Meghan Markle was born on August 4, 1981 at West Park Hospital in Canoga Park, a Los Angeles neighborhood, and grew up in the View Park-Windsor Hills and Hollywood areas of the city.

Her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, African American of Nigerian origins, is a social worker and yoga instructor, while her father, Thomas Wayne Markle. Meghan has two older half-siblings, Yvonne Samantha and Thomas Jr., from her father's first wife, Roslyn Loveless. Meghan was only two years old. when her parents divorce.

Since June 2016, her association with Prince Henry of Wales, second son of Charles III of the United Kingdom and Lady Diana, as well as grandson of Elizabeth II, has been made known to the general public. On November 27, 2017, their engagement was officially announced by the Royal House of Windsor.

In preparation for the wedding, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, baptized Meghan in the Anglican Church on 6 March 2018. The private ceremony was performed with water from the River Jordan in the Royal Chapel of St. James's Palace.

On 15 October 2018 Kensington Palace announced that the couple were expecting their first child, born on 6 May 2019 at Portland Hospital in Westminster, a boy, who is named Archie Harrison. In November 2020, the Duchess officially declared that she had lost a child due to a miscarriage, precisely in the month of July. On 14 February 2021 it was announced via a photo on Instagram that the Duchess was expecting her second child, on 7 March 2021 it was revealed that the baby on the way was a girl, born on 4 June 2021 at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California , who is called Lilibet Diana.