Long before Meghan Markle was the Duchess of Sussex, she portrayed Rachel Zane in the hit legal drama Suits. Meghan’s Zane was introduced as a paralegal who was bad at test-taking in season 1, hence the reason she had yet to pass the bar exam and become a full-fledged lawyer.
The series follows the exploits of a fictional law firm in New York City. Zane is soon paired with associate Mike Ross ( Patrick J. Adams), and over the years, the two get closer until they finally tie the knot in the season 7 finale. In real life, Meghan was marrying Prince Harry and exiting the show.
While Meghan departed the series after seven seasons — and the show’s finale aired in 2019 — Suits has enjoyed a viewership boon during the summer of 2023 after it was made available to stream on Netflix in June.
During her time on the show, however, Meghan was candid about her experience on set, including her close friendships with the cast and how Suits changed her life. From her character’s on-screen style to whether or not she continued to watch the show after her exit, here’s everything Meghan Markle has said about the popular series.
Meghan said the cast was “family” from the beginning
While celebrating the 100th episode of Suits in 2017, Meghan spoke about how close the cast was from the start of filming.
“We were in a group email the other day, and I was saying we’d all lived in the same corporate housing — so on top of working together, we were living together — which makes a whole different dynamic, I think,” she said during a panel at the ATX Television Festival. “ We just became this whole family right out the gate.”
One year later, many of Meghan’s costars attended her wedding to Prince Harry at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, including Adams, Gabriel Macht, Sarah Rafferty, Abigail Spencer, Gina Torres and Rick Hoffman.
She thought her audition was “one of the worst auditions” she’d ever done
Despite portraying Rachel Zane for seven seasons, Meghan wasn’t initially convinced she would land the part. She told Larry King in 2013, “I had gone and auditioned and thought it was one of the worst auditions I had ever done.”
However, she continued, “I didn’t realize that, behind closed doors, they disagreed with me on that fact and brought me back to test for it.”
Still, she admitted to in 2022 that she spent all of season 1 “convinced’ she would get recast. “All the time,” she shared. “It got to a point where the creator was like, ‘Why are you so worried about this?’ “
She was open about how Suits changed her life
In a May 2017 interview with , Meghan said that Suits was the first show she starred in that became incredibly successful. She told the outlet, “I’ve done so many pilots that have never saw the light of day and we didn’t know what Suits was going to become at the time. So it’s been such a good transition!”
Meghan also said the cast was “in such a bubble” the first year as the show hadn’t aired in Canada yet. “Now, there’s security and police and fans and tears when we’re filming so it’s been such a wild ride for all of us,” she revealed. “They’ve asked us for seven seasons so we’re going to be there for at least a couple more years,” before saying Toronto — where the series was filmed — “has been really good to us.”
Meghan felt that Rachel Zane “earned” her success
The Duchess of Sussex reflected on her character’s personal and professional growth during the show’s 100th-episode celebration in 2017. As Meghan put it, Rachel Zane really earned everything that came her way.
“I am so happy,” Meghan said of her character’s growth since the pilot episode. “She’s worked so hard, and I love that, as a role model, how she’s been crafted to balance it all and now have this place at the firm where she really knows her standing, and her office isn’t just because she’s a good researcher, it’s because she’s an associate.”
Meghan had a lot of thoughts about Rachel Zane’s style
Meghan also spoke to Glamour UK about Rachel Zane’s personal style and taste. She revealed that in the early seasons, Zane “wore a lot of black, because I think that’s what happens when you’re younger and you want to be taken seriously.” She continued, “Then you lighten up, and your clothes reflect that.”
According to Meghan, Zane’s clothes visually reflected how she was feeling. “When she and Michael were falling in love, everything was a blush tone and it was creams and layers and she was happier, and when she was really stressed everything was darker and there were slate and black tones,” Meghan added.
She credited the show’s characters to its success
During her 2013 interview with King, she and costar Adams spoke about Suits’ success and their on-screen chemistry. She credited the characters as the main reason why fans resonated with the legal drama.
“I really do think, like, the sexiness of the show and the intrigue of the show is the fact that these characters are so layered and, and people really relate to them,” Meghan explained. “They know someone or they want to know someone like they see on that show. So I think that’s what brings people back. And then the New York of it all is pretty enticing.”
Plus, she called the New York City setting “pretty enticing.”
She was thoughtful about leaving the show
Meghan transitioned away from Suits after she and Prince Harry got engaged in 2017 and briefly spoke about her career during the pair’s first joint interview that November. She said, “I don’t see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change. It’s a new chapter, right? And also, keep in mind, I’ve been working on [ Suits] for seven years. We were very, very fortunate to have that sort of longevity on a series.”
“I’ve ticked this box, and I feel very proud of the work I’ve done there, and now it’s time to work with [Harry] as a team,” Meghan added. “I think what’s been really exciting as we talk about the transition out of my career and into my role is the causes that are really important to me that I can focus even more energy on.”
Her final appearance as Zane came in the season 7 finale, where her character and Adams’ character, Mike Ross, tied the knot before moving to Seattle. The fictional TV wedding aired less than a month before her wedding to Prince Harry.
Meghan stopped watching Suits after season 7
Although Suits went on to run for two more seasons without Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex stopped watching the show.
While speaking with identical twins Luke and Elliot Rainbird outside the Coach Core Awards in 2018, she replied no when asked if she had seen the new season.
