by Dylan Howard
Remarkably, Meghan signaled the end of the marriage by sending her wedding ring back to Trevor—by mail. The couple filed for divorce in 2013, citing irreconcilable differences. Many of Meghan’s friends were disappointed in her, seeing her high-handed behavior and lack of input into the marriage as key factors in the unexpected split.
Trevor was devastated, confirmed a source: “She suddenly had no more time for him. Meghan broke Trevor’s heart, pure and simple. Meghan’s desire to be a big actress seemed to be the end of them. The more successful she got, the more they drifted apart.”
Trevor continued to pursue his production and screenwriting career, but with notably less success than he previously enjoyed in the late 2000s. The last major headlines he generated were back in 2017, when Fox commissioned a pilot of a show in which a Hollywood couple divorce, with the wife remarrying a British prince and the subsequent trials and tribulations of coparenting their children. The premise was enough to raise many eyebrows around Hollywood—Trevor’s utter heartbreak at being dumped was well known—but as of the time of publication of this book, no further updates are available.
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By now, with Suits a television smash hit, Meghan was undoubtedly a star. Rachel Zane was considered cool, sexy, and sassy—and was one of the series’s major assets. Meghan was seen making the scene, high-stepping around town and working the star circuit—including the obligatory glam shoots for Men’s Health magazine that most young female film and television stars still have to endure, in order to soothe any male viewers threatened by a strong female lead character.
She then flew to London in November 2013, where she was interviewed by the Daily Mail’s Katie Hind, to whom she claimed the notorious “love-rat,” footballer Ashley Cole, was chasing her for a possible date. Katie filled Meghan in on Cole’s hectic love life, making Meghan decide against accepting Cole’s desperate attempts to spend some quality romantic time with the star. Speaking to Andrew Morton later, Hinds admitted she sensed that Meghan was now very much open to auditioning gentlemen for the vacancy in her private life. Before she found her next love, though, the unexpected success of a little idea she came up with to fill in time between shoots and boost her profile took her completely by surprise.
The Tig, launched in 2013, was a powerhouse of a blog. The “little engine that could,” in the characteristically self-deprecating words of its creator and chief editor, The Tig set out to be a “hub for the discerning palate—[aimed at] those with a hunger for food, travel, fashion & beauty.” This loosely translated as a fairly relaxed, (i.e., fiercely curated) insight into Meghan’s life, with her friends, music, pets, travel, and thoughts on various topics making up the blog’s daily updates.
Suits was now cruising along at high altitude, and despite Meghan’s acclaim, fame, and frequently professed love of theater and acting, she was getting a little bored. She was starting to feel slightly limited by her television filming schedules, the endless press junkets and interviews about Rachel Zane, the inanities and indignities of being a mainstream star, and the endless grind of having to look good and keep quiet. Meghan had never claimed to be anything other than an opinionated kind of gal, and now with a potentially colossal global platform, she knew she had to find a way to get her thoughts, ideas, and reactions across to the wider world.
Initially, Meghan flourished on Instagram, posting pictures of lovely suppers, cool travels, beaming pals, and her dogs being adorably dumb. Around the time Suits reached its second season, she began to look around for other ways to grow her online branding and decided to build a website, cashing in on her celebrity status. But Meghan being Meghan, after some thought she knew she could kick it up a level and do something a bit better than a run-of-the-mill celeb site.
That feeling became an exciting possibility when she met and befriended the tennis ace Serena Williams, one of the most accomplished athletes in the world. Serena’s massive online operation encompassed pretty much every platform, in a bid to bring her millions of fans together and reach out to them in such a way that each reader felt like part of Serena’s inner clique. It was an extraordinary talent Williams had, of spreading her values, ideas, and causes, like her friend Oprah Winfrey could also do, with conviction and intimacy, all the while touching the hearts of literally millions of people worldwide.
Meghan wanted a piece of the action. She saw how creating a close connection with her audiences—a one-on-one relationship that saw her sharing her life with her subscribers—could really make them feel they were hanging out with Meg every day. A few ideas were kicked around before Meghan came up with what effectively became The Tig. Quick and easy, short and juicy chunks of content on a daily basis, anything from a girl’s weekend party to working through her family heritage, travel, and shopping to debating the Middle Eastern peace process—whatever the topic, Meghan’s trademark thoughtfulness and desire to debate rose to the occasion every time.
A recurring part of Meghan’s daily grind were the chic, exclusive eateries to be found around the Toronto hipster circuit. One such joint, the Harbord Room, was a favorite hangout. Its boss, the charismatic chef Cory Vitiello, then thirty-five, was soon to be a favorite of Meghan’s in another sense.
Vitiello was young, successful, and handsome. The Harbord Room was a roaring hit, as was his chain of quirky chicken shops, Flock. He also had a string of high-profile (in Canada, at least) celebrity romances to his credit. Now, as Meghan popped in more often, ostensibly to chat him up for The Tig, she found herself becoming more and more drawn to the sexy hash slinger and his unbelievable way with a burger. Cory was a child prodigy cook whose mixed Italian and Scandinavian heritage created a truly hard-working and inspiring character. “And maybe that’s part of it,” gushed Meghan on The Tig’s effusive review of the Harbord Room: “[Cory’s] small-town charm and moral compass of someone who doesn’t come from the big city but dreams big thoughts and makes them happen—that makes his food so approachable yet inspired.”
In late July 2014, the pair embarked on a sizzling romance, shortly after Meghan had published her glowing tribute to Cory’s restaurant. Friends of Meghan’s saw their pal once again go head-over-heels for a tall, good-looking alpha male, with frat-boy overtones. It had been a year since she and Trevor had divorced, and Meghan was feeling perky and up for some fun.
Cory was something of a cult celebrity in Canada, his low-key cool credibility easily eclipsing Meghan’s fame. It couldn’t have escaped her notice that he moved in the sort of circles she herself aspired to occupy. Once they began seeing each other, she gained entrée into the most elite echelons of Toronto society, with connections that stretched across the world’s movers and shakers.
Toronto socialite Shinan Govani got to know Meghan well, having hosted the pair at a dinner party in the early days of their relationship. “She was just a cable actress to me and didn’t mean much,” he told David Jones, an investigative journalist. “Cory is pretty much liked by everyone. He would be invited [to top gatherings] by dint of his talent and personality. I think she took advantage of the opportunity that came her way. There was something inside of her that wasn’t content with just being an actress. I mean, what would have happened after Suits? She wasn’t getting any younger.”
Despite such claims, it’s indisputable that for the most part, Meghan and Cory’s relationship was conducted with a veil of discretion on a day-to-day level. The pair would often stay in, indulging their love of good cooking and romantic nights at home. During Christmas 2015, the couple spent the holidays with Cory’s parents in Ontario, where his mother, Joanne Vitiello, fell in love with her son’s girlfriend. “She had no airs or graces,” Joanne told David Jones. “She was very interested in being with the people she was with. She had a good sense of humor, and we were very fond of her.”
Nevertheless, the relationship sputtered to a halt in April 2016. Speaking to David Jones in 2018, a smiling Cory evaded attempts to get him to spill the dirt on his former flame:
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sp; “I’ve got a lot of respect for Meghan and, from my end, to make it seem like I’m part of the story [of her journey to royalty] would seem self-serving and opportunistic,” he said. “I’m pleased for Meghan. She’s a great girl. There is no bitterness. I respect people’s private and personal lives, and although she has put herself in the public spectrum, I still hold to that.”
In the interview, Jones took the opportunity to ask the burning question: Was it he or Meghan who ended the relationship? Vitiello answered gently and deftly, “Ha ha! That’s the one question you can’t answer, huh? Well, you know what? I’ll let the public forum debate that!”
PART FIVE
WHEN HARRY MET MEGHAN
The British media personality and breakfast television presenter Piers Morgan is one of the best-known faces in the United Kingdom. A former tabloid celebrity journalist who’d peddled celebrity dross for years, he was fired from the editorship of mass market tabloid the Daily Mirror in 2004, after admitting to having published fake photographs of British soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. A cheery social gadfly or duplicitous scoundrel, depending on your point of view, Morgan seems to positively revel in the online abuse and controversies his contentious comments generate, from attacking feminists and disrespecting trans people to his friendship with Donald Trump. (He even formally applied for the position of White House chief of staff in 2018.) In 2016, though, Morgan was one of the best-connected men in London. To get an idea of how Morgan’s little black book contained just about everyone from the most distinguished of living legends to the flotsam and jetsam of celebrity Z-listers, wannabes, and professional idiots, just consider: Morgan was the man who had introduced Sir Paul McCartney to Heather Mills—a claim the latter denied.
At the end of June 2016, Meghan flew to London, after a week’s holiday in Hydra, Greece, where she had arranged a hen weekend for her old college buddy Lindsay Jill Roth. With characteristic efficiency and taste, Meghan had organized a lovely few days of sun, wine, food, yoga, and relaxing, ahead of Lindsay’s imminent wedding. As Lindsay’s maid of honor, Meghan took her duties extremely seriously, joining Lindsay for wedding dress fittings, endlessly debating flower arrangements and caterers, and generally advising on the infinite list of tasks and jobs that accompany any well-heeled wedding.
Meghan had been immersed in this sort of stuff of late, as Rachel Zane had gone and got married on Suits. Fired up by the experience, Meghan was able to use her connections to make sure her friend’s wedding, with its radiant maid of honor, went off without a hitch.
In London, Meghan had a few promotional duties to take care of, to remind the Brits that Suits was still very much a going concern when it came to Hollywood, as well as attending a meeting at Ralph Lauren, with whom Meghan was cross-promoting Suits. Meghan’s key contact at Ralph Lauren was the aristocratic Violet von Westerholz, about whom Meghan quickly began gushing as being one of her favorite people. The Tig carried effusive tributes to von Westerholz, whose father happened to be Baron Piers von Westerholz, an old friend of Prince Charles. As kids, Violet and her sister Victoria had been skiing with the Royals on their annual Klosters trips and had kept in touch with the Princes. Violet and Victoria were keenly aware of Harry’s recent public comments about wanting to settle down, stop falling out of bars, stop his trousers falling down in Vegas hotel rooms, and basically grow up.
On June 29, Meghan met with Piers Morgan for a drink at an upmarket pub in Kensington, the smart stomping ground for what the press rather unkindly dubbed Sloanes—posh British girls from old-money families whose loud, braying tones, fake tans, and Louboutins were a dime a dozen in that part of London. Meghan wanted to grill Piers on his connections and find out who was who and what was hot in London that summer. Piers was impressed with the star of Suits, one of his favorite television shows, commenting later that Meghan was “fabulous, warm, funny, intelligent, and highly entertaining.” She and Morgan downed a few martinis and gossiped, before she jumped into a car and was driven over to Hertford Street, where her date for the evening was waiting in a private room.
Speaking to the press some years later, Harry recalled the moment he met Meghan. “I’d never watched Suits, I’d never heard of Meghan before. And I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her and there she was sitting there. I was like, ‘Okay, well I’m going to have to really up my game here. And sit down and make sure I’ve got a good chat.’”
According to a friend of Violet’s, Meghan and Harry were bound to meet that summer, given the circles they were both moving in. “Meghan had been a part of the London social scene for a while and had slotted into the high society set really easily. And so, when Harry told Violet he was having trouble finding someone, Violet said she might just have the perfect girl for him,” said the source. Harry had been telling everyone how he wanted to stop dating and, instead, meet a potential wife. Violet knew that Meghan would click with Harry’s charity and humanitarian causes and his innate desire to use his position for good and also, she would complement his vulnerable, lost soul as a strong, determined woman who was fizzing with motivation. In short, she could give the kindly but rather rootless Harry an invigorated sense of purpose. When Violet first suggested to Meghan that she meet the Prince, her first question was “Is he kind?”
Having been assured he was, she was intrigued and excited to meet a real-life Prince.
“One of the first things we started talking about when we met was just the different things we wanted to do in the world and how passionate we were about seeing change,” Meghan said some time later. “I think that was what got date number two in the books, probably. I think very quickly into that, we said, ‘We should meet again.’”
Following their dinner on June 29, the pair met up each day until Meghan flew back to Toronto on July 5. Something big had clearly happened between them. As Harry said later, “the stars were aligned.”
But in a foreboding to how the early months of their relationship were to work, Harry was off to Africa for a month. He was excited about Meghan, clearly feeling a connection had been made. He told his brother and close friends how thrilled he was by Meghan. But despite this, he was still seen out and about the London scene, even going on a few dates with the model Sarah Ann Macklin. (“They got on,” a friend blabbed, “But they’re quite different. She is very clean living and barely drinks.”) When Meghan Markle began shooting a new season of Suits in Toronto, Harry was texting her nonstop. A second meeting was in the cards. This finally happened in, of all places, Botswana.
“It was three, maybe four, weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come join me in Botswana and we camped out with each other, under the stars,” Harry recalled. “She came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic. Then we were really by ourselves, which was crucial to me to make sure that we had a chance to get to know each other.”
For her part, Meghan admitted, “For both of us it was a very authentic and organic way to get to know each other.”
If you’re going to fall in love, you might as well fall in love under African skies, in the luxury of a posh campsite in Botswana. They stayed in a tent in what Harry described as “the middle of nowhere.”
If Meghan was unaware of Botswana’s significance to her new boyfriend, she was quickly brought up to speed about how it had soothed him in the awful aftermath of Diana’s death. Indeed, some years later when the pair wed, one of the diamonds on Meghan’s rings came from the country.
Harry met a journalist, Klara Glowczewska, shortly before Meghan flew out to meet him. “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been able to visit Botswana as many times as I have,” he told her. “I feel rooted in Africa and everything about it. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Botswana for more than twenty years and I’m fortunate to be able to call it my second home.”
Clearly, the romance of the location was key in bonding the pair together. “We camped out with each other under the stars,” said Harry. “[We were] sh
aring a tent and all that stuff. It was fantastic.” Over five days, Meghan gamely roughed it in the luxury surroundings of bush campsite Meno a Kwena, which is described as being the “ultimate tent and camping experience in Botswana.” Situated between the Okavango Delta and the spectacular Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the encampment consisted of nine luxurious tents, all with en suite bathrooms that overlooked a river, a popular hangout for the local wildebeests, zebras, and elephants. It was idyllic. So impressive were the surroundings, so breathtaking the natural history and passionate the camp site’s owner, Harry’s old friend, conservationist David Dugmore, that Meghan refrained from posting anything online for the duration of her stay.
What a stay it was. Meghan, a stranger to the African plains, watched with increasing surprise as her new boyfriend began taking her around the reservation, discoursing knowledgeably on the local fauna and flora. He expounded at length about rescue projects designed to conserve and increase the local elephant and rhino populations. He took her deep into the Kalahari desert, where he introduced her to the local crocodiles, sunning themselves on the banks of the river. The new couple ate traditional African dishes at night and slept to the sound of zebras and elephants. All the while, the pair melted into each other’s presence, deliciously and rapturously falling in love, under African skies.
By the time the holiday was over and the pair left to return to their respective lives, the love affair was blooming. Meghan told the BBC some years later, “I think that very early on when we were going to commit to each other, we knew we had to invest the time and energy and whatever it took to make that happen.”
Harry was in no doubt that he had been struck with a thunderbolt by this girl from Hollywood who was totally unlike anyone he had dated before. The last few years had been a nightmare for him, lost and roaming the world, more often than not ending up in trouble—such as the time he was snapped naked playing pool one drunken night in Las Vegas. Or being caught out using racial slurs, among his fellow military recruits. Meghan was nothing like Harry, or indeed, his usual type, leggy blondes from moneyed backgrounds. Instead, she was an older, biracial, self-made woman, bursting with positivity, self-help mantras, yoga, wellness, and steely ambition. Whether it was her acting career or The Tig, her fashion collaborations for labels such as Reitmans or Ralph Lauren or her increasing number of charity and humanitarian causes, Meghan threw herself fervently behind whatever she undertook. For Harry, who had been more or less adrift since leaving the Army and was glumly contemplating a lifetime of service, playing second fiddle to his elder brother, the sudden appearance of Meghan, exploding like a firework into his life, was almost unbelievably astonishing luck. A friend, speaking to the British press, simply acknowledged: “Meghan has come along at the right time.”