Whether you love her or hate her, few people have had a life quite as crazy as Meghan Markle. These days, she’s the Duchess of Sussex and a big deal in the Royal Family. Before that, though, she was famous for an entirely different reason: a hit TV show!
Long before Meghan met Prince Harry, she was a star in the popular legal drama Suits. From what she has said before, it doesn’t sound like she exactly misses her old life. After all, she lived out every girl’s dream and married a charming prince! But it turns out that she is more sentimental than you might think because she took a very special souvenir home from the show.
What was that souvenir? Why is it important to Meghan, and will she ever return to Suits? Keep reading to find out!
The role that made Meghan Markle famous
Most who marry into the Royal Family are (if we’re being blunt) virtual nobodies before the wedding. For example, Kate Middleton is going to be the future Queen of England, but nobody knew who she was before she married Prince William. And this is one of the few things that Meghan Markle will always have over Kate, her rumored rival: Meghan was already world famous thanks to her role on the hit TV show Suits.
In the show, she plays Rachel Zane, someone whose father was a hotshot lawyer. She’s “only’ a paralegal, but she has dreams of following in his footsteps and becoming a high-power attorney. But it’s tough to take your legal studies all that seriously when you’ve got a cute crush in the office. And she spent plenty of time in a “will they, won’t they” space with coworker Mike before the two gave in to their mutual attraction.
To put it mildly, this led to some of the hottest scenes in TV history. And some say that it was Meghan’s sultry performance in Suits that caught Prince Harry’s eye in the first place!
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Leaving acting for the best possible reason
Before landing the role on Suits, Meghan Markle didn’t exactly lead a glamorous acting life. She had bit parts in a number of shows, and some of them were a bit scandalous. On CSI: New York, for example, she played a naughty maid who cleaned houses in lingerie. And on Deal or No Deal, she infamously played one of the suitcase girls…not exactly the most glamorous experience for someone destined to marry a prince!
However, Suits helped transform Meghan Markle into a household name. After the success of this breakout role, Meghan could have gotten any TV acting job she wanted. Heck, she could even have become a movie star! However, she left acting for the best possible reason: love. Marriage to Prince Harry meant she could no longer focus on acting because she was a working member of the Royal Family.
Emphasis on “was:” in a move that shocked the world, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped back from most of their royal responsibilities to begin a new life in America. At the time, some thought Meghan might return to acting. But when she did, it was in a way that none of us could have predicted!
Meghan returns to television (kind of)
It didn’t take Meghan long to dash fans’ hopes about her return to acting. In 2022, Variety asked the Duchess if she’d return to the career that made her famous, and Meghan was quite blunt: “No. I’m done. I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.” So, anyone who was hoping to see her return to TV shows like Suits was left sorely disappointed!
However, those who simply wanted more Meghan on their TV got a pleasant surprise early this year. On March 4, 2025, Netflix launched its new hospitality show With Love, Meghan, and it has proven to be a hit with general audiences. But it has been particularly popular among those who loved Suits and were eager to see their favorite actor onscreen again.
And considering the surprising souvenir she kept from the show, it’s clear that Meghan never stopped loving the role that made her famous.
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The souvenir she took from ‘Suits’
Time for the big reveal. What, exactly, did Meghan Markle take home as a souvenir from Suits? As she admitted to People earlier this year, “I still have the pencil skirt from the first episode! That’s the one thing I kept.”
Given that she held onto this particular memento, many fans couldn’t help but wonder whether Meghan would return to Suits LA, the West Coast spinoff of the original show. So far, Meghan is sticking to her own show on Netflix. But Suits creator Aaron Korsh has said that the Duchess can come back whenever she wants to, so we’ll keep hoping to see Rachel Zane pop up in the spinoff!