Meghan Markle’s time as one of the ensemble cast members of hit TV legal drama Suits has become the subject of a new viral video, as the show broke streaming records this summer, four years after airing its series finale.
Meghan joined the Suits cast in 2011, five years before meeting Prince Harry, and remained with the show until her royal relationship became serious, her final episode airing in the build-up to her 2018 wedding.
On the show, the future duchess played paralegal Rachel Zane, a character whose main storyline was her developing love story with colleague Mike Ross (played by Patrick J. Adams). A number of Meghan’s co-stars were special guests at her royal wedding in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @suitsarmy on October 10, resurfaced red-carpet footage of Meghan discussing the confusion of sharing a name with her onscreen counterpart has gone viral.
Filmed during a mid-season premiere of Suits‘ second season in Los Angeles, Meghan’s interaction with a red-carpet reporter saw the actress say that, though she is known as “Meghan Markle,” her birth name is “Rachel Meghan Markle.”
“My first name in real life is Rachel,” she said. “I’ve never been called it, but my parents named me Rachel Meghan Markle, and it’s just confused every legal document for my entire life!”
“And now the show is even more confusing?” the interviewer said, referring to the Rachel Zane character, with Meghan responding: “Exactly.”
The viral clip has been viewed over 300,000 times so far on TikTok, gaining more than 7,500 likes and numerous comments. Many of these were people writing about how they are also known by their middle names.
Since becoming romantically involved with Prince Harry, Meghan’s career as an actress has been repeatedly pulled into public focus, first as a working royal and then again after splitting from the monarchy with Harry to take up careers in philanthropy and the Hollywood industry.
With this has come speculation that the royal could return to her acting roots, something Meghan has denied so far, but said that she would never rule out completely.
At the time of her official engagement interview in 2017, Meghan spoke about her time on Suits and her decision to leave the drama.
“I’ve been working on my show for seven years,” she told BBC broadcaster Mishal Husain. “So, we’re very very fortunate to be able to have that sort of longevity on a series and for me, once we hit the 100-episode marker, I thought you know what I have ticked this box, and I feel really proud of the work I’ve done there, and now it’s time to, as you [Harry] said, work as a team with you.”
The next time Meghan explicitly spoke about her future onscreen, she told Variety in 2022 that it was not something she ever saw becoming a reality.
Asked, “Would you ever consider going back to acting?” the duchess said: “No. I’m done. I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.”
In July, Suits set a new Nielsen record as the most-viewed acquired title for a single week ever, after it was made available on Netflix. It had previously been streaming on Peacock for some time.
The 3.1 billion minutes of the nine-season show were streamed in the U.S. between June 26 and July 2. It led to fresh speculation that a reboot could appeal to audiences and studio bosses alike, though there has been no confirmation that it is being considered at this time.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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