London, March 9: The life of Meghan Markle, the 35-year-old American actress who is conducting a trans-Atlantic romance with Prince Harry, 32, is a strange one.
Her trip to India in January to highlight the problem of lack of sanitary wear for schoolgirls aroused so little interest that she was forced to write an article about it herself in Time magazine yesterday.
But last week when she and Harry attended a wedding of one of the prince's upper class English pals - Tom Inskip with Lara Hughes-Young, granddaughter of a British MP - there were probably more paparazzi than guests. And all with long telephoto lenses - an intimate exclusive could easily fetch $50,000-$100,000 (Rs 33 lakh to Rs 66 lakh).
The wedding took place in one of those settings people see in James Bond movies, Montego Bay in Jamaica.
The paparazzi managed to get pictures of the prince with his girlfriend. In one, she has her arm round him. He apparently had to endure "you'll be next" jokes.
Meghan arrived in a friend's private jet from Toronto, where the actress is based as she is filming in a legal drama called Suits in which she plays a character called Rachel Zane.
Harry, who was one of 14 ushers, arrived the day before the wedding on a commercial flight from London. As the Daily Mail pointed out, "the royals don't use private planes for personal engagements, so he took a Virgin Atlantic flight from Gatwick to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. The prince did splash out on a premium economy seat, costing upwards of £2,000 return (Rs 1.62 lakh)."
If Meghan does eventually marry Harry, she will have to obey strict royal protocol. She has herself drawn attention to the fact that her mother is black. "My dad is Caucasian (of Dutch and Irish descent) and my mom is African American. ... I have come to embrace (it, and) to say who I am, to share where I'm from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident mixed-race woman."
She has been married before. As a tabloid delicately pointed out: "If Markle had any reservations about returning to Jamaica, where she married her ex-husband, movie producer Trevor Engelson, in 2011, she threw caution to the wind.....(that wedding took place) at a resort just 60 miles along the coast. So is she feeling the love second time around?"
Meghan's five-day trip to India was as an ambassador for World Vision - a role that Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, also held. World Vision International describes itself as "an Evangelical Christian humanitarian aid, development and advocacy organisation".
Meghan has said: "I never wanted to be a lady who lunches - I've always wanted to be a woman who works. And this type of (charity) work is what feeds my soul, and fuels my purpose."
In her Time magazine article, she said: "I travelled to Delhi and Mumbai this January with World Vision to meet girls and women directly impacted by the stigmatisation of menstrual health and to learn how it hinders girls' education. One hundred and thirteen million adolescent girls between the ages of 12-14 in India alone are at risk of dropping out of school because of the stigma surrounding menstrual health."
"During my time in the field, many girls shared that they feel embarrassed to go to school during their periods, ill equipped with rags instead of pads, unable to participate in sports, and without bathrooms available to care for themselves, they often opt to drop out of school entirely," Meghan added.
"During my time in the slum communities outside of Mumbai, I shadowed women who are part of a micro-finance system where they manufacture sanitary napkins and sell them within the community," she went on.
Meghan is pushing for a public debate on the subject. "We need to rise above our puritanical bashfulness when it comes to talking about menstruation. Wasted opportunity is unacceptable with stakes this high. To break the cycle of poverty, and to achieve economic growth and sustainability in developing countries, young women need access to education."
