discovery — marked by private struggles, including a serious health scare after childbirth — and the resilience to keep going.
She didn’t grow up surrounded by flashbulbs or walking red carpets. Instead, her early years were defined by frozen meals, questions about her racial background and appearance, and a constant feeling of being slightly out of place.
Yet, determination followed her into adulthood. She built a career, fell in love with a prince, and became a mother. But behind the glamorous headlines and royal titles was a woman facing deeply personal challenges. Here’s a closer look at the person behind the public image.
Humble Beginnings
Long before her name was known worldwide, she was just a young girl searching for her place in the world. Born in Los Angeles to a biracial family, her early life was marked by contrasts — of race, culture, and circumstance.
Her parents worked long hours, so she often came home from school to an empty house — a self-described “latchkey kid” with nothing but a microwaved dinner or takeout for company. She once reflected:
“I grew up with a lot of fast food and TV tray dinners. It feels like such a different time now, but back then, microwaveable kids’ meals were normal… watching ‘Jeopardy!’ while eating fast food.”
Even though she was loved deeply at home, she became aware early on that she didn’t entirely fit in. “My dad is white and my mom is Black. I’m half Black and half white,” she shared.
And strangers often noticed her mixed heritage — sometimes in uncomfortable ways. She recalled, “My mom used to tell me stories about taking me to the grocery store and a woman saying, ‘Whose child is that?’ My mom would reply, ‘She’s my child.’ And the woman would say, ‘No, you must be the nanny. Where’s her mom?’”
Those assumptions left a lasting impact. When her parents divorced, she and her mother moved to a predominantly Black neighborhood about 40 minutes from the Valley, where she had spent her early years.
Despite the upheaval, she had a strong circle of support — her grandmother, aunt, and her mother’s friends — all of whom played a role in raising her. “We had a wonderful network of women who helped me raise her,” her mother said.
“She was always easy to get along with, very friendly, quick to make friends. She was a very empathetic child and mature for her age,” her mother added.
Still, their bond wasn’t always conventional. “I remember asking her if I felt like her mom, and she told me I felt like an older, controlling sister,” her mother admitted. As she grew, the young girl began shaping her own sense of identity.
“I was a total nerd growing up,” she revealed. “That’s an important thing people don’t realize about me — I wasn’t the pretty one. My identity was wrapped up in being the smart one.”
Her confidence in her intellect, rather than her looks, guided her from an early age. A defining childhood moment came when she wrote a letter challenging a sexist commercial, which ultimately led to the ad being changed.
Her family’s financial situation meant even small treats felt special. “I grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler. I knew how hard my parents worked for that because even at five bucks, eating out was something special, and I felt lucky,” she said.
A twist of fate came when she was nine: her father won $750,000 in the lottery. The windfall gave the family opportunities for better education and training.
Her half-brother remembered how it shifted her path: “That money allowed her to go to the best schools and get the best training. She’s always had laser focus — she knows what she wants and doesn’t stop until she gets it.”
That focus showed even in elementary school. At her 11-year-old graduation, she wrote a note to her principal that she later read aloud during a return visit: “When I am rich and famous and write my life story, I will talk about you and the school so you will be known worldwide.”
Even so, she never forgot the value of a dollar. By 13, she had her first job scooping frozen yogurt. She later babysat, waited tables, and worked at a donut shop called Little Orbit Donuts — juggling multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet. “I worked all my life and saved when I could — but even that was a luxury, because most of the time it was about covering the basics,” she said.
Her love for performing took root in high school, where she immersed herself in theater. Her father’s career as a lighting director on Married… with Children gave her early exposure to sets. “Every day after school for 10 years, I was on that set — which was a funny and pretty inappropriate place for a little Catholic schoolgirl to grow up,” she joked.
Still, she wrestled with identity. In a blog post she wrote on her 33rd birthday, she reflected, “My teens were even worse — trying to figure out how to fit in and what that even meant.”
“My high school had cliques: the Black girls, the white girls, the Filipina girls, the Latina girls. Being biracial, I was somewhere in between,” she explained.
Adulthood brought its own battles. “My 20s were brutal — constantly judging my weight, my style, wanting to be as cool, as hip, as smart, or as ‘whatever’ as everyone else,” she said.
But by her thirties, her perspective had changed. “I am 33 years old today. And I am happy. It takes time — to be kind to yourself, to choose happiness, and to truly feel it,” she wrote.
At this point, she hadn’t yet stepped into the global spotlight, but the foundation for her future — shaped by hard work, early struggles, and persistence — was firmly in place.
From Royal Romance to a Life Redefined
The woman whose life story we’ve been tracing — from TV dinners to theater stages and self-discovery — is Meghan Markle.
In late 2016, Prince Harry confirmed their relationship. Two years later, on May 19, 2018, they married at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor.
In the years following, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed two children — their son, Prince Archie, in May 2019, and their daughter, Princess Lilibet, in June 2021.
While motherhood brought joy, Meghan revealed it also came with dangerous challenges. After her first child’s birth, she faced a severe postpartum health complication — postpartum preeclampsia — which she discussed in April 2025 on her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder, in conversation with Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
“We both went through similar postpartum experiences — though we didn’t know each other at the time — with postpartum preeclampsia,” she said. “It’s rare and it’s terrifying. And you’re trying to juggle so much, while the world has no idea what’s happening privately. You still have to show up — especially for your kids — even though it’s a huge medical scare.”
Whitney replied, “It really is life or death.”
But Meghan’s hardships didn’t end there. Not long after Archie’s birth, she suffered a miscarriage — a loss she later described in heartbreaking detail.
The day began like any other, with breakfast, tidying up, and getting her son from his crib. But after a sharp cramp, she sank to the floor, holding him and humming to soothe them both. She knew instantly.
“As I clutched my firstborn, I realized I was losing my second,” she wrote.
Hours later, she lay in a hospital bed with Harry beside her, both overcome with grief. “I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, damp with our tears,” she recalled.
Looking at the stark hospital walls, she thought about how healing begins with one simple question: Are you OK?
Despite the pain, Meghan emerged with deeper resilience. She remembered advice from early in her acting career: “I must have been about 24 when a casting director told me, ‘You need to know you’re enough. Less makeup, more Meghan.’”
It was a message she carried forward — the understanding that self-worth comes from within, not from a role, a relationship, or public approval.
“You need to know you’re enough,” she repeated. And over time, through experience and hard-earned wisdom, she began to believe it.