Living with her mother in a dark and dingy second-floor apartment at the back of a nondescript street in the heart of Los Angeles, no one imagined Meghan Markle would become royalty in the House of Windsor almost three decades later.
These are the modest childhood homes of the Duchess of Sussex as she was pushed from pillar to post by her mother Doria Ragland and father Thomas Markle before and after their divorce.
The modest housing is in stark contrast to her grand abode now in Kensington Palace, where she and Prince Harry live in a two-bedroom cottage.
Her humble beginnings started on Providencia Street, in Woodland Hills, where she lived with her parents and half-siblings Thomas Jr and Samantha.
Both her brother and sister have recently spoken out vehemently against ‘Princess Pushy’ for allegedly turning her back on the dysfunctional family.
Meghan’s modest beginnings were in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she lived with both her parents and half-siblings Thomas Jr and Samantha
This is the two-bedroom house (pictured in 2018) where Meghan lived with her family until she was two years old
The Duchess of Sussex, here on her birthday August 4, lived in multiple modest homes before finding fame with her role in Suits and marrying Prince Harry
Meghan lived on the property until she was two years old and it was the biggest and ‘flashiest’ home she lived in during her youth.
It was located opposite a country club – but the inside was fraught with problems, according to acclaimed biographer Andrew Morton, who wrote the book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.
Thomas Jr smoked weed all day and even her mother would share a joint with a neighbor, while TV lighting director Thomas worked night and day, and wild teen Samantha would be out clubbing.
Doria and Thomas had married at the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple on Sunset Blvd, in a ‘hippie wedding’ in December 1979.
They divorced four years later and Meghan went to live with her mother in a top-floor apartment on S. Cloverdale Ave, Mid-Wilshire.
It was once the garage and loft space for the main front property.
This was recently renovated and is currently for rent at $3,950 a month, ten times what her mother would have been paying over 30 years previously.
Although Meghan lived in this modest apartment until she was 11, she attended a prestigious private nursery and kindergarten called Little Red Schoolhouse which starts at $18,800 a year for kindergarten and $22,600 year for sixth-grade.
The modest top-floor apartment where Meghan lived with her mother Doria after her parents divorce. It was previously the garage and loft space for the main front property
Doria and Meghan lived behind the main property (pictured) on South Cloverdale Avenue in the Mid-Wilshire neighborhood of LA
This is the interior of the main front property, which has been renovated and currently on the rental market
The home is listed for rent for $3,950 a month, ten times what her mother would have been paying over 30 years ago
Interior shots of the main home show a renovated kitchen and views from the balcony
The school was a short walk from Sunset Gower Studios where her Emmy-winning father worked on the set of Married With Children and where she would spend her days after school.
Her mother Doria, 62, had a less glamorous location for her line of business, which was still only a stone’s throw away from the school – now called the Hollywood Schoolhouse.
She owned a gift shop called Distant Treasures and a clothing store called A Change of a Dress – both at the same location on N. La Brea St in Hancock Park for 14 years – until she went bankrupt in 2009.
As can be seen in our photos, the run-down shopping precinct is now home to a liquor store, kosher market, and an aquarium, which is where Doria’s shop was situated.
When Meghan moved on to the $15,900-a-year Immaculate Heart High School, which she attended from 1991 to 1999, she lived with her dad on Vista Del Mar Avenue, a shabby street behind the Hollywood strip, only a few hundred yards from one of Scientology’s most important buildings, founder L. Ron Hubbard Life Exhibition.
This is where Thomas recently said in an interview that he’d warned his daughter off the controversial religion after catching her lingering outside the building.
Her father’s apartment was on the ground floor and had two tiny bedrooms with bars across the windows.
She lived there until she was 17. Now the place has been renovated, as photos show the kitchen, living room and two bedrooms that she shared with her dad throughout her teenage years.
Meghan’s mother Doria, 62, previously owned a gift shop called Distant Treasures and a clothing store called A Change of a Dress – both at the same location on N. La Brea Ave in Hancock Park – just a few blocks away from Meghan’s elementary school for 14 years – until she went bankrupt in 2009. The run-down shopping precinct is now home to a liquor store, kosher market, and an aquarium (pictured) which is where Doria’s shop was situated
Meghan split her time between Doria’s home and her father’s two-bedroom ground-floor apartment in Hollywood (pictured) while she was attending high school
Now the place has been renovated and these interior shots were taken from a real estate site Bricks and Mortar Inc where the property is currently being advertised for rent
The house is a short distance from her Immaculate Heart High School in Hollywood
Meghan lived in the home throughout her teenage years until she left to attend college
Meghan split her time between her father Thomas’s house in Hollywood and her mom Doria’s house in Mid-Wilshire while she was in high school
According to Morton’s book, ‘it made sense for her to live with her father during the week.’
‘It was a decision that would have far-reaching implications for the way she was seen by her new teachers and classmates…The older she became, the more she felt she was the one who was mothering her father. It was a source of friction, especially when she started dating,’ the book states.
Meghan also had various part-time jobs and volunteer work including bussing tables and serving food at the Hippie Kitchen in Downtown Los Angeles, a Catholic set up to help the homeless living in the notorious Skid Row.
She was an assistant at the Paper Store in Beverly Hills, where she also taught calligraphy, and served frozen yogurt at Humphrey Yogart, in Sherman Oaks.
When she left high school to attend Northwestern University in Illinoisshe met film producer Trevor Engelson in a bar on one of her visits back home in LA.
‘When Meghan first met him on that night out in West Hollywood, she liked what she saw and was attracted to his passion, drive, and ambition. He was a guy with an aphorism for every occasion. ‘Hope is the greatest currency we have in this business,’ he told the wide-eyed wannabe.’ True or not, it’s a great pick-up line,’ Morton wrote.
The pair lived behind Whisky A Go-Go, a notorious club on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, where Engelson still lives today and Meghan resided there until getting her big break in Suits and relocating to Toronto for filming in 2011, divorcing the 41-year-old two years later.
Meghan attended the private Immaculate Heart High School from the age of 11 upto 18, fees now are $15,900 a year
She attended a prestigious private nursery and kindergarten school called Little Red Schoolhouse, pictured, which cost $18,800 a year for kindergarten. It is now called Hollywood Schoolhouse
This is where Meghan and her first husband Trevor Engleson lived – behind Whisky A Go-Go, a notorious club on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood on Hilldale Ave. Engelson reportedly still lives there today
Meghan met her ex-husband in bar in 2004. They married in 2011 but split two years later
Yet it was her childhood that defined Meghan, the aspiring actress and now adored royal. ‘While her childhood experiences were the crucible that set her on the path to activism,’ says Morton.
‘Her mother believes that she was hardwired from birth to try to make the world a better and more equal place. In short, she had a moral compass.’
Despite wanting to be a Hollywood star, it was her faith that was equally important and the central pillar for Meghan and Doria.
So much so, that we can disclose she was once a youth minister for the Agape International Spiritual Center, which her mum is still a member today, along with TV host Oprah Winfrey.
Sharon Fox, now an executive producer at California Motion Picture Company, was also a member and told her Facebook followers about bumping into the duchess and her husband Prince Harry in Dublin earlier this month.
‘It was such a nice surprise to bump into them when I went to Dublin to view the Book of Kells. Meghan was very sweet and I had a short chat with her during her stop on the walk about regarding our church, the Agape International Spiritual Center, and our mutual minister, Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith… Meghan was a youth minister at my church, Agape, in LA years ago when I used to volunteer with the babies and toddlers on Church Sunday at Agape… I can not recall if I ever met her back then but it is clear she radiates that Agape spirit where ever she goes.’
Her new digs: Meghan’s childhood homes are a far cry from her new home in Kensington Palace (pictured)
Meghan and Harry moved into Nottingham Cottage, opposite Princess Diana’s former home