Where was Meghan Markle born?
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Rachel Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Doria Ragland, is a former social worker and yoga instructor living in View Park–Windsor Hills, California. Markle has often described having a very close friendship with her mother. Her father, Thomas Markle Sr., who lives in Rosarito, Mexico, is a retired television director of photography and lighting director, whose profession resulted in his young daughter often visiting the set of "Married...with Children". Markle's parents divorced when she was six years old. She has two older paternal half-siblings, Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jr., from whom she is reportedly estranged.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Markle was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and has a mixed ethnic heritage. During her studies at Northwestern University, she began playing small roles in American television series and films. From 2011 to 2017, she played Rachel Zane, on the American legal drama series "Suits". An outspoken feminist, Markle has addressed issues of gender inequality, and her lifestyle website "The Tig" featured a column profiling influential women. She represented international charity organisations in the 2010s. She has received recognition for her fashion and style, releasing a line of clothing in 2016.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Samantha Marie Markle (also known as Samantha Grant, born Yvonne Markle) is the paternal half-sister of the Duchess of Sussex, the daughter of Thomas Markle Sr. and Roslyn Markle ("née" Loveless). She was born in November 1964 and lives with her boyfriend Mark Phillips in Belleview, Florida. Markle has been divorced twice and has been through personal bankruptcy. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008, and has been using a wheelchair since then. She has worked as a model, actress, and mental health counselor. Markle has three children, one of whom she is estranged from. She is also estranged from her mother, her brother, and her half-sister. At the time of the royal wedding, she had been estranged from her half-sister for almost a decade and had not spoken to her since 2015. 
She was not invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and her half-sister and had not attended her half-sister's first wedding either. She has cited Doria Ragland as the main reason behind their estrangement, and insisted that Meghan should have helped their father financially (as he had declared bankruptcy in 2016). However, Markle's mother criticized her daughter's behavior and remarks to the press, saying she was "an embarrassment" and needed to "get some dignity". She appeared on the TLC special program "When Harry Met Meghan: A Royal Engagement" to discuss her half-sister and her upcoming book, "The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister". In October 2017, Markle insisted that it will not be a tell-all book, but will rather merely be about "some of the beautiful nuances of our lives". In an interview with "The Sun", Markle called her half-sister a "shallow social climber" whose behavior was not "befitting of a royal family member", though she later changed her mind, describing Meghan as "very animated, very charming, very lively", and "absolutely lovely".
Family of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Thomas Wayne Markle is the father of the Duchess of Sussex. He is a retired American television lighting director, born in 1945. Markle was raised in Newport, Pennsylvania, the son of Doris May Rita (Sanders) and Gordon Arnold Markle. His mother was from New Hampshire. He has two brothers. He was previously married to Roslyn Markle ("née" Loveless), with whom he had Thomas Markle Jr. and Samantha Grant ("née" Markle). He was a co-recipient of two Daytime Emmy Awards for work on the television medical drama "General Hospital" (in 1982 and 2011) and received a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award for work on the television program "Made in Chicago" (in 1975). He also won $750,000 in the California State Lottery in 1990, although he later declared personal bankruptcy (in 2016). He currently resides in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico. He had planned to walk Meghan down the aisle for her wedding, but did not. He said his absence was due to his health, as he was recovering from a heart attack and had undergone heart surgery. In reference to his son and other daughter's comments about the royal wedding, he said they "should just shut up about everything".
Family of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Members of the Markle and Ragland families have been related by marriage to the British royal family since the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, on May 19, 2018, when Meghan became the Duchess of Sussex. The Markle (originally spelled Merckel) family is of German descent and originates in Alsace on the modern French–German border, and Meghan's paternal ancestors moved to the United States in the 17th century; among her father's other ancestors are American settlers of English, Dutch, and Irish descent. The Ragland family is of African American descent, and Meghan's maternal ancestors were enslaved in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Family of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held on 19 May 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. The groom, Prince Harry, is a member of the British royal family; the bride, Meghan Markle, is an American former actress. On the morning of the wedding, Prince Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, conferred upon him the titles of Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel. On her marriage, Markle became Duchess of Sussex. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, officiated at the wedding using the standard Anglican church service for Holy Matrimony published in "Common Worship", the liturgical text of the Church of England.
Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
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Thomas Wayne Markle Jr. is the paternal half-brother of the Duchess of Sussex, the son of Thomas Markle Sr. and Roslyn Markle ("née" Loveless). He was born in 1966 and lives in Grants Pass, Oregon, with his fiancée Darlene Blout. He was married to Tracy Dooley until their divorce in 2001 and then to Johannes Rawha until their divorce in 2009. He and Tracy Dooley have two sons, Thomas and Tyler Dooley. He works as a window fitter. He was arrested in January 2017 after threateningly holding a gun to Blout's head during an argument while he was under the influence of alcohol. Later in 2018, following another incident, Blout claimed in a police call that "Markle was beating himself up" and "drinking", saying that he "was not mentally fit". Blout got arrested by the police on assault charges, but was later released. The couple were involved in another domestic violence incident in July 2018 after which Blout was arrested again and released "after posting bail".
Family of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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Markle grew up in Hollywood. She was educated at private schools, beginning at age two at the Hollywood Little Red Schoolhouse. At age 11, her successful campaign to get Procter & Gamble to change a national television commercial she viewed as sexist was profiled by Linda Ellerbee on "Nick News". Though she was raised as a Protestant, Markle attended Immaculate Heart High School, an all-girl Catholic private school in Los Angeles. She then attended Northwestern University, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and participated in community service and charity projects. She also served an internship at the American embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and studied for a semester in Madrid, Spain. Markle received a bachelor's degree from Northwestern's School of Communication in 2003, with a double major in theater and international studies.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
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The dress is augmented by a long 5 metre (16-ft) veil, hand-embroidered with a variety of flowers on its hem, and symbolic crops of wheat. It was 3 metres wide. The veil took longer to create than the dress itself. Markle chose two favourite flowers – wintersweet ("Chimonanthus praecox"), which grows outside Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, where she and Harry lived, and the California poppy ("Eschscholzia californica"), from where she was born – along with individual flowers representing the 53 countries of the Commonwealth, reflecting the couple's interest in the work of the Commonwealth. The countries and flowers are:Elizabeth Emanuel, co-designer of Diana, Princess of Wales's wedding gown, thought that the gown made a "really solid fashion statement" and thought that Waight Keller "should be pleased because Meghan looked absolutely stunning and beautiful." Waight Keller stated that Prince Harry told her "Oh my God. Thank you. She is absolutely magnificent."
Wedding dress of Meghan Markle
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Thomas Wayne Markle Sr. (born July 18, 1944) is an American retired television lighting director and director of photography. He received a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award for work on the television program "Made in Chicago" in 1975 and was a co-recipient of two Daytime Emmy Awards for work on the television soap opera "General Hospital", in 1982 and 2011. He is the father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, by his second wife, Doria Ragland.
Thomas Markle