Yahoo – AFP,
Remi BANET, November 27, 2017
 |
| US actress Meghan Markle shows off her engagement ring in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace |
American,
mixed-race and "fiercely independent": Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's
actor girlfriend, will breathe fresh air into the British royal family when she
marries Queen Elizabeth II's grandson next spring.
Playing a
lawyer in the hit television show "Suits", the 36-year-old actress
with long flowing black hair was barely known in Britain when her name appeared
on newspaper front pages last October.
The
tabloids based their report of a relationship between Harry and Meghan, who
lived in Toronto, Canada, on pictures showing them wearing the same tricoloured
wristband.
The
relationship was formalised by Kensington Palace, which handles communication
for Prince Harry, in November in a most unexpected way.
Exasperated
by the media frenzy, the palace released a statement attacking the
"sexism" and "racism" Meghan Markle faced on social media.
It also
blasted the press for "harassing" the actress.
Four days
earlier, The Sun, Britain's top-selling newspaper, ran a piece on its front
page titled "Harry's girl on Pornhub," the adult video website.
 |
The couple
made their first official public appearance together in September,
attending
the opening ceremony of the third Invictus Games
|
But the
actress's only crime had been to take off her shirt while filming what the
newspaper described as a "steamy scene" for her show
"Suits," which then made it onto the pornographic website.
The couple
made their first official public appearance together in September, attending
the opening ceremony of the third Invictus Games -- created by Harry for
disabled or wounded soldiers and veterans.
"We're
two people who are really happy and in love," Markle told Vanity Fair
shortly before the event.
'A woman
who works'
The
daughter of an African-American mother and white American father of Dutch and
Irish descent, Markle's parents divorced when she was aged six.
She has
half-siblings on her father's side, from whom she is estranged, and grew up in
Los Angeles.
With a
degree in communication, Markle appears to have navigated her career without a
hitch.
 |
The
36-year-old actress found success with
the hit television show
"Suits"
|
Like Harry,
she does humanitarian work.
She is also
telegenic, practises yoga and drinks detox drinks including "green
juices," according to her Instagram account.
Tabloids
were quick to point out that the actress, three years Harry's senior, is
divorced, unearthing pictures of her first marriage (2010-2013) with an
American producer.
However,
none of this was enough to derail a royal wedding, which will take place early
next year, according to Monday's announcement.
Quite the
contrary, says Penny Junor, Prince Harry's biographer: "I think that would
be no problem at all, and the fact that she is of mixed race might even be a
bonus," she told AFP.
"It
would show Harry, a senior member of the Royal Family, to be a thoroughly
modern man -- not a precious, strange creature from another planet, which is
how the royals are sometimes seen".
Some
believed, however, that her proud independence -- the actress had maintained a
long-distance relationship with the prince for much of their courtship -- could
be a source of contention for the Windsor family.
"I've
never wanted to be a lady who lunches -- I've always wanted to be a woman who
works," Markle once wrote on her blog "Tig".
 |
The actress
had maintained a long-distance relationship
with Prince Harry for much of their
courtship
|
'Fiercely
independent'
Popular
tabloid the Daily Mail wrote that it was "easy to see what happy-go-lucky
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have in common."
"What's
less clear is...what some female members of the Royal Family will make of a
fiercely independent young woman".
Beyond her
role as an ambassador for the charity "World Vision Canada," which
works to improve children's lives in developing countries, Markle regularly
asserts the feminist beliefs she forged during her childhood in California.
"Aged
11, she forced a soap manufacturer to alter an advert after she wrote a letter
to then First Lady Hillary Clinton and other high-profile figures complaining
that it implied women belonged in the kitchen," wrote the BBC.
Nowadays,
the actress also campaigns for women's rights alongside the United Nations.
In a speech
she made on the 2015 International Women's Day, she urged women to make their
voices heard, saying: "Women need a seat at the table, they need an
invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available,
they need to create their own table".
Meghan Markle will breathe fresh air into the British royal family when she marries Queen Elizabeth II's grandson https://t.co/EwdyNj8Zdm pic.twitter.com/1dWFg8byLp— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 27, 2017
Related Article:
 |
Britain's
Prince Harry and his fiance Meghan Markle pose for a photograph
in the Sunken
Garden at Kensington Palace (AFP Photo/Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS)
|
#UPDATE Prince Harry and his American fiancee Meghan Markle will marry at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in May next year: royal spokesman https://t.co/vnkLcT9KlM pic.twitter.com/MOplXSIwxc— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 28, 2017
Meghan Markle's engagement to Prince Harry has her all-girls high school in Los Angeles buzzing with excitement pic.twitter.com/FE9HBBajb8— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 28, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.