LONDON: Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex celebrates her 43rd birthday on Sunday (August 4).

Markle is a former American actress now married to Britain’s Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and fifth in line to the British throne. Meghan Markle was born in Los Angeles in 1981, days after Harry’s father’s “fairytale” marriage with Diana. Her father was a TV lighting director for soaps and sitcoms and her mother a clinical therapist.

In 2011, she married film producer Trevor Engelson but they divorced two years later. Meghan appeared in a number of TV shows and films, such as “Horrible Bosses”, but achieved greatest fame for her starring part as “Rachel Zane” in the ongoing “Suits” series.

Meghan and Harry met on a blind date in London but fell in love in Botswana. They married in May 2018 in a lavish ceremony in Windsor Castle that was heralded at the time as a sign of a more modern monarchy, and became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the following May.

Soon after their high-profile wedding, however, the royal couple’s relationship with the British press swiftly soured.

The couple sparked turmoil in the monarchy in January 2020 when they announced they would no longer be working members of Britain’s monarchy, would forgo public funds and would repay money spent on refurbishing their cottage west of London as they embarked on an independent future.

They cited the intrusion from the press as one of the main reasons for their decision. Harry said it was destroying his mental health, and that was why the couple had moved to Los Angeles with their son Archie.

Since ending their royal duties, Harry and Meghan have continued charity work, launching their charitable foundation ‘Archewell’. They have signed TV and other media deals and launched a podcast.

Meghan has also released her debut children’s book, ‘The Bench’, dedicated to her husband and their son, Archie.

In June 2021, Meghan gave birth to her second child, a baby girl, whom she and Harry named Lilibet Diana, after Queen Elizabeth and Harry’s late mother Princess Diana.

The Duchess of Sussex revealed in an opinion article published in the New York Times at the end of 2020 that she had a miscarriage in July of that year, marking an extraordinarily personal disclosure from a high-profile British royal.

In 2021, Meghan won a privacy claim against British tabloid the Daily Mail for printing extracts of a letter she wrote to her father. The newspaper appealed the decision but it was thrown out by the court later in the year.

Critics of the couple have said they are keen for publicity but only on their own terms, having given an explosive in-depth interview to Oprah Winfrey while Meghan also appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres talk show.

In the Oprah interview in March 2021, Meghan accused the royal family of raising concerns about how dark the skin of the couple’s first child would be, and said the stress of life as a royal newlywed had pushed her to the brink of suicide.

Meghan and Harry travelled to the United Kingdom to take part in celebrations marking the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. There were loud cheers and some boos as they arrived at St Paul’s Cathedral for a service of thanksgiving, marking their first public appearance together in Britain since quitting royal duties.

They did not appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the queen and other members of the royal family during the four days of jubilee celebrations.

After Harry and Meghan left their official royal roles, they became alienated from the family, including Charles who became king following the queen’s death at the age of 96 on September 8, and delivered withering criticism of Buckingham Palace and how they had been treated.

Since becoming king, Charles has expressed his love for the couple.

Harry and Meghan were only in Britain when the queen died because they were coincidentally visiting to attend a number of charity events, a rare trip since they moved to California where they live with their two young children.

They had not been expected to speak to their close relatives on the visit prior to the queen’s death.

In the following days, Harry and Meghan unexpectedly appeared with his elder brother William for a walkabout near Windsor Castle, in a show of unity that suggested the death of their grandmother could lead to a rapprochement.

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A royal source described it as an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family.

On February 14, Valentine’s Day, the couple were seen on Canada’s ski slopes during a visit to the Winter Training Camp of the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler.

It was less than two weeks after King Charles officially announced on February 5 that he started treatment for cancer.

Harry, who fell out with the rest of the family flew to London on hearing the news and had a brief meeting with his father, before returning to the US.