FINDING fame and fortune in Hollywood has been Meghan Markle’s burning ambition for over 30 years.
Ever since her father — a film lighting designer — took his young daughter to a studio she has yearned for stardom.
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Repeatedly, Tinseltown rejected her. Tonight’s two-hour appearance on US TV and its replay to millions worldwide is her revenge.
Not only against some of the studio bosses who dismissed her as another second-rate actress, but also against everyone else who failed to appreciate her immense talents.
Fixed firmly in her sights tonight is the Queen, the Royal Family and Britain’s establishment.
Like everyone else in Meghan’s self-centred world, their sin is to have rejected her wishes.
Like a Hollywood diva, she has cursed those who don’t understand that being the Duchess of Sussex was not enough.
Walking in procession behind the other royals, especially Prince William and Kate, was demeaning.
‘DESTROY HER DESTINY’
She wanted to be the Queen of England. All those Britons who stood in her way are accused of sexism and racism.
The question is whether Meghan ever intended to stay in Britain.
Did she honestly want to sacrifice her Californian lifestyle and serve as a member of the Royal Family in rainy Britain?
Or did she, as I believe, always intend to use the marriage and title as a stepping stone to further her ambitions in the sunshine?
Convinced of her own greatness, Meghan thinks she has, for years, been the victim of plots to destroy her destiny.
While others shone in leading roles, Meghan had bit parts.
Until five years ago, her most recognised credit was featuring in a Canadian TV soap called Suits.
After she was written out in 2016, her career hit a brick wall. Adrift but undaunted in Toronto, she orchestrated a new start.
Brilliantly, she invented a new script. Intelligent, attractive and ruthless, Meghan set her sights on marrying higher. And she headed to London.
“Who are the single men?” she asked an Englishwoman. Among the cast list was Prince Harry.
Their meeting in a London club was described as “a blind date”. But Meghan knew exactly who she was meeting — and how much the relationship could work for her.
Alone and miserable, Harry, then 31, was a forlorn character searching for love.
‘A DENT IN HIS REPUTATION’
A series of unhappy relationships and public relations disasters had put a dent in his reputation.
But his military service in Afghanistan and his creation of the Invictus Games for disabled military servicemen had added supporters to those who still recalled the enchanting small boy walking behind his mother’s coffin.
Harry fell head over heels in love. We don’t know if the actress felt the same.
One truth is certain: Harry’s closest relations including William and Prince Charles were wary whether the Hollywood divorcee would make the necessary sacrifices to serve as a loyal member of the Royal Family.
Insiders heard how she had ended her two-year marriage to Trevor Engelson.
Without forewarning, Engelson opened a letter sent from Toronto to Los Angeles containing her wedding and engagement rings. Outraged, he told a friend: “I feel like I was a piece of something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.”
On Meghan and Harry’s brilliant wedding day in Windsor in 2018, the Royal Family genuinely embraced the bride and her mother. The waiting crowds cheered themselves hoarse. Only a few insiders could have imagined the horrors which have followed.
“What Meghan wants, Meghan gets,” Harry famously raged during the preparations. Meghan’s demand to wear a particular tiara had been vetoed by Buckingham Palace.
Even on that sunlit day, no doubt she fumed against the Royal Family.
Like a consummate actress, she concealed her anger and smiled. Over the following months, stories emerged of Meghan’s tearful staff complaining of bullying and worse. Her spokespeople vigorously denied the allegations.
Her decision to move from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor hinted at the breach with the Royal Family. Insiders could not believe that a Californian would want to live for long under the Heathrow flight path.
Flying on a private jet to New York for a £350,000 baby shower party with US celebrities confirmed her contempt for modesty.
‘HYPOCRISY’
Refusing to show son Archie’s face to the camera after his birth and demanding privacy, while constantly speaking to US journalists, confirmed her hypocrisy.
Friends’ criticisms of the Queen, prompted it seemed by Meghan, were outrightly rude. Insiders know there is more scandal to emerge.
One year later, I considered writing the truth about Meghan. I knew the Royal Family and their staff had become alarmed that she threatened to become an agent of destruction.
The fragile House of Windsor feared that Meghan’s refusal to discard Hollywood’s celebrity culture and adopt the conservative traditions embraced by the palaces would doom her new marriage and jeopardise the monarchy. Those suspicions were dismissed as racist.
That reaction was not entirely unjustified. In Britain and in America, Meghan is remarkably popular, especially among women.
Her supporters admire her ambition and outspokenness. Her critics are usually white.
