30 Meghan Markle Facts So Unreal, You Might Spit Out Your Tea

By Corinne Sullivan
Getty | Charles McQuillan

Meghan Markle has been a lot of firsts — the first American to be engaged to a British royal, the first mixed-race woman to marry into the royal family, the first Duchess of Sussex, and certainly the first duchess to have had a major Hollywood career before taking on the title. But other than the firsts, there's probably plenty of fun tidbits about Meghan that you've never heard before. To celebrate Meghan's 37th birthday (her first as a royal!), we present to you the former Suits star in 30 fascinating facts by the numbers.

Getty | Chris Jackson

  • 1: Number of children her parents had together. Meghan is the only child of Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, though Meghan does have two estranged half-siblings from her father's first marriage.
  • 2: Number of majors she took on at Northwestern University — performance and international studies.
  • 2: Number of Hallmark Channel movies she's starred in — When Sparks Fly and Dater's Handbook (both of which you probably need to watch, by the way).
  • 3: Number of carats in the cushion-cut diamond from Botswana that serves as the center stone in her engagement ring (which also includes a trio of diamonds from Princess Diana's collection).



Getty | Ben Birchall

  • 4: Number of countries that Meghan and Harry will visit on their first royal tour this Fall, which includes Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga, and New Zealand.
  • 5: Length in meters of her silk tulle bridal veil.
  • 5.5: Her height in feet.
  • 6: Number of years she attended an all-girls Catholic school.
  • 7: Number of years she played Rachel Zane on Suits.
Getty | Jonathan Brady

  • 7: Her shoe size.
  • 7: Number of spots she landed above Harry on the 2018 Time 100 List — Meghan was given the 26th spot, while Harry placed 33rd.
  • 10: Number of minutes it took for the 18-karat Vanessa Tugendhaft Idylle La Rose Earrings she wore to Prince Charles's 70th birthday celebration to sell out.
  • 10: Number of pageboys and flower girls under the age of 7 in her and Harry's wedding.
  • 11: Age when she wrote a letter to Procter & Gamble protesting a commercial that suggested only women do dishes.
Getty | Chris Jackson

  • 15: Number of generations you'd have to go back in order to find a distant relationship between Meghan and Harry.
  • 21: Number of years that would pass after a 15-year-old Meghan first snapped a picture outside of Buckingham Palace before she would first enter the palace as Harry's girlfriend.
  • 24: Number on the briefcase she carried during her time on Deal or No Deal.
  • 26: Number of public engagements she and Harry made together before their wedding in May.
Getty | Charles McQuillan

  • 29.5: Price of her favorite mascara, Diorshow Iconic, in dollars.
  • 36: Age when she married Prince Harry.
  • 100: Number of miles Harry drove to pick up Meghan for Pippa Middleton's wedding reception.
  • 600: Number of guests present at her and Harry's nuptials.
  • 655: Number of acres in Crown Estate's royal park, where Meghan and Harry's new home, Adelaide Cottage, is located.
Getty | Max Mumby

  • 1,300: Size in square feet of Nottingham Cottage, where the couple have been living since the wedding.
  • 2,640: Number of members from the public invited to watch the arrival of Harry and Meghan at Windsor Castle on their wedding day — the first royal wedding to ever allow members of the public to be spectators.
  • 7,000: Cost of the diamonds she wore to her engagement announcement, in dollars.
  • 20,000: Cost of her shoe collection, which contains several pairs from designer Sarah Flint, in pounds.
Getty | John Sibley

  • 750,000: Amount of money, in dollars, that her father won in the California State Lottery in 1990, using five numbers that included Meghan's birthdate (Aug. 4, 1981).
  • 1,900,000: Number of Instagram followers she had before closing her account in January.
  • 29,000,000: Number of viewers who tuned in to watch the royal wedding in May.