Before Meghan Markle married Prince Harry and became the Duchess of Sussex,
she was a working actress who starred in the TV series "Suits." She was also married to
a Hollywood producer named Trevor Engelson. The couple reportedly first met in 2006, and announced
their engagement in 2010. They eventually walked down the aisle on September 10, 2011.
Meghan's marriage to Engelson lasted for only two years. In 2013, the couple filed for
divorce citing "irreconcilable differences." The divorce was made final in August 2013,
just three years before the actress met her second husband, Prince Harry. Meghan and Harry reportedly
began dating in July 2016, and were engaged by November 2017. They tied the knot in May
2018 during a lavish ceremony at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. The ceremony was
attended by Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, but her father and siblings were famously not invited.
Since then, Meghan's father and siblings have been open in their criticism of the Duchess
of Sussex. In fact, her half brother, Thomas Markle Jr., even issued a warning about Harry
and Meghan's marriage. Thomas is currently competing on "Big Brother VIP," and has been
hitting the headlines for all the comments he's been making about his famous sister
while the cameras are rolling. Thomas said of Meghan's first husband, Trevor Engelson,
"The guy she was married to the first time, she just walked all over him and dumped him."
"That's cold blooded."
Next, Thomas moved in on Prince Harry, saying,
"Harry's on the chopping block next."
Earlier this year, Thomas penned an open letter to Harry and Meghan,
and warned that his sister would ruin the prince's life. Thomas declared,
"I told Prince Harry, 'I think she's going to ruin your life' — she's very shallow."
Meanwhile, royal expert Sarah Vine recently suggested that Thomas' comments are giving Meghan
a "taste of her own medicine." While appearing on the "Palace Confidential" show, Vine said,
"I think she's about to find out what it feels like to have someone cash in on your family,
which is what the Queen has been dealing with for the last 18 months."
Meghan and her brother may never reconcile. However,
Thomas' opinions about his sister's marriage are far from unique. A few months ago,
Lady Colin Campbell, who authored "Meghan and Harry: The Real Story," told Page Six,
"She and Harry won't last. Once she became the royal Duchess of Sussex,
it was off with everyone's head."
Campbell seems to feel that the current situation with Meghan and Harry living in California,
far from Harry's friends and family, is something Meghan very deliberately set up
in advance of the divorce she may be planning. As Campbell alleged,
"She's picked America and a communal property state and has two children.
She's got him. Difficult for him to get out. He's entrapped."
Even before Meghan Markle and Prince Harry tied the knot, Business Insider assessed
their chances of marital success according to social science. For starters, the age of
the couple at the time they married is a strike against them, statistically speaking. He was 33,
she was 36, and the numbers say you should marry by age 32 for better odds of marital longevity.
Every year above that age reportedly increases the chance of divorce by 5 percent. Meghan's
prior marriage also indicates that her second marriage might not work out, either,
since by now she knows divorce is definitely doable if things aren't going her way.
Both Meghan and Harry are themselves children of divorce, and having a lot of conflict in the
family can be a predictor of kids' tendency to divorce their spouses when they grow up.
If both partners had been raised in loving, stable homes post-parental divorce,
that would decrease their divorce odds, but Harry has made it very clear that growing up royal was
hardly stress-free, while Meghan famously does not get along with many of her family members.
One final indicator that Meghan and Harry's story won't have a happy ending,
oddly enough, was their propensity for PDA back in the days when they
were posing for the cameras on a regular basis. Studies show that the most loved-up
couples may be more likely to split up when the initial thrill of the romance wears off.
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