Speculation is mounting that Meghan Markle could soon relaunch her defunct personal blog The Tig – and it was only fuelled by her recent meeting with uber-blogger Gwyneth Paltrow.
The Duchess of Sussex launched her ‘passion project’ back in 2014, naming it after her favourite Tignanello red wine.
While up and running, the blog was filled with insights into the former actress’s life, including her relationship with her now estranged father and best friend Jessica Mulroney.
To her devoted fans, Meghan opened up about her struggles of not fitting in during her time at High School, filling her lunch times with endless extra-curriculum activities just so she did not have to ‘eat lunch alone’.
She closed down The Tig after meeting Prince Harry, of course.
But here, The Mail’s new Royals section takes a look back at some of the colourful – and most revealing – posts that Meghan shared with her followers.
Meghan’s pain at ‘always feeling like she never fitted in’
On her 33rd birthday Meghan declared that she had found true happiness, by being ‘kind’ to herself.
The Duchess of Sussex said her ’20s were brutal’ and her ‘teens were even worse’ where she agonised over ‘how to fit in’.
She recalled in high school spending her lunch times full of extra curriculum activities so she could avoid sitting alone in the canteen.
Writing on her blog she said: ‘My high school had cliques: the black girls and white girls, the Filipino and the Latina girls.
‘Being biracial, I fell somewhere in between. So every day during lunch, I busied myself with meetings – French club, student body, whatever one could possibly do between noon and 1pm- I was there.
Not so that I was more involved, but so that I wouldn’t have to eat alone.’
As she entered into her early twenties she said she struggled with ‘judging my weight, my style, my desire to be as cool/as hip/as smart/as “whatever” as anyone else’.
When she was a struggling actress at 24, auditioning for different roles, a casting director told her to wear ‘less makeup’ and instead be ‘more Meghan’.
This was a mantra she decided to take with her throughout the rest of her twenties and into her thirties – ‘more Meghan’.
At the time of writing the blog post, Meghan had been divorced from ex-husband Trevor Engelson for two years and was yet to meet her Prince.
She told her fans they did not need anyone else to ‘complete’ them and that they are ‘enough’ themselves.
The ‘unladylike habits’ she vowed to give up
Just months before she met Prince Harry, Meghan set out to ditch some of her ‘unladylike habits’ in the New Year.
Writing to fans on The Tig on January 1 2016, the future Duchess disclosed her goals and priorities for the year.
This included running a marathon, to stop swearing and to stop biting her nails as well as re-learning French.
She wrote: ‘These make my New Year’s resolution list nearly (AKA actually every) single year. The marathon hasn’t happened. The swearing comes in lulls triggered by being overworked or feeling mighty cheeky after a couple drinks.’
But Meghan also decided to not be so hard on herself if she failed to complete these goals.
She added: ‘This year I resolve to not have a resolution. If I can’t run a marathon, that’s okay. (I’m getting older – my knees are bothering me.) If it takes me a couple more years to lock down that French tutor and nail the language j’adore oh so much, that’s cool too.
‘My nails will be fine, and if I toss out a four letter word once in a blue moon, well frankly I think it adds character.’
Her one aim for the year was to ‘approach life playfully’ and ‘leave room for magic’, as advised by her Suit’s co-star Gina Torres.
‘She’s savvy and fashionable and très cool, and also va va va voom pritaaaaay’
Before she moved to the UK, where she remained for less than two years as a working royal, Meghan had a close group of friends in Toronto.
Her closest friend was said to be Canadian mother-of-three and stylist Jessica Mulroney, who she met on the set of Suits and for years they were reportedly inseparable.
In December 2015, Meghan raved about her bestie on the defunct blog: ‘She’s savvy and fashionable and très cool, and also va va va voom pritaaaaay.
‘And here’s the other thing – she also happens to be an incredible stylist, clothing the likes of Canada’s First Lady, Sophie Trudeau.’
The piece went on to list Jessica’s style tips for the festive period.
The women remained extremely close over the following years, so much so that Meghan even called Jessica on the night Harry proposed.
In the Netflix series, the Suit’s star appears to have video called Jessica where she said: ‘Oh my God Jess, it’s happening. He told me not to peek.’
Their close relationship was once again shown at the royal wedding, when Jessica was included in the bridal party, with her young daughter Ivy acting as a flower girl.
Her sons, Brian and John, were also page boys. The stylist was given a starring role as she entered the chapel alongside the Princess of Wales.
The day of the royal wedding Jessica shared snaps captioned: ‘Proud friend. Proud mom.’
More recently, however, the pair’s friendship seems to have cooled, with Jessica being noticeably absent from the couple’s Netflix docuseries, which included Meghan’s other friends like tennis star Serena Williams and Suit’s co-star Abigail Spencer.
She also made no public comments on the revelations made in Harry’s biography Spare.
It appeared as though the friendship started to become distant in 2020, after the style guru was called out by lifestyle blogger Sasha Exeter for comments she made regarding ‘white privilege’ while the pair had a conversation about the Black Lives Matters movement.
Following on from the blogger’s claims, Jessica issued three public apologies but despite this was still dropped by a number of television networks.
This included her stints as a fashion contributor on Good Morning America as well as the Canadian TV network, who said they would be pulling all episodes of her wedding-themed reality show, I Do Redo.
Jessica has not commented on rumours of them drifting apart.
In January, however, Jessica did share a snap of herself at the Duke and Duchess’ wedding, which was seen on the Netflix docuseries.
The style guru shared the picture on her Instagram without a caption and disabled comments on the post in a cryptic move.
The day Meghan said her life changed forever – and it involved a £36 dress, rattling car and cheap blow-dry
One post on her blog, from January 2015 recalled the moment the Duchess said her life changed forever.
Meghan, at the time a struggling actress, had just finished an audition for a television show pilot called A Legal Mind – later to become known as the legal drama Suits.
But she thought she ‘blew it’ telling her agent: ‘I kept forgetting my lines, I was distracted, and I blew it. Which sucks because I really wanted this one. I really like Rachel.’
Following what she thought was a setback, the actress wrote: ‘I went home and ate my feelings (likely some iteration of bread and cheese – pizza, quesadilla, it didn’t matter) because I wasn’t in a place to be able to let it go. I wanted it, and I lost my shot at it. Or so I thought.’
Instead, the casting directors liked her enough to invite her back to audition in front of the studio and network bosses.
After being given some last-minute advice about her appearance, ‘more conservative, think hair pulled back and business attire’, she bought a $45 outfit and had her ‘hair blown out at DryBar because it was close to my house’.
The audition ended up being a success despite how ‘nervous’ and ‘hungry’ the actress said she was at the time.
She added: ‘I had no idea that this late August morning of 2011 would change my life.
That I would get the part. That I would live in a little apartment in Manhattan to shoot the pilot. That over a lunch of lentil salad and muhammara on Beverly Drive, I would get a call saying we were picked up. That I would film the series in Canada.’
During the blog post, she also gushed about her friends and cast-mates Gina Torres and Sarah Rafferty.
She said: ‘I didn’t know that the regal looking woman was Gina Torres, who would end up feeding me picadillo and white, burgundy in her home.
‘Or that Sarah Rafferty would become not just my Suits sister wife, but my sister – the one I hike with, and vent with, and laugh til it hurts with.
‘I didn’t know my cast would become my family, and that so many #suitors would welcome us into their homes.’
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