It was at this juncture that Meghan spotted how politics could further her trajectory to ever greater success. Canada is a more left wing society than the United States. Although Hollywood paid lip service to leftist causes, its primary aim was success through film. Compared with even the most right-wing of Canadians, woke Hollywood seemed curiously right of centre, to such an extent that the former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney seemed frighteningly leftist to even the most left of American Democrats. If you consider that Meghan’s Canadian circles now consisted of members of the political elite of both the left and right, and that there was a consensus amongst Canadians of all political hues that humanitarianism was a social obligation, it becomes obvious that Meghan would be incentivised to resume the humanitarian activities which she had abandoned once she started making her way in the world. During the years that she was struggling to achieve as an actress, she could have volunteered had she been inclined to do so. Often time had lain so heavily on her hands that she had taken to her bed with a bottle for comfort, but the truth is, she was too focused on realising her ambitions, and was also too intent on having a good time, travelling the world with Trevor, visiting places such as Vietnam and Central America, or just partying with him and making herself as visible on the social scene as she could, to bother with humanitarianism.
Now, however, that she was in an environment where such conduct would elevate her from being just another actress on the make, to a caring person whose tender sensibilities for the less fortunate would earn her the respect of her new associates, Meghan reconnected with the altruism that had gained her the approbation of her theology teacher at Immaculate Heart, Maria Pollia, all those years ago when she had volunteered at the Hippie Kitchen. She asked her newfound friends to refer her to a community project, and was duly introduced to the St. Felix Centre, earning the regard of those she helped as well as those who had helped her with the placement.
Meghan’s good works with the centre might have gone unnoticed by the world outside of St Felix Centre and her circle of friends and colleagues from that time, if the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had not chosen the Centre as one of the 12 charities which they highlighted in December 2019 on their Instagram for the good works each charity does to help ‘the lonely, hungry and homeless.’ St. Felix Centre then published the sole photograph which had been taken of Meghan while she was volunteering with them, and issued a statement:
“We feel very grateful to have been highlighted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, as one of the 12 charities doing important work worldwide.
“This photo has Meghan volunteering in our kitchen.
“Meghan Markle was an active supporter and volunteer of St Felix Centre during her time living in the city working on
Suits.
“She volunteered on a regular basis in our kitchen as part of our Community Meals Program.
“The Duchess also donated food from the set of
Suits
, and on one Thanksgiving she brought all the food, turkeys and the fixings for over 100 people.”
The charity ended their proclamation stating what ‘fond memories’ they had of ‘lovely Meghan’, providing an insight not only into the way Meghan functioned, but also why people such as the Mulroneys and Trudeaus held her in such high regard.
It was in the third of the seven seasons during which Meghan played Rachel Zane, that her marriage to Trevor started to unravel. In his biography Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, Andrew Morton implies that Meghan began to despise Trevor because she had started looking down on him now that she had moved up in the world. He wasn’t doing as well as she’d have liked, and moreover his exuberant personality had started to grate now that she was mixing in a more refined circle.
Trevor had always been laidback where she was controlled and controlling. He would arrive for appointments slightly late and dishevelled, his shirt out of his trousers and maybe a spot of food on his lapel, while the perfectly contained and self-possessed Meghan was always immaculately turned out, Mixing as she now was in a world where people were more restrained than in Hollywood, Trevor’s New York enthusiasm came across as tacky, his enthusiasm crass, and his breeziness off-putting.
As Meghan had become more and more successful in Suits, he had started travelling to Toronto every few weeks to be with her, even doing as much of his work there as he could. By then he had also opened an office in New York, as much to be closer to her as for commercial reasons. While he thought being with her in Toronto would improve their marriage, in reality his presence had the opposite effect. Moreover, his career was going nowhere and that, added to his stylistic deficiencies, lessened his appeal. He had gone from being Trevity-Trev-Trev, without whom she could not imagine life, to someone she had grown beyond. ‘Meg used to tell me she couldn’t imagine a life without Trevor. She said if anything were to happen to him she wouldn’t be able to go on. He cherished her too. You should have seen the way he used to hold her face in his hands. We all felt he was her eternal love,’ Nikki Priddy said, struggling to reconcile Meghan’s volte face concerning Trevor.
This change of heart, which struck Trevor as coming like a bolt out of the blue, had actually been brewing for some time. Success had had an
