Meghan Misunderstood

She thanked the school graciously for the previous two years, singling out the religious lessons that had helped her and others to ‘develop spirituality in our lives’ and the classes that had taught them ‘a deep compassion to those who suffer from the Aids virus’.

She concluded in a mature way: ‘We will graduate from high school in 1999 and begin college in the next century, taking many different paths. Some of us will go into politics, finance, entertainment, education and many other fields. But no matter what field we choose, we will always carry the spirit of Immaculate Heart with us. And always and forever as women of great heart, dedicate ourselves to making it a better world.’

Not for the last time in her life, a Meghan Markle speech was greeted with a rapturous round of applause. The last sentiment was one she has endeavoured to follow throughout her life and that she could have included in almost any speech she has made since.

Doria continued to nurture her daughter’s empathy by taking Meghan with her to weekend meetings of her church, the Agape (Greek for unconditional love) International Spiritual Center in Santa Monica. These were very popular across a wide spectrum of ages and ethnicity. Dismissing these gatherings as an exuberant, exclusively black gospel event is completely wrong.

Of course the hall resonates with some glorious, uplifting singing, accompanied by the Agape house band of musicians, but there’s also the chance to meditate, spending time in soothing silence and quiet reflection, that particularly appealed to Doria and her embrace of yoga culture.

The centre was founded in 1986 by the Rev Dr Michael Beckwith, a charismatic advocate of the New Thought movement that promoted positive thinking as a modern way of dealing with the universal problems of today – feeding the homeless, preserving the environment and helping children whose lives have been shattered by war and disease. They are the virtues that Doria and Meghan already followed and ones that would become even more important to them in the years to come.

These were religious gatherings and God did not take a backseat, but they were a world away from a draughty Sunday service at Crathie Kirk, next to Balmoral. A celebrity or two might drift in, happy that they were not going to be photographed or disturbed. The Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank was a particular devotee and would often be there when Doria and Meghan attended.

In the school holidays, when Meghan was thirteen going on fourteen, Agape started a summer drama camp for some of the members’ children. The camp, which met every day, was called Agape’s 38 Flavours, because that was the number of children who signed up for it. They were from different cultures, all encouraged to share their experiences of life.

Meghan was one of thirteen or fourteen young teenagers, alongside a pocket of pre-teens and a group of little children. Another girl was known as Meg so Meghan adopted her own special jingle: ‘Meghan Markle with a Sparkle’ and everyone called her that.

Generally, Doria would be the morning taxi, dropping her off at 8am, then Tom would pick her up at 4pm. Meghan’s domestic arrangements had changed. Tom and Doria had swapped roles to a certain extent. One of the popular myths about Meghan’s childhood and beyond is that her mum and dad remained great friends. That was not the case, but like many parents, they made the best of it for the sake of their child.

Meghan was faced with the tricky dilemma of keeping both parents happy and including both in her life. During the week she lived with her father. The Woodland Hills home had proved far too large for one person after both Yvonne and Tom Jr had moved out, so instead, he found a second-floor apartment in an unassuming West Hollywood street called Vista Del Mar, conveniently near his work and the school.

At weekends she was back with Mum. Doria was following in her own dad’s footsteps by setting up in business for herself and becoming a store owner. She found premises for two businesses in a modest shopping mall on La Brea Avenue, just a five-minute drive from home; one was a gift shop called Distant Treasures and the other, catchily named A Change of a Dress, included some of her own designs. Understandably, the stores required a lot of attention so there was little time for the school run, so Tom’s place seemed a sensible option for Meghan during the week.

Tom didn’t go to the Agape church but he was happy to do his share of parental chauffeuring for camp. This was the first time the teenage Meghan had come into contact with boys. She went to an all-girls school so the opportunities had been thin on the ground. That changed when she met Joshua Silverstein, a year older than her and just as keen on theatre.

Like her, Joshua was mixed race. His father David was Jewish and his mother, Beverly, African–American. His parents, who divorced when he was eleven, went to high school with Michael Beckwith. Some years later David bumped into Michael, who invited him to come along to Agape. He loved the sense of community there and would take his son to the services, often twice a week.

Joshua did not need to see which box Meghan might or might not have checked to understand her ethnicity: ‘When I saw Meghan, I saw a lighter-skinned brown person with curly hair and freckles and fuller lips. And I was like, that person is a person of colour.’

Meghan and Joshua got together in a time-honoured way. He recalled, ‘It was very typical of what kids do at that time. A friend told me Meghan thought I was cute and then I told my friend I thought she was cute. That was really the impetus we needed to become a couple. I took a day to think about it and figure out what to do. It was camp and we would be seeing each other every day so it was a big commitment to show up as a couple.

‘So the next day I made my move and we just fell into it. It was very innocent and very cute. And everyone took it that we were together. If she was doing anything acting-wise, I was very focused on it and very, very interested in what she was doing.’ Even though they were young, they talked about the black experience from the perspective of someone who had a white parent. They weren’t overly serious conversations but ones in which they discussed what it might be like to be a person of colour in the entertainment industry.

The new couple also had the more traditional teenage problem – how to find any privacy. They would sit together at lunch but the other campmates would always be around. Joshua explained, ‘It was this awkward and uncomfortable thing – like you are sitting with us and infringing on our space. But they were like – “Are you guys going to kiss? Kiss now.”’ They did kiss, making sure they practised a lot at every opportunity during camp.

Having been together most of the day, Meghan and Joshua would spend much of the evening on the phone to each other. He would be on the floor of his mother’s bedroom and she would be in a closet upstairs – both of them trying to keep the conversation away from parental ears.

Camp was an enjoyable way of spending the summer holidays. The Agape theatre programme was different in that it combined theatre games and practice with a sense of spirituality. There was nothing overtly serious but it just seemed natural to take a break with some guided meditation or ‘visioning’, where you think about your goals for the future, or to end a day of fun with a prayer.

Meghan celebrated her fourteenth birthday at the beginning of August and was given a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday Meghan Markle with a Sparkle’ at the camp. Her memorable summer ended with a spectacular show in the Sanctuary, Agape’s main hall on Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica. It was a culmination of all the various stories and presentations, improv games and sketches that they had worked on for six weeks. They each had to perform a monologue in which they created a new and totally original character. Meghan made sure her hair was at its wildest, smeared lipstick on her face and wore clothes that didn’t really fit. Joshua remembers it as being ‘quirky’. She loved the applause – the cheering, screaming and laughing that stays with you. The big finale was a huge, choreographed dance number entitled ‘Agape’s 38 Flavours’, in which every boy and girl took part.

After camp was over, the group got together and met up at the promenade next to Santa Monica beach. Everyone was relaxed, just hanging; Megan and Joshua held hands as they walked along before they all went into the local cinema to watch the film Clueless, a big summer hit in 1995.

The movie, set in Beverly Hills, is loosely based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma. The heroine, Cher Horowitz, played by Alicia Silverstone, is a high-school matchmaker who eventually falls in love with the Mr Knightley character (Paul Rudd), who in the film is rather coincidentally called Josh.

Unfortunately, the other, real-life Josh was unimpressed. He observed, ‘I wasn’t a fan. I was a young African–American boy watching a film about white women. It revolves around a shopaholic white woman and I was not relating to any of that.’ When his guy friends said they were leaving, he went too and told Meghan that he would see her outside. He left just before the tender kiss between the two lead characters: ‘I left my teenage, romance-driven beautiful girlfriend in a theatre while the kissing scene happened. What a dummy! I didn’t understand back then that you don’t do that. You don’t leave – that’s when you kiss the girl in the movie theater.’

That evening, Meghan let Joshua down gently during their long evening phone call. She explained to him why he shouldn’t have done that. She was, he acknowledges, a little ahead of him in understanding how a relationship works. He recalled, ‘I listened to her and I understood and I felt bad.’ Meghan also observed, sensibly, that they were both moving up from middle into high school next term and would inevitably see little of each other. She told him she wanted to enjoy the high school experience, the next stage of growing up. ‘So it was like “Oh heartbreak – but you are probably right,”’ observed her now ex-boyfriend.

And that was that, although Meghan always remembered Joshua and she told chat show veteran Larry King in 2013 that he had been her first kiss.

They didn’t keep in touch, although over the years he would still see Doria at Agape. When the church moved to new premises in Culver City, the entrance hall would be filled with various book, bric-a-brac and clothing stalls. Doria had one for her vintage lines and Joshua would stop to chat and discover how ‘Meg’, as her mother called her in public, was doing.

Joshua has become a well-known name in Los Angeles performing arts. He mentioned Meghan in his one-man show and later was a resident performer, the expert beat-boxer, on the Drop the Mic spot that proved so popular on The Late Late Show with James Cordon. As Meghan would also do, he has given back to the community; in his case with workshops and residences in local schools that have provided a safe and non-judgemental environment for boys and girls to realise their creative potential.

Meghan had enjoyed her first romantic interlude, but perhaps just as importantly she couldn’t wait for the next show at Immaculate Heart; another step on her Yellow Brick Road.

5

Star-To-Be

Meghan could still be found most days after school on the set of Married with Children. She was part of the furniture, but she herself was becoming more aware of the world of television. Her interest in performing that had been nurtured at elementary school, inspired at the Agape camp and encouraged by Immaculate Heart, was becoming increasingly important. She wasn’t just turning up to give Buck a cuddle – the much-loved dog retired in 1995 – but to watch what was going on and study the actors. One of them, Amanda Bearse, who played Marcy in the show, remembered Meghan as ‘quiet’ and ‘respectful’.

Life at the studios, however, wasn’t all about acting. Meghan became fascinated with food and the beautiful dishes that were served every day to the cast and crew. Sometimes Tom, who was popular on set, would suggest she help out in the craft services department where all the food was prepared. She explained, ‘That’s where I started to learn about garnishing and plating. I saw the appreciation of the food. I started to learn the association between food and happiness and being able to entertain.’ She was happy to take over the cooking duties back at the apartment on Vista del Mar.

Meghan’s first job as a young teenager involved food but there was nothing to interest Michelin at the wittily named Humphrey Yogart, a frozen yoghurt store in the Beverly Connection shopping mall on La Cienega Boulevard. The owner, Paula Sheftel, shrewdly realised that the youngest member of staff was a big asset, popular with the customers who appreciated her ‘outgoing personality’.

Although she didn’t earn much – just four dollars an hour – Meghan had her own money for the first time. Of more long-term significance was an encounter in the car park next to the parade. She was taking out the bins when she spotted an off-duty Yasmine Bleeth, famous for playing Caroline Holden, one of the swimsuit-wearing babes in Baywatch – not exactly a show at the forefront of female empowerment.

Meghan, however, was star-struck and blurted out, ‘Oh my God, I loved you in the Soft and Dri commercial.’ The ad for an anti-perspirant was all over the television screens at the time and featured Yasmine purring into the camera, ‘What’s the most important thing you put on?’

The star smiled at Meghan, shook her hand lightly and said, ‘Ok, thank you!’ She made a point of asking Meghan her name. Her gracious reaction would set a benchmark for how Meghan would react to her own fans and well-wishers in the future – look them in the eye and be kind. She never forgot Yasmine.

Meghan’s own acting career at school was progressing steadily. In many ways it would mirror the path of her professional career – a collection of minor roles while waiting for more recognition. When younger, she had no expectation of becoming the next Shirley Temple. She did, however, strike lucky – a real-life former child star was in charge of the drama department. Her name was Gigi Perreau and she had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

From the beginning in middle school, she noticed that despite being ‘very green’, Meghan was one of those students who could absorb ideas. Gigi had plenty of them, as well as a lifetime of experience in Hollywood that began when she was just two years old and was cast as the baby daughter in the 1943 biopic Madame Curie that starred Greer Garson as the famous Nobel Prize-winning scientist. She clinched the role because unusually for someone so young, she could speak both French and English; or at least, gurgle in both languages. Gigi called it a ‘beautiful film’.

She had made thirty-six films by the age of twenty. Her favourites, other than Madame Curie, are Enchantment, a war film in which she played the role of Lark as a little girl – portrayed as an adult by Oscar-winner Teresa Wright; and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, in which, more grown up as a teenager, she acted alongside screen legends Fredric March and Gregory Peck. She was awarded her star on Sunset Boulevard in 1960.

In between making movies, Gigi – short for Ghislaine and pronounced with a hard g – attended Immaculate Heart, so always had affection for the school, wanting to give something back to her alma mater. She returned as a member of the faculty in 1986, only forty-five and still acting. ‘It’s kind of wonderful to share,’ was her simple philosophy, although it always made her laugh when she told friends about her career change. ‘What are you teaching?’ they would ask. ‘Nuclear physics,’ was the reply.

The drama group at Immaculate Heart is known as the Genesians, named after Genesius of Rome, the patron saint of actors. Gigi had been happy for Meghan to become involved in drama in middle school even though most of the roles in school productions went to older pupils. ‘Meghan was just so eager,’ she recalled. ‘She had such a really dynamic personality, even as a child, that she just kept growing and growing – each play, each class, everything.’

Immaculate Heart was not a renowned theatre school, so Gigi was given carte blanche to shape classes as she saw fit. Her idea wasn’t to make drama lessons just about plays and musicals: they were also about speaking and presenting yourself in the best possible light; and about listening. They would act out one-to-one scenes just as you might in real life at a job interview or an audition.

Singing was the one aspect of drama class that Meghan did not enjoy. For someone so very open in the other aspects of performance, she was shy about singing and not too keen on auditioning for any of the musicals. Right from the start, Gigi told her she had to push herself a bit and try out for one.

Gigi cast her as a porter in the production of George M!, the show based on the life of the legendary Broadway star George M. Cohan. Meghan was on stage for the showstoppers ‘Give My Regards to Broadway’ and ‘The Yankee Doodle Boy’. The title role was played by Joseph Leo Bwarie, later to become an acclaimed Broadway performer as Frankie Valli in the Tony award-winning Jersey Boys.

Joe, as everyone called him, handled most of the choreography for Gigi’s productions even though he was still at high school himself. Typically, she insisted that he audition for the role of Cohan even though it was his original idea to do the show. He had a quality that Gigi would also recognise in Meghan – an inbuilt professionalism. When they went off stage they weren’t grabbing a soda and reading Variety; they were running lines with other people.

Gigi cast Meghan again as Delilah in Back County Crimes, in November 1995. The drama with music was written by the prolific post-war American playwright Lanie Robertson in 1980. It’s the story of life in a small town called Duty as told by the local doctor and features love affairs, sordid murder, comic misunderstandings and tragic events – quite grown up for a school production.

Meghan shared a place on the cast list with Luis Segura, a pupil at St Francis High School, in La Cañada Flintridge, a city in Los Angeles county, about fifteen miles from Immaculate Heart. These cities, such as Malibu and Pasadena, are dotted all around LA. Meghan and Luis dated on and off for a couple of years.

It was common practice for Immaculate Heart to call on all-boys schools if there were male roles that needed to be filled. The arrangement was reciprocal and girls could audition for female roles at St Francis and other similar schools in LA. Luis was a couple of years’ older, which might have been an attraction for a teenage schoolgirl. Meghan was already a mature, well-travelled young woman. She had enjoyed a trip to Europe in the summer holidays with Ninaki Priddy, her parents Dalton and Maria and sister, Michelle. While Niki was not involved in drama, she was in Meghan’s class at school and they remained close.

This was a dream trip for anyone, taking in Belgium, Switzerland, Paris and London, where the two girls posed for photographs in front of Buckingham Palace. Much corny significance would be made of this picture many years later when Meghan actually met the Queen, but for now she was just another tourist taking in the sights of the capital as millions of others have done. At this point in recent history, by far the most interesting and charismatic person within the Royal Family was Princess Diana, who was much loved in the US.

Meghan was readily accepted by the Priddy family, a common theme throughout her life – until she met Prince Harry. She was also well liked by the Segura family and was a regular visitor to their Pasadena home while she was dating Luis. It helped that his sister Maria was at Immaculate Heart, in the year below. Meghan also got on well with his younger brother, Danny, encouraging him to try his hand at acting, too.

Meghan’s own acting was progressing; she came more into her own in her next role in the perennial favourite, Annie. She played two parts – the quiet orphan, July, and Star-To-Be, an up-and-coming Broadway performer, which was exactly what Meghan hoped to be. In the latter role, she had a small solo in the song ‘NYC’.

For each production, Gigi would audition something like fifty girls for maybe no more than twelve roles. She was what she termed ‘colour blind’ in that she cast on the basis of ability and audition – not on ethnicity or the colour of someone’s skin – a way of thinking that TV and the motion picture industry is only now coming around to. The role of Annie herself, for instance, was secured by Meghan’s friend, Danica Rozelle, a young African–American girl.

Gigi kept it as professional as possible, with proper callbacks before she made a final decision. For Meghan, it was good practice for what would become her life as a working actress. After she had cast each role, Gigi checked to see if any of those who missed out would like to be in the crew. Everybody involved would then be called for a reading – the cast on chairs around a long table with the crew sat right behind, listening so that they too would really get to know the play or musical.

Gigi gave all her girls with acting ambitions one important piece of advice – she told them that there were no small parts. Gigi explained, ‘I wanted everyone to know that they were part of the whole. If they just had three lines, they needed to know that those three lines were very important.’ Meghan would remember that advice during the years when she struggled to get substantial roles.

After casting, it was six weeks of intensive learning of lines, songs and then rehearsing. Meghan’s dad turned up to watch one evening and was swiftly enlisted as Gigi’s technical advisor. She observed, ‘I am very grateful to him. Very honestly, he was my right-hand person for many years.’ Tom’s involvement was an encouragement for Meghan during high school. ‘Theirs was a very warm and very special relationship,’ continued Gigi.

The week before opening night was a frantic one, with rehearsals starting right after school at 3.30 and continuing until 6pm. Tom would slip out to McDonald’s to fetch much-needed fuel for the troops. He was at the helm for tech run-throughs while the musical numbers came under the watchful eye of Joe. On the Thursday before the Saturday opening, the all-important dress rehearsal would go on late into the evening. This was crucial for Tom, because the lighting was different after dark.

Annie ran for four nights in March 1996 when Meghan was fourteen. As a school tradition the programme had lots of thanks and little notes and best wishes. Meghan’s ‘biography’ said ‘she loves singing, smiling and dancing, and hopes to shuffle off to Broadway some day. Meghan is proud to have two roles in this year’s musical and wishes to thank everyone who helped and supported her (especially Ashley, Danica and, of course, Yasmine).’

Tom received special thanks for ‘parental sweat’. He wrote, ‘To my ‘Star-To-Be’ and the cast and crew of Annie. I’m proud of you all. BREAK A LEG. Love Tom Markle (Daddy).’

As part of Gigi’s preferred policy of alternating a musical with a more conventional drama, Meghan was cast as one of the would-be actresses in a production of Stage Door, the successful play that had been a memorable film in the thirties starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. Luis was in it, too, which was a bonus.

Meghan had the role of Judith Canfield, played in the film by Lucille Ball who, coincidentally, had donated to Immaculate Heart the stage on which they performed. Her daughter, the actress Lucie Arnaz, is another former pupil of the school; fittingly Meghan’s favourite TV show as a child had been Lucille’s classic comedy I Love Lucy.

It was time for Meghan to make more of an impact. She had her most substantial role yet in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Into the Woods, the clever interweaving of favourite fairy tales. Meghan was cast as Little Red Riding Hood and, in Gigi’s opinion, ‘just stole the scenes that she was in; she was really adorable’.