Recently, Netflix began broadcasting the docuseries, Harry & Meghan, which focuses on the lives of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Those lives are very different from most royals, ever since these two stepped back from their royal responsibilities back home and left England altogether. And from the very first previews trailers for the show hit, this rebellious duo has been rocking the rest of the royals by divulging family secrets to the world.
However, turnabout is fair play, and Meghan’s willingness to spill the secrets her family was keeping has people taking a closer look at Meghan’s own secretive past, especially when it comes to her husband before Prince Harry.
Who was this man, and what does his relationship with Meghan tell us about everybody’s favorite runaway duchess? Keep reading to discover the answers!
Meet her first husband
Long before Meghan Markle even met Prince Harry, she was married to Trevor Engelson. He’s obviously not as famous as royalty, but Engelson is a well-known Hollywood producer. While he has worked on a number of films, the best know one is Remember Me, the depressing 2010 movie starring Robert Pattinson.
Engelson is five years older than Meghan, which is interesting to note because Meghan is three years older than Harry. In other words, she went from being the younger spouse to the older spouse in very short order.
When Meghan met Trevor, the two were a natural match because she was still focused on becoming a major movie and television star. The two dated for six years and got engaged in 2010. This led to a breathtaking Jamaican wedding in 2011 that was, in many ways, the beginning of the end of their relationship.
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From a lavish wedding to lonely lives
By all accounts, the Jamaican wedding of Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson was one for the ages. They invited plenty of friends and family to enjoy a wedding getaway that lasted four days. The wedding itself was a very short ceremony, which meant the happy couple and all of their invited guests were able to spend the majority of their time partying and celebrating.
For all of this pomp and circumstance, though, the two were only married for two years. Ironically, one of the chief things that drove them apart was Meghan working as a regular star on the hit television show Suits. That show was filmed in Toronto, Canada, whereas all of Engelson’s work was in Los Angeles. As a result, the newlyweds actually didn’t get to spend much time together.
Of course, depending on whom you talk to, their divorce was entirely one-sided and a result of fame going to Meghan’s head.
Fame takes its effect on Meghan
When Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson got divorced, they didn’t make any public statements about their relationship. Instead, they stuck with the story that the couple simply had irreconcilable differences. However, this led to many people asking the natural question: if the two were dating and then married for nearly a decade, what suddenly changed?
Many speculate that Meghan Markle got used to being a celebrity very quickly and that, afterward, she was embarrassed by her husband. It was one thing for Meghan to marry a Hollywood producer when she was a nobody. But once she became a recognizable star, being married to a relatively minor Hollywood producer held little appeal. There may be something to this idea, since the next person Meghan fell in love with was a charming prince!
As for Engelson, it seems like he took Meghan’s romance with Harry quite personally. As reported by the Mirror, Engelson was previously working with Fox on a sitcom loosely based on his life: the show focused on an American woman who falls in love with and ultimately marries a British prince. And Meghan was allegedly so embarrassed by the very idea of such a show that she personally persuaded Engelson to stop working on it.
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The divorce shocked Meghan’s first husband
Nobody “wins” in a divorce. Tearing two joined lives back apart is always painful. However, it certainly seems that Engelson took the divorce much harder than Meghan Markle did.
A source close to Engelson told the Sun that “The split with Meghan hit Trevor pretty hard. He went through a rough time during the break-up and that was only made worse when Meghan got together with Harry last year.”
Why was this so bad? The source claims that Engelson “had to re-live it all again — this time in public. It wasn’t the most amicable of divorces and there were hurt feelings on both sides.” While Engelson eventually got over it, we still can’t get over Meghan’s response to the divorce.
According to Grazia Magazine, while friend and costar Abby Wathen was “destroyed” after her own divorce, she says that Meghan “was empowered.” She believes Meghan “took her power back” and “moved on” simply because “it wasn’t the right relationship for her.” While it’s always great to see somebody move on, we can’t help but wonder about why Meghan suddenly dumped someone she was with after eight years together. If she really did ditch him to focus only on her career, that would be bad enough. And the idea that he was devastated by the divorce and Meghan was “empowered” seems to indicate she was only ever in the relationship for herself.