Kelly and Markle were both born in the United States and married foreign royals. Kelly was born on November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to Biography, her father was a three-time Olympic gold medallist for rowing, while her mother was the first coach of women’s athletic teams at the University of Pennsylvania.

Markle was born on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Doria Ragland, was a clinical therapist and yoga instructor, while her father, Thomas Markle, worked in television as a light and photography director.

They were famous actresses

She went on to star in Mogambo opposite Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, during which time she was romantically linked to Gable. For her role as Linda Nordley, she was nominated for her first Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actress. She later won the Academy Award for best actress in 1954 for The Country Girl, beating out Judy Garland in A Star is Born.

In 2002, Markle landed her first official TV acting credit as Nurse Jill, a small role in General Hospital. However, she is best known for her role as Rachel Zane on Suits, appearing in episodes from 2011 to 2018.

They met their husbands by chance

Kelly met her husband, Prince Rainier, on a photo shoot, while Markle and Prince Harry were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. According to Harper’s Bazaar, Kelly was invited to join the United States Delegation Committee at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955. While in France for the festival, she met Prince Rainier III of Monaco on the set of a photo shoot. A year later, they were married.

In July 2016, Markle and Prince Harry were set up on a blind date at Soho House in New York City by a mutual friend. In their first sit-down interview as a couple, Markle told the BBC in 2017 that she didn’t know much about the prince or the royal family before the date.

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“Because I’m from the States, you don’t grow up with the same understanding of the royal family,” she said. “I didn’t know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, ‘Well, is he nice?’ Cause if he wasn’t kind, it just didn’t seem like it would make sense.”

They gave up on acting after getting engaged

J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote in his book, Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainier, that Kelly planned to continue her acting career after her wedding. However, the prince later said he and his wife had decided she would give it up.

“It was widely believed that it was Prince Rainier who made his wife stop acting, as Kelly had no plans of retiring at the time of their engagement,” The List said.

On November 29, 2017, immediately following the engagement announcement, it was officially confirmed that Markle would be exiting Suits after seven seasons. “From all of us at USA Network and Universal Cable Productions, we want to send our most heartfelt congratulations to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on their engagement,” USA Network said in a statement.

“Meghan has been a member of our family for seven years and it has been a joy to work with her. We want to thank her for her undeniable passion and dedication to Suits, and we wish her the very best.”

Her storyline was wrapped up with her character, Rachel Zane, marrying Patrick J. Adams, who plays her love interest Mike Ross throughout the show’s seven seasons.

Grace Kelly had to pay for her royal dowry – but Meghan Markle didn’t

Kelly had to relinquish a majority of her Hollywood fortune to pay her royal dowry, something not required of Markle.

Before meeting Prince Rainier, Kelly was on track to become one of the most financially successful actresses in the world. However, after she was asked to pay a US$2 million dowry, the equivalent of roughly US$20 million today, using her own money and family wealth, she essentially had nothing left.

When she died at the age of 52, Princess Grace only had a net worth of US$10,000 and the deed to her grandfather’s small cottage in Ireland in her own name.

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The press depicted their marriages as fairy tale love stories

Both Kelly and Markle’s engagement and wedding days received massive public attention. Both royal weddings were broadcast live to audiences around the world and described as “modern fairy tales”.

Kelly’s wedding to Rainier was the first royal wedding to ever be transmitted live.

Grace Kelly faced pressure to produce an heir, but not Meghan Markle

Prince Rainier was seeking a bride to produce an heir to the Monegasque throne, whereas Prince Harry knew he would likely never ascend.

Kelly maintained that she married for love. “When I married Prince Rainier, I married the man and not what he represented or what he was. I fell in love with him without giving a thought to anything else,” Kelly is widely quoted as saying.

They both retained their US citizenship

According to the Princess Grace Foundation, Kelly was not required to renounce her American citizenship and became a dual citizen of the United States and Monaco after marrying Prince Rainier.

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They experienced culture shock

Markle and Princess Grace both experienced culture shock after moving away from the United States. While both Markle and Kelly experienced vastly different ways of life in London and Monaco respectively after becoming royalty, they attempted to adjust to their new roles by immersing themselves in projects and causes they cared about.

“I never really liked Hollywood. I found it unreal – unreal and full of men and women whose lives were confused and full of pain,” Kelly once said. Once a royal, she supported charities working for child welfare and established her own foundation to benefit local artists.

Markle appears to have had a harder time adjusting to her royal life and the expectations that came with it. In the March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she said she was naive when she entered the marriage. Last year, the California native, Prince Harry and their son Archie all relocated to Santa Barbara after stepping back from the royal family.

However, she too has focused on causes she cares about, formerly serving as a patron of charities in the UK, and launching her non-profit foundation Archewell with Prince Harry.

They faced negativity and prejudice in the press

While there were negative reports about Kelly in the press during her time in Hollywood, Princess Grace was adored by both the people of Monaco and the Monegasque media.

Markle also spoke out about the problems she faced within the royal family that led to her and Prince Harry relinquishing their royal duties and moving to California.