Meghan Markle on Suits – everything she's said about the hit TV show
Before meeting the Duke of Sussex, the Duchess of Sussex was an actress and Meghan made her big break on legal drama Suits, in which she starred as paralegal Rachel Zane.
The show has been enjoying a resurgence in popularity after it was picked up by Netflix last year and rediscovered by viewers who have been loving the twists and turns. Meghan has revealed several times how much she enjoyed her time on the show, even though she never believed she'd be cast following the "worst audition".
The royal's TV stint came to an end when Meghan departed from the series in order to walk down the aisle with Prince Harry. But what has the Duchess said about the show that catapulted her to global success? Read on to find out her true thoughts…
Meghan's "worst audition"
It's hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Rachel Zane, but Meghan has previously confessed that she thought she had messed up her audition, going as far as to call it one of her "worst". Speaking to Larry King in 2013, the star explained: "I had gone and auditioned and thought it was one of the worst auditions I had ever done.
"I didn't realise that, behind closed doors, they disagreed with me on that fact and brought me back to test for it."
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It also took Meghan a little bit of time to settle into the role, joking that she was certain she might be recast during the first series. She confessed to Variety in 2022: "It got to a point where the creator was like, 'Why are you so worried about this?'"
The cast was a "family" from the beginning
Even though the characters of Suits might have regularly butted heads in the high-stress legal world, this wasn't the case off-camera. Meghan believed that the cast and crew were like a "family".
Marking the show's milestone 100th episode in 2017, Meghan said during a panel discussion: "We were in a group email the other day, and I was saying we'd all lived in the same corporate housing – so on top of working together, we were living together – which makes a whole different dynamic. We just became this whole family right out the gate."
Being on Suits was a "wild ride"
Before Suits, Meghan had appeared in smaller roles in films like Remember Me and TV shows like CSI Miami and Without a Trace, so the fame that the legal drama brought was a new experience.
Speaking to Glamour, the mother-of-two said: "Now, there's security and police and fans and tears when we're filming so it's been such a wild ride for all of us." Meghan also spoke of many of her unsuccessful projects, admitting: "I've done so many pilots that have never saw the light of day and we didn't know what Suits was going to become at the time."
Rachel Zane was a "role model"
Ahead of the show's 100th episode, Meghan reflected on the journey that her character had undergone, from failing the LSAT to becoming an accomplished lawyer.
"She's worked so hard, and I love that, as a role model, how she's been crafted to balance it all and now have this place at the firm where she really knows her standing, and her office isn't just because she's a good researcher, it's because she's an associate," Meghan noted.
Hidden meaning behind her fashion
In the same interview with Glamour, Meghan also lifted the lid on the decisions behind the clothing her character wore and how it reflected the lawyer's feelings at that moment in time. She explained: "When she and Michael were falling in love, everything was a blush tone and it was creams and layers and she was happier, and when she was really stressed everything was darker and there were slate and black tones."
Why did Meghan leave Suits?
Meghan departed the legal drama in the show's seventh season in 2018, in which her character marries main character Mike Ross and they leave for Seattle. In reality, Meghan left the show as she prepared to wed Prince Harry and start her new life as a member of the royal family.
In a joint interview with her partner, Meghan was asked about leaving Suits and she responded: "I don't see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change. It's a new chapter, right? And also, keep in mind, I've been working on [Suits] for seven years. We were very, very fortunate to have that sort of longevity on a series."
The Duchess continued: "I've ticked this box, and I feel very proud of the work I've done there, and now it's time to work with [Harry] as a team. I think what's been really exciting as we talk about the transition out of my career and into my role is the causes that are really important to me that I can focus even more energy on."
Meghan's departure was the end of her journey with the show, as she revealed in 2018 that she hadn't watched the eighth series.
"Good shows are everlasting"
The drama still clearly has a place in Meghan's heart, and she reacted with joy when she discovered the series had a renewed success after debuting on Netflix.
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During her appearance at Variety's Power of Women event, she called the combined streaming numbers "wild" and added: "It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew. We had a really fun time. I was on it for seven seasons, so quite a bit. But it's hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with it. But good shows are everlasting."
