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How To Spend Your Spare Time Like Meghan Markle

Here are seven hobbies Meghan reportedly loves to do.

by Alice Broster
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Since they got married in May 2018, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been seriously busy. In the last two years they’ve moved to LA, visited countries around the world, and put their name to so many important causes. But what do the famous pair do in their time off? Meghan is aspirational for so many reasons but if you want the lowdown on what she gets up to for fun, here’s seven hobbies that Meghan Markle loves. It turns out that, prior to joining the royal family, she was queen of the side hustle.

You may have known Meghan as Rachel from Suits before it was announced that she was dating Prince Harry. However, alongside her acting career she had a successful lifestyle blog, The Tig. She wrote for almost three years before closing it down in April 2017. The Tig offered a little insight into Meghan’s world. In an interview with Best Health she said, “The concept was really to have a hub for all the things I find exciting. There’s no strategy to it, which is perhaps the reason for its success. It just organically comes from me about the things I want to share.”

And blogging wasn’t the only writing that Meghan had a passion for. Here’s seven ways to spend your time like Meghan Markle.

Calligraphy

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Acting isn’t always the most stable profession and in 2013 Meghan told Esquire that between acting jobs she’d worked as a calligraphy artist. This started as a hobby that Meghan honed until she was writing wedding and party invitations for some serious Hollywood names such as Dolce and Gabbana’s celebrity correspondences. She said she learnt the basics while she was at school and her beautiful penmanship feeds into the fact that she also really loves letters.

"I would sit there with a little white tube sock on my hand so no hand oils got on the card, trying to pay my bills while auditioning," she told Esquire. "I'm glad that in the land of no one seeming to appreciate a handwritten note anymore that I can try to keep that alive."

Journalling & Blogging

Meghan’s love for writing extended beyond the art of calligraphy. She not only ran her lifestyle blog, The Tig but has also said that she really enjoys journalling too.

Both herself and Prince Harry were advocates for Heads Together, the mental health initiative established by the young royals. When they appeared on Teenager Therapy podcast she said, “You have to find certain things that work for you. For me, I think journalling is a really powerful thing. It allows me to reflect on where I've come from. With that comes a lot of perspective. When you look back on something, it doesn't seem that big."

Cooking

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One of the perks of being a royal must be that you get to visit some of the best restaurants in the world. However, Meghan’s passion for food precedes her relationship with Prince Harry.

It was reported that when they got engaged in Nov. 2017 Meghan was cooking a roast chicken and in an interview with Good Housekeeping she said, “There is nothing as delicious (or as impressive) as a perfectly roasted chicken. It’s a game changer. I bring that to dinner parties and make a lot of friends.”

A big part of her lifestyle blog, The Tig was to do with food and wellness and one of her first initiatives as a royal was also to do with food. In 2018 she produced Together: Our Community Cookbook. It was a collection of recipes gathered by women who had lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower fire and had come together in the Hubb Community Kitchen in West London.

Yoga

Meghan has always stuck true to her California roots and been open about how much she loves yoga and meditation. Her mum, Doria Ragland, used to be a yoga teacher and in Vogue Meghan revealed that one of her favourite workouts has a yoga element. She said she really enjoys the Ritual class at London fitness studio Heartcore because it “puts its energy towards internal beauty, celebrating the power of breathing and meditation, and [includes] a favourite workout that urges you to use your heart as much as your core."

Travel

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While Meghan has traveled a lot with Prince Harry it was a big part of her life before. It’s been reported that she’s worked abroad and in 2015 she travelled around New Zealand in a camper van.

The Sun also said that before her social media pages were closed down she wrote, “I always want off the beaten path, Anthony Bourdain-inspired travel.”

Theatre

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Meghan studied theatre and international relations at Northwestern University, combining two of her loves. Good Housekeeping reported that she chose to combine two of her passions as she "hated the idea of being this cliché — a girl from L.A. who decides to be an actress."

While she never performed on stage, during her time in the UK Meghan lent her time, platform, and knowledge to raise awareness for initiatives run by the National Theatre in London.

Bookbinding

It’d seem that Meghan has led many other lives. While she was acting and freelancing as a calligrapher she would also teach the art of bookbinding. Not the most common hobby, but during her tour of Africa in Sept. 2019 she visited a social enterprise studio in Johannesburg which supported start-ups and craftsmen. She bought three books and said she used to practice bookbinding too.

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