Meghan Markle Made Her TV Debut In A Classic Soap Opera That's Still Worth Watching Today

As an actor, Meghan Markle is best known for her role as Rachel Zane on "Suits," but her career actually had relatively humble beginnings. Meghan has revealed surprising details about her life as a struggling actress since she shot to fame, and one of the small roles she landed before hitting the jackpot on "Suits" was in "General Hospital." One of the longest-running soap operas in history, it's still worth a watch today, thanks to the show's many intricate storylines and bucketloads of drama. Since "General Hospital" originally aired in 1963, the popular soap has gone from strength to strength, and even as similar shows died out, it held steady. 

In the early 2000s, Meghan made an appearance on "General Hospital" as a nurse named Jill. It was a small role, and she had less than five lines to memorize. The episode featuring the future royal aired in November 2002, and while her appearance was brief, Meghan left a lasting impression on casting director Mark Teschner. "Even as a 19-year-old she had great skill, presence and poise," he enthused to The Toronto Sun in 2018. "She was lovely. Even back then, she had the 'it' factor." 

In the streaming age, where the focus tends to be on numbers instead of substance and shows get axed without as much as a second thought, it is nothing short of remarkable that "General Hospital" is still going strong. In fact, the beloved soap won a Daytime Emmy in 2026 for outstanding drama series. It was the show's sixth consecutive win, and its 19th time bagging the award. Needless to say, the fact "General Hospital" is still raking in awards means it's definitely worth tuning in six decades into its run. After all, it's also averaging around 2 million viewers per day.

"General Hospital" isn't the only show in which Meghan Markle played a small role before she got her big break in "Suits" — Meghan spent her childhood on the set of the classic American sitcom "Married... with Children." "My dad was a lighting director and director of photography for 'Married... with Children,'" the Duchess of Sussex recalled in a 2018 interview with Esquire. "Every day after school for 10 years, I was on the set of 'Married... with Children,' which is a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school uniform to grow up." She also appeared in two episodes of "Fringe" in 2009. Meghan portrayed FBI Special Agent Amy Jessup and then abruptly vanished, with fans questioning where she went. Showrunner Jeff Pinker had plans to bring Amy back, but they were thwarted when Meghan landed the role of Rachel Zane on "Suits." 

As avid fans know, the duchess also famously appeared on "Deal or No Deal" as one of the briefcase models. Then, of course, there are the two Hallmark movies Meghan starred in before meeting Prince Harry — "When Sparks Fly" and "Dater's Handbook." In a candid essay she penned for Elle in 2015, the jobbing actor chronicled her rocky road to success, noting that being biracial made it even harder to land parts. "There couldn't possibly be a more label-driven industry than acting," Meghan pointed out. "I wasn't Black enough for the Black roles and I wasn't white enough for the white ones, leaving me somewhere in the middle as the ethnic chameleon who couldn't book a job." Rachel, who has a Black father and a white mother, was ultimately "the Goldilocks of my acting career."