This is what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were up to a decade ago as they prep for 2020 in Canada
MEGHAN Markle and Prince Harry spent this Christmas apart from the royal family as they skipped spending the holiday with the Queen for a private break in Canada.
The new parents have had a whirlwind few years - with a royal wedding and new baby in the past 18 months alone - and their lives looked widely different a decade ago.
If we wind back to the clock to December 2009, a 28-year-old Meghan Markle had not yet landed her role in Suits and would have had no idea she was on the path to royalty.
The LA-born actress had just landed two episodes in the TV series Fringe and had previously had small roles in CSI: NY and 90210.
She had also worked as a “briefcase girl” on Deal or No Deal, between 2006 and 2007, where she carried the number 24 in the game show.
Meghan recalled her time on the show, previously saying: “I would end up standing up there forever in these terribly uncomfortable and inexpensive five-inch heels just waiting for someone to pick my number so I could go and sit down.”
Her relentless auditions would eventually pay off the following year in 2010, with her landing a role in the Robert Pattinson movie Remember Me as a bartender named Megan.
Just around the corner would be her brief cameo in Horrible Bosses as a Fed-Ex employee in 2011, and she was about to make her mark on the world of TV in the role of Rachel Zane in hit show Suits, which she starred in from 2011 to 2018.
A decade ago to the day, Meghan was dating actor and producer Trevor Engelson, who she started a relationship with in 2004, and living in LA.
They would later marry in 2011 and then divorce in August 2013 citing irreconcilable differences.
Meanwhile, in 2009, a 25-year-old Prince Harry was coming to the end of his on-and-off relationship with Zimbabwean businesswoman Chelsy Davy, who he dated from 2004 to 2010.
TV host Caroline Flack revealed in her autobiography, Storm in a C Cup, she was Harry’s “bit of rough” after the pair were introduced via mutual friends in 2009.
The presenter said they were forced to call off their romance after the “story got out”.
A young Prince Harry, along with his brother William, were given their own royal household to handle their public, military and charitable activities.
The previous year, in 2008, he had been promoted to lieutenant after doing his officer training at Sandhurst and completing a deployment to Afghanistan.
While Prince Harry skipped spending time with his family this year, a decade ago he was pictured with the rest of the royals going to church on Christmas Day.
A fresh-faced Harry was pictured with the likes of Prince Charles, Zara Phillips, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Princess Anne and Camilla as they walked to the service at Sandringham Church in King's Lynn.
Harry was snapped beaming next to older brother Prince William - 27 at the time - who was not yet engaged to long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton, who he met in 2001.
William popped the question in October 2010 and tied the knot in April 2011, and they have gone on to have three kids; Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and one-year-old Prince Louis.
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