8

Seeing Both Sides Now

She had her passport. Check. Her bag of homeopathic remedies. Check. Her vaccines, including hepatitis A and B, typhoid, rabies, and tetanus, were up to date. Check. She had super-strength mosquito repellent. Check. A bag of long-sleeved light clothes. Check. Meghan was ready for a very grown-up journey, embarking on her first ever fact-finding mission on behalf of the United Nations. Though her visit to Rwanda in the heart of Africa was to focus on issues surrounding gender equality, it was also a chance for United Nations officials to evaluate the Suits star to see if she was able or willing to make the commitment as a Goodwill Ambassador for the international organization. A UN official pointed out that Meghan’s involvement as a gender equality advocate was at the level of an informal collaboration.

In early January 2015, when she landed in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, her first stop was to be introduced to the nation’s female parliamentarians. Almost a week of meetings had been scheduled to discuss the role of women in the nation’s democracy and the challenges facing Rwanda going forward. Time and again the point was made that only when women were treated equally in the home, at school, and in the workplace could they enjoy rich, fulfilling lives and give back to the community. The underrepresentation of women in the top jobs, a feature not just of life in developing countries but in her own nation, was an issue that always concerned her. The UN was celebrating the fact that Rwanda was the first and at the time the only country to have a female majority in the nation’s parliament, with almost two-thirds of the seats taken by women.

It was a great step forward. Meghan complimented Rwandan president Paul Kagame. “We need more men like that,” she said.

Though Kagame has his critics, this was a truly remarkable turnaround for a country which, just twenty years earlier, had suffered an appalling genocide. The figures were astonishing, with approximately 1 million people killed, most brutally hacked to death with machetes, and 2 million displaced into refugee camps. Meghan traveled to see the other side of Rwanda herself, the actor and her UN team traveling by van to Gihembe refugee camp, the sprawling collection of huts studded into the lush green hillside now home to seventeen thousand people who had fled the violence in the wartorn Democratic Republic of the Congo. She wanted to speak to the women at the grassroots and find out how they coped with a life that was meant to be temporary but had become permanent. Inevitably, every visit by a celebrity, even if the local population has no clue who they are, attracts a crowd, and Meghan posed happily with dozens of curious and excited local children.

As she traveled back over the bumpy dirt road, past the grazing goats and the lush green fields, she idly checked her emails, amazed that the signal was better here than in some parts of Toronto and Los Angeles. While she bounced along the road she learned that she had been invited as a guest to the BAFTAs, the British Academy film awards, which take place a few weeks before the Oscars.

Her management company told her that she would be sponsored by a high-end jewelry company that would fly her directly from Kigali to London, where she would be whisked into hair and makeup before being poured into a gown. “No,” screamed her gut. It had always been a dream to attend the BAFTAs, but she couldn’t shift emotional gears that quickly, from the purpose-driven work she had been doing all week in Rwanda to the polished glamour of an awards show. There would be other BAFTAs, other red carpets. But for now there was only Rwanda. As she later wrote, “This type of work is what feeds my soul.”

Of course, she was not the first nor will she be the last celebrity to struggle to reconcile the air-kissing superficiality of Hollywood with the stark reality of life for so many in the developing world. Oscar-winning actor and UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie is a vivid example of a star who manages to straddle both worlds. The more she became involved with her humanitarian mission, the more she had to learn to switch off and switch on. Just like acting, but in real life.

Shortly after her return from Rwanda Meghan was front and center for New York Fashion Week in February. She was now a front-row girl, watching the models at the show of her fashion mentor Wes Gordon, but she was also photographed reviewing Misha Nonoo’s stylish collection. Her look was a revelation inspired in part by the neon swirls and scribbles of British artist Tracy Emin. The theme was Meghan’s cri de coeur: the empowerment of women. Nonoo had the models do their hair themselves, pulling it back into ponytails with a minimum of product and as many bobby pins as they liked. Meghan appreciated the symbolism and thought Nonoo’s collaboration with the orchestra Decoda “so classy and beautiful.” “It just set the tone,” she enthused.

She was still raving about the collection when she appeared on Joe Zee’s streaming fashion program on Yahoo! Style. The duo went back years, from the time they first met in 2011 drinking and shooting the breeze until late into the night. What Joe liked about Meghan was that she was decidedly un-Hollywood; she appreciated people other than herself.

In between the glitz and the glamour her advocacy for UN Women continued, undertaking further meetings at the World Bank and the Clinton Foundation and learning more about the facts and figures of gender bias in the developing world and, for that matter, her own country. While she had always had a thoughtful side, these days her friends noticed that she seemed more considered, more seasoned, and more appreciative too of the advantages she had been given and the opportunity to make a difference. In the days when she was scrabbling to gain a foothold on the elusive ladder of success, her time was taken up not with causes but with endless auditions, simply trying to make a living. Her acting success coupled with her voice on The Tig had given her the opportunity to focus on the issues that concerned her. Gender equality had always been near the top of her priority list: witness her first letter-writing campaign regarding the advertising for dishwashing soap.

She traveled to London to support actor Emma Watson in her #HeForShe initiative, the Harry Potter actor holding a live Facebook event to engage her fans in the campaign. Then it was Meghan’s turn to take center stage in front of a friendly but awe-inspiring audience. Meghan took a deep breath and focused. She was about to hit a personal milestone. Her mom and friends were there to support her in front of global luminaries like UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, UN executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, actor Patricia Arquette, her UN mentor Elizabeth Nyamayaro as well as Hillary Clinton (who, ironically, the same day overshadowed Meghan’s remarks with her comments about her controversial use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state).

On March 10, a day that she will always remember, the LA Valley Girl was about to speak before the United Nations as the newly appointed UN Women Advocate for Leadership and Political Participation.

Understandably Meghan’s voice sounded a little higher, as the normally nerveless actor opened her speech: “I am proud to be a woman and a feminist, and this evening I am extremely proud to stand before you on this significant day, which serves as a reminder to all of us of how far we’ve come, but also amid celebration a reminder of the road ahead…”

She told her story of the LA riots, her schoolroom, Ivory dishwashing liquid, and the chauvinist little boys at her school, of how she wrote to Procter & Gamble, women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred, journalist Linda Ellerbee, and former First Lady Hillary Clinton. The putative presidential candidate smiled at that. She spoke inspiringly of how her letter made a difference and how she felt that she had helped, in her small way, to make the change.

She took aim at the weak representation of women in the world’s parliaments, citing data showing the number of women lawmakers had increased only 11 percent since 1995. “Eleven percent in twenty years. Come on. This has to change,” she said to applause.

As Meghan concluded, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon led the standing ovation. Could there be anything better? It was quite the accolade, one that would resonate as her speech was played in numerous schoolrooms around America, inspiring and provoking a new generation of young girls to make a difference.

“Meghan Markle has helped raise global attention to gender equality issues,” said a spokeswoman for UN Women afterward. “UN Women trusts and hopes that in her new and important public role she will continue to use her visibility and voice to support the advancement of gender equality.”

She appeared to have it all: she was a young, beautiful, articulate campaigner with a tasteful, on-trend website and a successful TV career. Curiously, her speech to UN Women seemed to be the high-water mark of her involvement with the international organization. Once they officially appointed her an advocate, it seems that her charity work on their behalf tapered off considerably.

Nonetheless the invitations to represent the issues she cared about or to appear on chat shows now started to come in thick and fast. As a spokesperson for gender equality and a cable TV star, it was only natural for her to be asked to host the Women in Cable Telecommunications 2015 signature luncheon. Maria E. Brennan, WICT’s chief executive, explained the choice, saying: “Meghan is a sterling example of someone who not only plays a strong female character, she is one in real life.”

Chat show host Larry King invited her back on his show—previously she had talked Suits with Patrick J. Adams—to talk about her role as a women’s rights advocate. Meghan was proving her skills at diplomacy, deftly deflecting Larry King’s question about which country had the worst record of human rights by saying that we have to take into account cultural differences.

Hand in hand with her humanitarian work were the undoubted perks of being a glamorous TV star. As her celebrity status rose, so did her price tag. She was learning that she could charge a fee just for turning up. Turbo-charging these opportunities for her was Kruger Cowne World, a speaking, branding, and hosting agency with headquarters in Chelsea, Central London, and offices in Santa Monica.

The agency, founded in 1999, represents a whole range of celebrities such as Virgin boss Richard Branson, Cher, and Sir Bob Geldof as well as charities like One Young World, where Meghan had spoken. The skin care line Clarins and the Pakistani poet Fatima Bhutto were also clients who were frequently name-checked by the actor. Meghan’s rate? Twenty thousand dollars and up per appearance.

She had entered a glorious, gilded world and was aware of the subdued hysteria of her day-to-day existence. She wrote: “I work long hours, I travel for Press, my mind memorizes. My mind spins. My days blur. My nights are restless. My hair is primped, my face is painted, my name is recognized, my star meter is rising, my life is changing.”

In March, just before her speech to the United Nations, she found herself on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean. The visit, sponsored by Elle magazine, was a chance for her to discover her roots—and to enjoy some of the island’s fabulous but oft-neglected cuisine. Malta held a special place in her heart; her paternal great-great-grandmother Mary Merrill, the daughter of Mary Bird, a former housemaid to the British royal family and a British soldier, had been born here. She was eager to know more. When she told one friend she was going to the island, they noted: “When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you.” As she explored the island, it seemed her friend’s prediction was spot on.

She went by ferry to the tiny island of Gozo and tasted the famous Goz cheeselet, and then after returning to the main island she explored the Casa Rocca Piccola in Valletta and viewed the Caravaggio paintings at St. John’s Co-Cathedral. During a week enjoying la dolce vita, she fell in love with Maltese cuisine. Meghan threw herself into her cooking lesson with chef Pippa Mattei, Malta’s equivalent of Martha Stewart, at her home in Attard. As Meghan liked to emphasize that, as a California girl, her experience with farm-to-table cuisine was hardwired, here was an opportunity to see the Maltese version. Mattei took her shopping for produce in the local farmers market, then gave her a lesson in pasta and pastizzi making, followed by a meal in Mattei’s garden. Oh, if only she could bring back a suitcase full of Maltese treats.

For the girl who conjured The Tig from her favorite tipple, no visit to Malta would have been complete without a comprehensive wine tasting. The actor visited the Meridiana wine estate for a leisurely afternoon exploring fruity reds and tasty whites. As Maltese wines rarely, if ever, reach the shores of the US, this was a real treat. She didn’t discover much more about her Maltese ancestry—but she did discover the delights of this bucolic island.

Her visit to Malta was a solo trip even though her chef boyfriend would have been inspired by the variety and distinctiveness of the local cuisine. Like Meghan, he was being kept busy, on the verge of starting a new venture, Flock Rotisserie and Greens, a restaurant specializing in roast chicken and salad. “I’ve been testing a fair bit of roast chicken on Meghan,” he admitted. The chef was working virtually round the clock running three restaurants.

He was also in front of the camera too, taping episodes of Chef in Your Ear for Food Network Canada, which were due for broadcast in August 2015. Taking a leaf out of Meghan’s philanthropy playbook, he volunteered for Kids Cook to Care, a program for youngsters who are taught how to make home-cooked meals by celebrity chefs. It would hopefully ignite their understanding of proper cooking techniques and the importance of serving the community.

With his filming and restaurant commitments, he was unable to join Meghan on her next exotic jaunt—to Istanbul, where she, together with actor Eddie Redmayne, 50 Shades actor Jamie Dornan, and British singer Paloma Faith were on hand to celebrate the opening of the latest enclave of Soho House.

It was another glamorous interlude in her busiest and most successful year to date. Her UN speech was matched by an invitation to become the face for one of Canada’s oldest and most respected retailers, Reitmans. There was more, the ninety-year-old store chain wanted her to curate her own clothing line. Not only was her face going to be on billboards and on TV all over Canada, she was going to influence how women dressed.

It was a marvelous opportunity, though when she first mentioned the overture to savvy friends they scoffed at the idea of involving herself with a retail brand that was so fuddy-duddy. “Oh, that’s where my mom would buy her jeans in the eighties,” they chorused. Meghan was not so sure. As an American she didn’t have the same knee-jerk reaction toward this venerable retailer as her Canadian friends. At meetings with store executives, Meghan brought a fresh eye. “There are pieces here that are so cool that if you’re going to reenergize it, I’d be happy to be a part of that,” she said. They planned an advertising campaign starring Meghan wearing trimmer, slimmer, hipper Reitmans clothing. In one commercial, Meghan is filmed walking into an elegant restaurant where two ladies who lunch eagerly give the TV star the once over. One exclaims: “So stylish” while the other asks what she is wearing. They then try to crawl over the back of the booth to get a closer look at the label in her shirt. Catching them in the act, Meghan smiles and says, “Ladies, it’s Reitmans.” Another showed Meghan, all crisp business, slick high heels, and tight jeans, speaking on her cell phone as she strides out into the street. As the camera follows her down the street, she notices herself in the store’s glass window. Her cute alter ego in the reflection preens and wiggles for the camera before blowing her other half a kiss. Cue her slogan for the brand: “Reitmans. Really.”

Not only was she the brand ambassador, she worked hard on a capsule collection to be launched in spring 2016. Meghan was thrilled, reflecting on the days when she was a little girl and how she had sat with her mother at her clothing store, A Change of a Dress on La Brea in Los Angeles. In those far-off days, Doria had taken her daughter to fabric warehouses, where she had walked along the aisles. Now she had the opportunity to create her own fashion line. Meghan and the design team sketched out ideas, played with swatches, and examined the zippers and fit of sample pieces. As she later remarked: “I’m super involved with the design process, and I’m sure that it drives them crazy. But how could I not? It has my name on it.”

First off the runway in the Meghan Markle Collection were four distinct dresses: the Soiree, Date Night, a maxi-dress named the Sunset and a Little White Dress. Once she had approved the designs, it was a fingers and toes crossed moment for the actor, anxious that her fans and the wider public appreciated her efforts. As she wrote in her blog: “I toiled over design and print, I shared my thoughts on everything and I ended up with a limited collection of pieces that reflect facets of my personal style that I think you’ll love.”

All the dresses sold for under $100 each, revealing the budget-conscious nature of their creator, who boasted that she shopped the sale rack. “I’ve always been the girl flipping through hangers looking for the best deal.”

Of course, that’s not quite true. When her designer friend Misha Nonoo invited her to join her at the 2015 Vogue CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards in New York in early November, Meghan was thrilled to wear one of the pieces from her collection. It was a short liquid metal dress that showed off her legs combined with a plunging deep V neck. It was a showstopper, and photographers clamored for a snap of the TV star.

Not only was she a photographers’ darling, a billboard pinup, and a TV regular, the ubiquitous Meghan Markle was now the central character in a chick lit novel, What Pretty Girls Are Made Of, written by her “bestie from the westie” Lindsay Jill Roth, who was such a frequent visitor to her Toronto home that the spare bedroom was christened Lindsay’s room. It had taken Roth five years, and copious glasses of wine, to craft the jaunty novel based on the exploits of her heroine, Alison Kraft. Since Alison was a little girl, all she has ever dreamed of is being an actor. Too bad that after years of auditions she doesn’t have the stellar career she envisioned. After some soul searching, she looks for other jobs and ends up working for a makeup guru.

It was of course a thinly disguised portrait of Meghan during her lean years in the noughties. Lindsay had all the research material she needed, not just from Meghan’s lips but from the blog Working Actress, about the ups and downs of life for a struggling wannabe, which Meghan is now credited with writing. Meghan loved it, posting effusive Instagrams touting the fluffy tome. Naturally she was at the summer launch party, afterward taking her pal to an ice hockey game. Not only did Lindsay give her actor friend a shout-out for helping her explore “what pretty is,” she sent a copy of her amusing trifle to Kate Middleton at Kensington Palace, her accompanying card informing the duchess that in her eyes she was the definition of “prettiness.”

Lindsay then proudly posted the pro forma thank-you note from the Duchess of Cambridge’s office online. She never for a second contemplated meeting the future queen at Windsor Castle after her best friend married Prince Harry. If she had suggested that plot to her publisher, they would have laughed her out of their New York offices.

In fact, Meghan was about to get married, but neither to Prince Harry nor her boyfriend Cory Vitiello. She was due to walk down the aisle with badass lawyer Mike Ross in the climax to Suits season 5. Filming was scheduled for November 13 before the show wrapped for the Christmas break. As she read the script, Meghan thought that if she was getting married, at the very least she—or Rachel—wanted a say in the style of the wedding dress. She contacted Suits costumer Jolie Andreatta and her friend, wedding stylist Jessica Mulroney, for inspiration. The three women met at the Toronto outpost of New York–based bridal store Kleinfeld. The store, which boasts thirty thousand square feet of bridal wear in Manhattan, has a much smaller outlet at the Bay. “I need something that will be comfortable and won’t wrinkle, that’s classic and sort of fairy tale,” explained Meghan. Jessica pulled out an Anne Barge full-skirted V-neck with Swiss dot netting. Meghan tried it on. “It screams Rachel!” she exclaimed.

“We need the dress in two days,” said Jolie. “Can we do this?” In the original script Mike and Rachel were finally going to get hitched. However, after producer Gabriel Macht and series creator Aaron Korsh reviewed the scenario, they decided it would be more plausible if Mike went to jail and told Meghan’s character, a sobbing Rachel Zane, that he cannot marry her—at least not yet. Maybe later…. This was the cliffhanger for the series 5 finale, which was broadcast in March 2016.

After filming her emotional scenes with Mike Ross, Meghan flew to a place about as cold as, if not colder than, Toronto. The California girl headed to Iceland to see the northern lights, along the way discovering the Town of Elves, Álfabærinn, where she couldn’t resist posting a photograph on her Instagram site. From admittedly knowing little about the inner workings of the internet, Meghan was now a social media junkie, posting cute selfies, wry observations—New Year’s resolutions were to “run a marathon, stop biting my nails, stop swearing and relearn French”—and intelligent essays on her burgeoning accounts.

In the eighteen months since it had launched, Meghan had assiduously used The Tig to promote what she felt was important and beautiful: a charming photograph of her mom on Mother’s Day, a recipe for beet pasta with arugula pesto, suggested reading lists, her favorite picture by Australian artist Gray Malin, or a shot of her eating a raw urchin as she stood in the warm Caribbean surf. Meghan was relentless, diligent, and disciplined about creating daily content. She brought in guest writers like PR guru Lucy Meadmore to write about a trip to Costa Rica, her yoga coach Duncan Parviainen, and her Suits costar Abigail Spencer. However, there was a serious underpinning to all this gauze. In an essay titled “Champions of Change,” Meghan wrote passionately about race relations, retelling the family story about the segregation they suffered during a road trip from Ohio to California. “It reminds me of how young our country is,” she told her readers. “How far we’ve come and how far we still have to come. It makes me think of the countless black jokes people have shared in front of me, not realizing I am mixed, unaware that I am the ethnically ambiguous fly on the wall.” With its mix of serious and frivolous, girly and gritty, The Tig had the feel of an upmarket women’s magazine but in Meghan’s distinctive voice. As she said about her baby: “It’s my outlet to say my own words and to share all these things that I find inspiring and exciting, but also attainable.” The baby was bringing home a little bacon, too. Through her shopping program and the promotion of brands such as Birchbox, a subscription beauty box brand, she was now making a little money off the venture. “I would never take ads,” she said. “Or sell a $100 candle. Obnoxious.”

There were times she had to remind herself not to give in to the compulsion to photograph and share every last detail of her life. She had to remember to surrender to the moment, to enjoy real life. As Warren Beatty, the then boyfriend of Madonna, said of the star when she was making the documentary Truth or Dare, “she doesn’t want to live off camera much less talk.” He made that withering remark in the days before social media ran rampant. Now Meghan was one of a generation who, if they were not careful, would only define their existence through social media. As I write, a young boy, now known as the #selfiekid, became an overnight sensation after taking a selfie with singer Justin Timberlake during the 2018 Super Bowl halftime show. After taking the shot, rather than joining in the singing and dancing, being in the present, the young man went back to his phone to review his pictures and thus validate his real experience. Somehow it was a moment that defines the age we live in.

The real world kept intruding, though. In February 2016 the actor flew to Kigale once again to undertake charity work. First, she celebrated Valentine’s Day—not with Cory but with friends in New York’s West Village. It had become a pattern, both ambitious people who were neither willing to give the time or effort to nurture a meaningful relationship. He was immersed in his restaurant chain and television career as a celebrity chef, Meghan in her world as an actor, humanitarian, and fashion personality. It was clear that the writing was on the wall for their two-year relationship, neither being willing to relinquish any part of their professional lives to sustain their romance.

So much of their relationship had been spent in going their separate ways, Meghan in particular spending much of her free time traveling. This time her visit to Africa was arranged not by the United Nations but by World Vision Canada, an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid charity. Their sister organization, World Vision US, had hit the headlines the previous year with their United States office’s decision not to hire Christians in same-sex marriages. It was a policy position quickly disavowed by their independent Canadian neighbor. The charity’s mission statement reads: “Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, World Vision serves alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.”

On the surface it was an odd choice, especially as Meghan seemed to have stalled with United Nations Women and had nothing on her schedule in relation to her role as UN advocate. However, World Vision Canada was eager to harness her celebrity to promote their work in the developing world, notably, bringing clean water to rural villages. Whatever misgivings she may have had, she accepted their invitation to see their work in Rwanda. It was an enthusiastic meeting of minds, recalled Laura Dewar, WVC chief marketing officer. “She’s remarkably approachable. She was very open to a conversation about the kinds of causes that moved her and that she would like to learn more about.”

This was a very different kind of visit than her UN-sponsored trip, where she met female parliamentarians and discussed how they could best promote women’s issues in a mainly rural nation. Her tour this time was much more traditional, top-down benevolence, Meghan watching a well being completed in a village and then helping turn on the mechanism that drew the water to the surface. All the while her friend Gabor Jurina, a fashion photographer, captured the scenes.

Though her visit did not directly focus on gender equality, Meghan quickly grasped the concept that a community’s access to clean water keeps young girls in school because they aren’t walking hours each day to find water for their families. Traditionally, in many rural communities in Rwanda and elsewhere, girls find wood and water, and boys tend the animals.

Later, after taking part in a dance lesson, she visited a school in the Gasabo District and met twenty-five students whose access to a clean water pipeline, installed by World Vision Canada, had transformed their lives. She sat with the children as they painted with watercolors using water drawn from the well, their paint-dipped fingers creating images of their dreams and futures.

When she returned to Toronto she staged a charity art sale, using the children’s art as a basis for the Watercolor Project. The invitation-only function, held on March 22 at the LUMAS gallery in downtown Toronto, was hosted by Meghan and raised more than $15,000, enough to bring clean water to an entire rural community. Applauded as World Vision’s newly minted global ambassador, she told the sixty-strong audience: “Access to clean water allows women to invest in their own businesses and community. It promotes grassroots leadership, and, of course, it reinforces the health and wellness of children and adults. Every single piece of it is so interconnected, and clean water, this one life source, is the key to it all.”

Meghan was now the official face of the organization, short snappy videos of her appearing on the charity’s website, financial statements, and promotional material. Unlike the United Nations, where Meghan was one of many celebrities working to promote important issues within the organization, here Meghan was the figurehead of this Christian charity, one of Canada’s largest.

In charity and commerce Meghan was now the representative for two storied Canadian organizations, World Vision Canada and Reitmans.

Meghan spun and posed in front of the white backdrop as her friend Gabor Jurina snapped away. Video was also rolling, capturing behind the scenes action as Meghan modeled the four dresses in her first capsule collection for Reitmans. Then she dashed home to write copy about the collection for The Tig.

She waxed rapturous over the Los Angeles–inspired maxi-dress, trilled over the Rachel Zane–esque “little black dress,” and gushed about the white flouncy dress with an asymmetrical hem. The maroon date night dress made Meghan feel “fashion-y and Frenchie.” The day before the April 27 launch of her collection, Meghan hastened to New York to the taping of the finale of The Fashion Fund, a Vogue-sponsored event where designers battle it out to win sponsorship and funding for their line. She was mixing and matching with fashion luminaries, the perfect lead in into the launch of her collection. Meghan was also traveling alone.

In news that shocked none of her friends, she and Cory decided to go their separate ways—as they had been doing in effect for most of their relationship. Nonetheless the breakup still had an effect, a friend of Meghan’s remarking that she felt “down, vulnerable and hurt” by the split. Though there were hints that Cory was seeing other women, the root of the issue was the plain fact that neither side was prepared to make any commitment.

She put on a brave face, grabbed a glass of champagne, and enjoyed the launch of her first fashion collection. It was an immediate hit.

Thanks to Meghan’s dedicated selling and her star power, the Meghan Markle Collection virtually sold out on day one. Eat your heart out, Kate Moss. Meghan was thrilled especially as the company were so enthused about sales that her second capsule collection, to be released in the fall of 2016, was a done deal.

The actor barely had time to finish her glass of bubbly before she was one of the celebrity guests at luncheon to honor ten game-changing women under the age of twenty-five. Meghan along with Olympic athletes and successful internet startup founders were designated mentors of the finalists at the fifty-ninth anniversary of the Glamour College Women of the Year. Now a grizzled veteran, Meghan was asked about the most common misconception about college girls. “You realize there is so much depth, there is so much incredible inspiration, and that young women are thinking outside of the box in a way that we haven’t seen before. It is the biggest sign that we are in good hands, that our world is going to be just fine, and that these are the women who are going to be the players changing the game.”

She wasn’t so confident of the future a couple of weeks later when she agreed to appear on Comedy Central and join a panel discussion on Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show.

With the presidential election just six months away and Republican candidates dropping like flies, Donald Trump looked like the front-runner. On the night she appeared, his endless attacks on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, calling her “sick” and “overrated,” had finally engendered a response from the Republican-leaning channel. In a statement backing Kelly, they said: “Donald Trump’s vitriolic attacks against Megyn Kelly and his extreme, sick obsession with her is beneath the dignity of a presidential candidate who wants to occupy the highest office in the land.”

Wilmore asked his guests: “Do you think the momentum surrounding Mr. Trump could be stopped?” Meghan joined in the banter with the host and his correspondents, laughing wryly, “It’s really the moment that I go, we film Suits in Toronto and I might just stay in Canada. I mean, come on, if that’s reality we are talking about, come on, that is a game changer in terms of how we move in the world here.”

A few minutes later she jumped in to make other points, “Yes, of course Trump is divisive. Think about just female voters alone. I think it was in 2012, the Republican Party lost the female vote by twelve points. That’s a huge number.” She went on to label Trump a “misogynist” and suggested that voting for Hillary Clinton was made easier because of the moral fiber of the man she was up against. “Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s painting,” she argued.

It would not be long before Trump’s long shadow would affect her life in ways that she could never have contemplated even in her wildest dreams.