On Wednesday, the news broke that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are planning a return to the UK. (The couple famously left Harry’s home country in 2020, announcing they would step back from royal duties and begin preparing their eventual move to Montecito, California.)
Many outlets and royal watchers immediately began speculating about the reasoning for the move. Following the couple’s reconciliation with King Charles earlier this summer during a private visit to Highgrove with their children Archie and Lilibet, did it signal a thawing of reported tensions between the Sussexes and the senior members of the British royal family? With reports that their two children had already been enrolled at schools in the UK to begin the academic term in September, was it a desire to give Archie and Lilibet the kind of classic English education that Harry himself received at the prestigious boarding school Eton?
According to new reports today, there might well be another motivation for the surprise move: Meghan’s acting career.
It’s easy to forget after her nearly decade-long stint as a royal and a lifestyle guru, but Meghan had a long career as a working actor before meeting Harry—most notably, of course, in her starring role as Rachel Zane on the hit legal drama Suits. And there have already been whispers that the Duchess was eager to return to the silver screen: While the couple has been closely involved with producing several TV series and films over recent years, including documentaries on subjects close to Harry’s heart like polo championships and the Invictus Games, we already knew Meghan would be stepping back in front of the camera with a cameo appearance in the upcoming comedy film Close Personal Friends.
But according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Meghan is in “advanced talks” to join the third season of the legendary director Guy Ritchie’s hit Netflix show The Gentlemen, which has historically been filmed across various soundstages and locations in the south of England. (According to THR, Ritchie and Markle met “through mutual acquaintances”—hardly a surprise given their connections within Britain’s social elite, and the fact that Ritchie has his own nostalgia-laced lifestyle brand, The Cashmere Caveman Company.)
While both titles acknowledged that the news is far from confirmed—Netflix has yet to publicly confirm the show’s renewal—it would certainly make for a splashy screen return for Markle. Plus, we all know that Hollywood loves a comeback.