Describing how the American actress “tripped and fell” into his life, the fifth-in-line to the throne, famously described as Britain’s most eligible bachelor, said he soon realised he needed “good chat” to impress Meghan.

With little known about the former Suits star beyond her Instagram feed, lifestyle website and a smattering of interviews with chat show hosts, a picture is starting to emerge of a ready-made royal with the potential to modernise the monarchy beyond Princess Diana’s wildest dreams.

Unlike Harry’s previous girlfriends, the 36-year-old philanthropist already has a profile of charitable campaigning and, crucially, is experienced with the media.

No wonder Harry, 33, could not believe his luck when they were introduced by a mutual friend in London in July last year.

“The fact I know that she’ll be really unbelievably good at the job part of it as well is obviously a huge relief to me because she’ll be able to deal with everything else that comes with it,” he said in the couple’s joint engagement interview.

“We’re a fantastic team, we know we are, and we hope to have as much impact for all the things we care about as possible.”

Seeing Meghan through the prism of her role as sexy paralegal Rachel Zane on the US drama Suits, it’s easy to forget that the privately educated budding humanitarian graduated from Northwestern University, one of the most prestigious in America, considered on a par with Harvard, Yale and Stanford.

She studied theatre and international studies, which included an internship at the US embassy in Buenos Aires, graduating in 2003.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, by a white father and black mother, Meghan has written insightfully about her mixed race heritage.

Referring to her father Thomas Markle and her mother Doria Radlan in a magazine article in 2015, she wrote: “My dad is Caucasian, my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.”

Describing how passers-by in her leafy Valley neighbourhood would mistake her mother for her nanny due to the differences in their skin colour, she described how her father took apart and customised a Barbie set so she could have a black mother doll, a white father doll and a child in each colour.

She also wrote movingly about how her mother was called the “N-word” at the height of the LA riots and how she was pegged as “ethnically ambiguous” by the acting industry.

Having faced such discrimination, it’s hardly surprising that Meghan started campaigning for equality from an early age.

Having lobbied then-US first lady Hillary Clinton to get a washing-up liquid commercial changed that suggested only women did the dishes, the 11-year-old Meghan resolved to make a difference.

Twenty years on she would make a 10-minute speech to the UN in her capacity as women’s advocate for participation and leadership in which she declared: “I am proud to be a woman and a feminist.”

Speaking without notes in the eloquent and erudite address in front of then-UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, she said: “A wife is equal to her husband, a sister to her brother – not better, not worse, they are equal. UN Women has defined 2030 as the expiration date for gender inequality, and here’s what’s staggering: the studies show that at the current rate, the elimination of gender inequality won’t be possible until 2095.”

Calling for women to have a “seat at the table” she added: “It isn’t simply enough to talk about equality, we need to believe in it. It isn’t simply enough to believe in equality, we need to work at it.”

Meghan put her money where her mouth is when dealing with TV bosses who kept on opening scenes in Suits with the stage direction: “Rachel, dressed in a towel.”

She said: “The moment that Rachel starts to become a role model off camera and getting feedback or letters from young women or their moms going, ‘Oh my goodness my daughter can look up to you and say I’m bi-racial, I can be like that too’, that’s when it becomes important.

“I do a lot of work with UN Women so I take it so seriously. Does the scene really need to open with Rachel in her skivvies? No. I don’t think that is necessary.

“There is a lot of overlap when you’re on TV and a lot of people often get separated from the idea of you being both beautiful and covered up and I’m fortunate that I have bosses who respect me saying that.”

Meghan was a freelance calligrapher before landing acting roles in shows including the sci-fi drama Fringe, the soap opera General Hospital and cameos in films such as Horrible Bosses and A Lot Like Love, where she was simply billed as “Hot girl”.

She even had a brief stint as the “briefcase girl” on Deal Or No Deal. Once declaring in a blog post “I never wanted to be a lady who lunches”, Meghan combined her acting career with ambassadorial work for World Vision, visiting the charity’s Clean Water campaign in Rwanda.

She counts Canadian prime minster Justin Trudeau among her impressive network of friends – a transatlantic cast list of “bright young things” which include Harry’s close friend Violet von Westenholz – thought to be the chum who introduced them.

Fashion designer Misha Nonoo is also believed to have had a hand in the blind date “set-up”.

A dog lover, a self-proclaimed “good cook” and purveyor of handwritten notes, yoga-loving, organic food-eating Meghan founded the lifestyle website The Tig, which she described as a “digital conversation between girlfriends”.

The blog, containing fashion, beauty and wellness content, was intended to be a place to publish inspiring pieces for young women although the website was closed in April, six months after the Sunday Express broke the world exclusive news of her relationship with Prince Harry.

A note on the website read: “I knew that girls were checking the site to see fashion tips or how to get a stellar blow dry, but in reframing the beauty content to include think pieces about self-empowerment, or feature dynamic women such as [Pakistani writer] Fatima Bhutto, I was hoping to integrate social consciousness and subjects of higher value than, let’s say... selfies...”

Meghan has also ended her line of women’s fashion with Canadian clothing company Reitmans. Educated at an all-girl private Catholic school in LA thanks to a reported lottery win by her father Thomas – an Emmy-winning lighting director – Meghan is extremely close to both parents, particularly her mother Doria, 60.

The social psychotherapist and yoga instructor flew 5,000 miles to join Meghan and Harry at the Invictus Games closing ceremony in Toronto in September, where she was photographed being hugged by the Prince.

“Her mum’s amazing,” declared a clearly besotted Harry in their recent interview.

Despite their seemingly vastly different backgrounds, Harry and Meghan do have some shared ancestry.

Meghan is a descendant of Captain Christopher Hussey, who was appointed in 1679 by King Charles II to govern the province of Hampton, New Hampshire, and was the founding father of Nantucket.

It was reported that Hussey was a descendant of nobleman John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, who was a descendant of King John and beheaded in 1537 on King Henry VIII’s orders.

She is also descended from the Bowes family, making her a distant cousin of Harry via his great-grandmother the Queen Mother.