According to Andrew Morton, one of Meghan Markle‘s biographers, when the Duchess of Sussex chose to divorce her first husband, Trevor Engelson, her in-laws at the time were utterly surprised by her decision.
The former Suits star married the Hollywood producer back in 2011 after being in a relationship with him for seven years.
Nevertheless, the couple’s marital bliss lasted for only two years and ended due to “irreconcilable differences,” and Markle returned her engagement ring to Engelson via the post office.
In his book dedicated to the life of the former actress, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, Morton claims that her separation from Engelson was entirely unexpected for him and his family, especially his parents, David and Leslie, who “had embraced her like a daughter.”
Many speculated that the reason for the divorce was due to geographical distance, as Markle had to film Suits in Toronto, whereas her husband remained in Los Angeles.
According to Ninaki Priddy, a former good friend of the Duchess of Sussex, she was also shocked by the inexplicable divorce, as she stated: “I knew they fought sometimes, but it wasn’t anything huge, and even though it was hard for the couple to be apart, they tried to make it work as Trevor would take his work to Canada to be with her and run his office remotely.”
Priddy went on to make this claim: “She is very strategic in the way she cultivates friends. Once she decides you’re not part of her life, she can be very cold. It’s this shutdown mechanism she has. There’s nothing to negotiate, she’s made her decision, and that’s it. The way she handled it, Trevor definitely had the rug pulled out from under him. He was hurt.”
Morton added: “It was such a surprise for Trevor that even at a distance of five years, he can barely contain his anger — the normally laid back New Yorker switching gear from his usual ‘hi bro, how’s it going’ to a cold fury when her name comes into the conversation.”
Thomas Markle Jr. also spoke about his former brother-in-law and revealed: “I met Trevor two or three times before my grandmother’s funeral — he’s a really good guy, really nice guy. But then, at my grandmother’s funeral, I saw this side of Meghan, like scowling at him and him cowering like a puppy dog and doing what he’s told. And really just treating him like … and he worshipped the ground she walked on.”
It appears that the approach with which Meghan ended her first marriage also caused a rift in her friendship with Priddy, who described her as being “very calculated, in the way she handled people and relationships.”
After Markle’s divorce, she married Prince Harry, and they now share a son — Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
