Meghan Markle is delightfully surprised by’ trending renaissance.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, spoke about how the legal drama she starred in for seven seasons before marrying Prince Harry has drawn a new viewership since recently hitting Netflix at Variety’s Power of Women event in Los Angeles on Thursday night. Meghan was named one of Variety’s Power of Women honorees in 2022 but did not attend the annual event, held last Sept. 28, following the death of Queen Elizabeth on Sept. 8. The release of her magazine cover was also held until a later date “out of respect for the recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II,” Variety said at the time.
On the carpet at Mother Wolf, Variety writer Angelique Jackson asked Meghan, “I’m sure that you’ve probably noticed that a certain show, Suits, has become a phenomenon yet again on Netflix.”
“Isn’t that wild?” the Duchess of Sussex said with a laugh, seeming surprised when Jackson said, “45 billion minutes have been watched as of this week.”
“Is that right?” Meghan asked then joked, “But who’s counting?”
Asked about what she thinks is behind the “renewed love” for the show, the Duchess of Sussex said, “I have no idea. It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew. We had a really fun time. I was on it for seven seasons, so quite a bit.”
“But it’s hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with it,” she said. “But good shows are everlasting.”
Meghan starred as paralegal Rachel Zane in Suits, which originally aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019. Shortly after she and Prince Harry announced their engagement in November 2017, the cable channel announced Meghan was leaving the series. While Meghan’s character’s storyline ended with a wedding in the seventh season, Suits went on for two more seasons and wrapped in 2019.
In June, Netflix announced that the drama also starring Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Gina Torres and Sarah Raffety was coming to the streamer for the first time. Suits had a runaway summer since hitting queues, where it continues to trend.
Responding to Meghan’s comment on the “everlasting” nature of quality content, Jackson asked the Duchess of Sussex about her new role in show business — this time, behind the camera.
“That’s what you’re doing now. You have now come into Hollywood into a producorial capacity. As you’re looking to make these new projects, what is the thing that is driving the work that you’re going to put out into the business?” she asked.
“Things that make people feel, I was going to say good, but it’s more than that,” Meghan replied. “Things that make people feel something. And feel a sense of community. We have so many exciting things on the slate.”
“I can’t wait until we can announce them. Just really proud of what we’re creating, my husband is loving it too,” she added, referring to Prince Harry, who wasn’t at the event. “Just really fun,” Meghan said.
After relocating to the United States in 2020 and settling in Meghan’s home state of California, the couple went on to ink multimillion-dollar deals with Spotify and Netflix, delivering Meghan’s hit podcast Archetypes in August 2022 and the record-breaking Netflix series Harry & Meghan last December. Prince Harry’s groundbreaking memoir Spare, published by Penguin Random House, also became a bestseller.
In April, Meghan signed with the talent agency William Morris Endeavor, and in June, the Sussexes split from Spotify, where they had a reported $20 million deal. Another Netflix project, Heart of Invictus, about the road to Prince Harry’s Invictus Games The Hague in 2022, hit queues in August — the same month that author Carley Fortune confirmed to The Independent that the couple’s Archewell Productions hub was adapting her romance novel Meet Me at the Lake for the streamer.
Harry and Meghan might have seen similarities to their own love story in the text, which debuted at number one on The New York Times bestseller list for paperback trade fiction when it was published in May. Set in Toronto — where Meghan lived while filming Suits before she married Harry — the novel follows Will and Fern, “two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects,” its Amazon page states. The Independent reported that Will and Fern connect in their thirties, and “the plot bears some likeness to Harry and Meghan’s whirlwind romance.”
Also in the interview with Variety on Thursday night, Meghan said she was “thrilled to be back” in the entertainment industry.
Meghan’s appearance at the gala came as a shock to everyone on the red carpet. During the ceremony, the Duchess of Sussex stood and clapped for all the honorees and their presenters.
“She kept intently focused on the program the whole time and didn’t seem to talk to anyone at her table,” says an onlooker.
This year’s Power of Women honorees are Fantasia Barrino, Billie Eilish, Lily Gladstone and Carey Mulligan. LuckyChap co-founders Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara were awarded the Producer of the Year award.
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