Meet the American woman who is officially dating Great Britain's Prince Harry
The INSIDER Summary:
Prince Harry has a new girlfriend: Meghan Markle.
Lately she's been subject to offensive, racist coverage in tabloids.
She's best known as an actress, but she's also a writer and UN ambassador.
It's been a tumultuous start for the relationship of Prince Harry, 32, and his American girlfriend Meghan Markle, 35.
While rumors about their partnership swirled in recent weeks, websites started to run offensive stories about Markle, who's biracial, describing her as "straight outta Compton" and calling her mother "a dreadlocked African-American lady from the wrong side of the tracks."
The coverage got so bad that Prince Harry released a statement through his communications secretary, saying that Markle "has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment" and calling for the media step back.
Here's the original statement as released on Twitter:
But in all the commotion about their budding romance, it's been easy to overlook that Markle's more than just an actress.
She's also a writer, and she started an online publication called the Tig that covers topics including food, travel, beauty, and bite-sized interviews with influential women. She's spoken with Serena Williams and actress Priyanka Choprani and penned some lovely musings on self love, civil rights, and how to balance being an actress with being a humanitarian.
Speakng of humanitarian work: Markle is also an official advocate for the UN Women's Political Participation & Leadership program, which gives training and resources to women seeking political offices globally.
In the position, she has given a speech for International Women's Day and traveled to Rwanda to meet with female political leaders there. (Rwanda's government currently has the highest number of female parlimentarians of any country in the world!)
She also launched an "accessible" clothing line for Canadian clothing store Reitmans, The Toronto Star reports. Every item in collection retails for $100 or less - and that was a conscious choice.
"These girls go in to the store with their hard-earned money," she told the Star. "And I care about that. I was not a girl who grew up buying $100 candles. I was the girl who ran out of gas on her way to an audition."
Getty/Mike McGregorMarkle at a charity event in 2013.
And yes, she's an actress, too. She got her first break in an episode of "General Hospital" back in 2002, and has gone on to perform in TV shows like "CSI: NY," "90210," "The Fringe," "CSI: Miami," and "Castle," and several movies, including "A Lot Like Love" and "Horrible Bosses." Now she's best known as Rachel Zane on "Suits," a role she's played since 2011.
But if Prince Harry and Markle continue dating - despite the gossip story onslaught - hopefully we'll continue to learn more about her creative and humanitarian endeavors, and not just her acting history.
As of Wednesday evening, Markle has yet to comment on the relationship publicly. We'll update this post if that happens.