Moments from Meghan Markle’s childhood that show she always craved the limelight: From high school play fallout to letter about her ‘rich and famous’ future

Like many young girls growing up in Los Angeles, Meghan Markle dreamed of one day being a global superstar.

On her road to stardom, she followed the well-worn path of aspiring starlets by acting in her high school plays.

However, before even starting at the all-girls Catholic high school Immaculate Heart, located just around the corner from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Meghan already felt she was destined for greatness.

A scene in her and Prince Harry’s 2022 Netflix ‘docuseries’ showed her visiting her elementary school and reading aloud a revealing letter she had written to her former principal when she graduated at the age of 11.

‘When I am rich and famous and I write my life story, I will talk about you and the school so you will be known worldwide’, she read.

So when Meghan started appearing in her high school theatrical productions over the next few years, it came as no surprise to anyone that she took it seriously and was very successful.

School reports mentioned her starring role in a three-day sell-out of Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex and great applause in Annie, Damn Yankees and Into the Woods.   

But one downside of Meghan’s success at her school productions was the ‘intense jealousy’ she felt if someone other than herself took the limelight, according to a book.

Biographer Tom Bower claimed in his 2022 book Revenge, that Meghan became particularly irritated after one girl at her school got a job as an actress and two other girls had auditioned for the 1992 thriller film Trace of Red.

Her 80-year-old father Thomas Markle, who has been estranged from his daughter after didn’t attend her May 2018 wedding to Harry, told Bower: ‘She wants to be the star of the stage and the star in life.’

Bower claims that Meghan, 43, loved glamour and celebrity, using her father’s connections in Hollywood to launch her teenage career. 

It is claimed she asked her father to pay a professional photographer to take a ‘headshot’ of her and sent it to studios. He dutifully did so but she received no replies.

‘I want to be an actress’, she kept saying, according to the book.

Thomas even took Meghan to the Emmy awards ceremony when he was nominated for best lighting director.

After they walked down the red carpet, the 17-year-old said: ‘Daddy I want to be famous just like you one day’. Thomas nodded and went on to do anything to help make that dream come true, according to Bower.

He and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland had divorced when Meghan was six, but they raised her together, with the future duchess often seen around the sets he worked on.

Thomas wanted the best for his daughter, forking out on private elementary and secondary schools, including the $17,650-a-year Immaculate Heart school.

Thomas also lent his skills as a lighting director to the school for its theatrical productions to make sure those on stage could be seen.

And it seems Meghan quickly became the star of the show.

According to Bower, the drama teacher Gigi Perreau noted her strong work ethic and self-confident performances.

But unlike most of the other children, Meghan had received extensive training from her father.

Bower, who has published a series of controversial biographies on famous faces in the past including Simon Cowell, Richard Branson, Tony Blair and Prince Charles, wrote: ‘Obeying her father, Meghan always perfected her lines and unquestioningly obeyed the director’s instructions. 

‘His more important advice, after occasionally watching rehearsals, was to explain how best to hold her head, fixate her eyes, show her best profile and most important, look sincere. 

‘Acting, he emphasised, depended on the appearance of authenticity.’

Meghan blossomed as she continued to gain attention and develop her acting skills, with videos and photos of her performances showing her usually with a smile on her face. 

She was clearly one of the most popular girls in her high school class, as she was crowned homecoming queen in 1998. 

Thomas also commented on the effect that acting had on his daughter in a 2020 Channel 5 documentary, saying: ‘I think I gave her a sense of pride, I think I gave her a sense of duty and work, I think Meghan would say that I did a very good job as a father.

‘She was growing into a very nice young lady. I got involved (in school plays) because I watched a couple of their shows and I knew they needed a lot of work.

‘I just offered to come in and put some lights in, build some scenery and make the shows real shows. Meghan was in almost all those shows.’ 

But Meghan’s budding acting career, and her relationship with her father started to change as she got into her late teens after they had a row over a part, according to Bower.

He details how in spring 1999 the musical The Pyjama Game was the new school play and Meghan wanted the lead part, but she also wanted to spend a week at the school’s summer retreat. 

Drama teacher Gigi Perreau insisted that Meghan had to choose one or the other.

She went to the retreat and was denied the star part, but was allegedly outraged at her teacher’s decision.

Meghan then demanded Thomas not do the lighting for the performance, which he ignored. 

She was furious, he recalled to Bower. ‘She was mad at me and refused to speak to me’, Thomas admitted to the author.

After she graduated high school Meghan moved to Northwestern University almost 2,000 miles away in Illinois.

Over the years, her and Thomas’ relationship came under strain, but it broke off entirely when he was found to have arranged pictures with paparazzi in the lead-up to the royal wedding in May 2018.

Thomas has since become an outspoken critic of the duke and duchess, accusing them of damaging the Royal Family by stepping back from their duties.

He has defended his decision to speak out against his daughter, saying: ‘Meghan owes me… it’s time to look after Daddy.’ 

Meanwhile Meghan went on to act professionally, before eventually making her big break on the legal drama Suits.

But the number of eyeballs on her increased significantly after she got engaged to Prince Harry and became a member of the Royal Family.

And her and Harry’s dramatic exit from The Firm in 2020, famously dubbed ‘Megxit’, increased the level of attention on them to new levels.

Since moving to California in 2020, Meghan has been pictured at glitzy award ceremonies in Hollywood with her ever-changing list of celebrity friends. 

In March 2021 she and Harry took part in the blockbuster Oprah TV interview watched by some 50million people around the world.

She raised further eyebrows when she told friends she didn’t want to go to Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021 because she ‘didn’t want to be centre of attention’. 

And then following the death of the Queen in September 2022, author Alexander Larman wrote in The Spectator: ‘There has been the sense that Meghan has been relegated to second fiddle: a state of affairs that this particular prima donna is reluctant to accept.’

After a brief hiatus following the Queen’s death, she released a new episode of her Archetypes podcast, which the writer claimed had demonstrated once again ‘Meghan’s genius for backing into the spotlight, with her usual innate ability to make herself the centre of attention, regardless of the subject.’

In December 2022, she and Harry dropped their Netflix ‘docuseries’ which contained within it several scandalous claims, eventually becoming the second-highest ranked documentary ever on the platform.

But the duchess shows no sign of slowing down and is predicted to be releasing her latest venture soon, in the form of a cooking programme on the platform in 2025.