Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Shutterstock (2)
Crossing the line? Prince Harry is claiming that the palace would try to control Meghan Markle’s role on Suits — including the story lines and the dialogue.
“Meg packed up her house, gave up her role in Suits. After seven seasons. A difficult moment for her, because she loved that show, loved the character she was playing, loved her cast and crew — loved Canada,” the Duke of Sussex, 38, writes in his upcoming Spare memoir, which Us Weekly can exclusively reveal. “On the other hand life there had become untenable.”
Harry noted that things changed for Meghan, 41, on set once they started dating. “The show writers were frustrated, because they were often advised by the palace comms team to change lines of dialogue, what her character would do, how she would act,” he alleges.
The USA Network series, which ran for nine seasons from 2011 to 2020, focused on a fictional New York City law firm. Meghan played Rachel Zane — an ambitious paralegal who falls in love with Patrick J. Adams‘ character, Mike.
While filming the hit show, the California native shocked viewers when news broke of her romance with Harry. Amid the couple’s engagement, Meghan was ultimately written off Suits.
According to series creator Aaron Korsh, the decision to have Rachel leave was inspired by Meghan’s personal life.
“I had a decision to make because I didn’t want to intrude and ask her, ‘Hey, what’s going on and what are you going to do?’” he told BBC News in 2017 about having Rachel exchange vows with Mike and move to Seattle. “What we decided to do [was to] say, ‘Look, I would rather have good things happen to Meghan in her life,’ which would likely mean her leaving the show.”
The showrunner added: “So let’s plan on that and it’s much easier to undo that, if it came to it, than to just plan on her staying forever and then finding out she’s going to go. And the only way to write a character out like that would be if they got hit by a bus or something.”
Gina Torres, Rick Hoffman, Meghan Markle, Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams in ‘Suits.’ Frank Ockenfels/Dutch Oven/Kobal/Shutterstock
The former actress, who shares 3-year-old Archie and 19-month-old Lili with her husband, previously opened up about her decision to walk away from the show.
“I don’t see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change. It’s a new chapter, right?” she said in a joint interview with BBC in 2017, shortly after her engagement. “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.”
In his memoir, Harry also recalled Prince William and Princess Kate‘s unexpected interest in Meghan’s former role.
“I was baffled, until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers of Suits,” the BetterUp CIO recalled of their conversation before they met his now-wife. “Great, I thought, laughing. I’ve been worrying about the wrong thing. All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.”
Spare will be released on Tuesday, January 10.