Meghan Markle on the Queen’s Death and Life After the Oprah Interview

Meghan Markle is speaking out about the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her explosive Oprah interview with Prince Harry, her future as an actress, and more in a new interview with Variety.

The Queen died in September and Meghan and Harry joined the royal family in the U.K. for the funeral and other engagements.

Markle shared, “There’s been such an outpouring of love and support. I’m really grateful that I was able to be with my husband to support him, especially during that time. What’s so beautiful is to look at the legacy that his grandmother was able to leave on so many fronts. Certainly, in terms of female leadership, she is the most shining example of what that looks like. I feel deep gratitude to have been able to spend time with her and get to know her. It’s been a complicated time, but my husband, ever the optimist, said, ‘Now she’s reunited with her husband.’”

Meghan’s first solo outing with the Queen was in 2018, when they traveled to Cheshire about a month after Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

Markle shared, “I’ve reflected on that first official engagement that I had with her, how special that felt. I feel fortunate. And I continue to be proud to have had a nice warmth with the matriarch of the family.”

As far as how they are processing the loss, the actress said, “In big moments in life, you get a lot of perspective. It makes you wonder what you want to focus your energy on. Right now, we feel energized and excited about all of the things we’ve been building toward. We’re also focused on our foundation. So much of the work we do includes the philanthropic space.”

In March 2021, Harry and Meghan sat down with Oprah for a far-reaching interview with no stone was left unturned. Issues of race and of how welcomed Meghan felt when joining the royal family were among the most eye-opening topics.

Now, Meghan recalls the reaction received the first time she went out after the interview. At the time she was expecting her daughter Lilibet, who just turned 1.

“Even before the interview, I hadn’t been out because I was so pregnant,” she said. “The one thing I really remember was Gloria Steinem’s birthday, a few days after it aired.”

She thought it would be an intimate party but ended up being “an extravaganza.”

“Walking into a room alone is never easy for me, and I remember feeling a bit uncomfortable,” Meghan said. “But before I could let my uncertainty linger, Pamela Adlon came up to me and greeted me with such warmth and kindness. She toured me around the room, and at every turn, more generosity and love was felt. Maybe it’s just a testament to the kind of company Glo keeps, but I also think these women were extraordinary to ensure I felt so welcomed. It’s like they knew exactly what I needed to feel in that moment. It meant, and still means, so very much to me. The power of sisterhood and female support can never be underestimated.”

She’s also battling misconceptions about herself with her podcast “Archetypes.”

“I think that what happens, looking in from the outside, when there is this much noise, is that you become dehumanized,” the Duchess said. “But if you remember that someone is a human being, then you don’t treat them, talk about them, look at them the same way. My hope for ‘Archetypes’ is that people come out thinking, ‘Oh! She’s a real person! She laughs and asks questions and approaches things with curiosity.”

She also has a docuseries with Harry on the way with director Liz Garbus.

“It’s nice to be able to trust someone with our story — a seasoned director whose work I’ve long admired — even if it means it may not be the way we would have told it,” she explained, “But that’s not why we’re telling it. We’re trusting our story to someone else, and that means it will go through their lens.

She added, “It’s interesting. My husband has never worked in this industry before. For me, having worked on ‘Suits,’ it’s so amazing to be around so much creative energy and to see how people work together and share their own points of view. That’s been really fun.”

Meghan also commented on being part of the industry before the #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite movements.

“We didn’t have a name for it at that time. There were just certain things that were accepted. If there was any discomfort, you just dealt with it,” she said. “It forced a lot of women to live with this idea of staying silent, not being disruptive, not giving voice to the things that might create concern or discomfort.

Looking back she said, “For me, I had tried for so long to land on a show, filming all these pilots, wondering if they would get picked up. All of Season 1 on ‘Suits,’ I was convinced I was going to get recast. All the time. It got to a point where the creator was like, ‘Why are you so worried about this?’”

Would she ever go back to acting? “No. I’m done. I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not,” she said.

She said the idea of another actress playing her is “weird,” adding, “Anyone talking about me or casting an actor to play me, that will be a caricature of me that has been created for a business that makes people a lot of money. Once you can separate that out, it’s much easier to go: ‘OK. That actually has nothing to do with me.’ It genuinely doesn’t. It’s a hard lesson to come to grips with.”

Meghan did have some advice for anyone trying to play her, “I hope that in preparing for that role, she finds the softness and the playfulness and the laughter. The silliness. I just hope she finds the dimensions. Also, she can call me!”

Is she open to Archie and Lilibet pursuing a job in entertainment?

“I would say, ‘Great!’ When you become a parent, you genuinely want your kids to find the things that bring them complete joy. They’re our kids, obviously, and they’re part of a legacy and a tradition and a family that will have other expectations. But I want them to be able to carve out their own path,” Markle insisted. “If it’s the entertainment industry, great. And also, good luck. There are so many people that will talk about what opened the door for my children. But it still takes talent and a lot of grit. We’re creating multi-dimensional, interesting, kind, creative people. That’s who our kids are.”

She revealed Prince Harry’s love of In-N-Out burger!

The couple lives in Montecito and she shared, “It’s funny. People sometimes think we live in Los Angeles, but we’re a good two hours outside of it. We’re commuters. We drove down recently for a day of back-to-back meetings, equipped with chocolate chip cookies the size of my toddler’s head. Also, my husband’s favorite is In-N-Out. There’s one at the halfway point between L.A. and our neck of the woods. It’s really fun to go through the drive-thru and surprise them. They know our order.”'

Meghan goes on to reveal she plays a "mean game of Scrabble" and that she "loves to cook" in a video interview with Variety. Check it out!