Meghan Markle has revealed her first job, which involved ‘taking out the trash’, shaped her into the person she is now.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are currently Down Under on a royal tour of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
During day four of their trip, they headed to the Macarthur Girls High School in Sydney to talk to a group of year nine girls about the In League In Harmony Youth Advocate programme which aims to unite and inspire young people to be advocates for cohesion and inclusion in their communities.
And as Meghan spoke to the girls, she recalled her first job was acting as a bin lady and it gave her a great ‘work ethic’.
‘My first job when I was 14, I remember taking out the trash, all sorts. It give you a good work ethic, right?,’ she said.
‘I went to an all girls school which was incredibly diverse as well. I think being around such empowered young women, it becomes something that you all just grasp onto to understand your world. It’s made you confident, well-spoken.
‘It makes me so emotional. You’re doing really, really good work and I’m so happy that we’re here. We give you our full support.’
When Meghan was first linked to Harry she was best known as an actress on US TV show Suits – but what other jobs has she had?
Born 4 August 1981, Meghan grew up in Los Angeles, California.
Her dad worked in the TV circuit, which is why Meghan and after she eventually ended up playing the lead female in US TV drama Suits for seven years.
It’s her relationship with Harry which really propelled her to the spotlight.
Meghan and Harry’s romance has had the world on tenterhooks since it was first confirmed they were dating in November 2016 with the now infamous statement from Harry.
The pair – Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37 – had been dating since July 2016, keeping things discreet for four months.
One year after they confirmed they were serious, their engagement was then announced on 27 November 2017.
Meghan and Harry married at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday 19 May.
But while Meghan – whose real name is Rachel Meghan Markle – might have given up her role on Suits to move to London to live with her Prince, she was famous in her own right long before he came into her life.
Meghan’s first appearance on screen was in the background of an episode of General Hospital.
Other small roles for Markle, who, at 5ft 6, Meghan is shorter than her Prince, who is 6ft 1 tall, included in CSI: NY, The War At Home and Century City.
While she was a jobbing actress, she worked as a freelance calligrapher to keep the money coming in. During this time she wrote the wedding invites for Paula Patton and Robin Thicke’s 2005 nuptials.
Other roles that came included Love, Inc, Knight Rider, Without a Trace, The League, Castle, Get Him To The Greek, Remember Me and Horrible Bosses.
Somewhat more notable roles came when she was filmed in a scene for 90210 in which her character had to give one of the lead characters oral sex, when she was a Deal Or No Deal briefcase girl and then when she was a temporary burger griller for Men’s Health.
In 2015, she wrote: ‘I wasn’t black enough for the black roles and I wasn’t white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn’t book a job.’
It was in 2011 when she landed the role of Rachel Zane in the USA Network show Suits. She stayed on Suits until the end of series seven, which finished filming at the end of 2017, airing at the start of 2018, when she quit the show to focus on her work as a royal wife.
Other projects include The Tig, which Markle ran from 2014 to 2017 when it was closed down. It was a lifestyle website and she coined the name from her favourite wine – The Tignanello.
According to Know Networth, Meghan’s net worth is around $7million (£5m).
It is, of course, a fraction of Prince Harry’s net worth, which is believed to be around £34million.
Meghan was previously married to film producer and talent manager Trevor Engelson. They married in September 2011 but divorced in May 2013.
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