Publish date: 2024-01-08

Even Meghan Markle can’t fathom what has made her old USA Network drama “Suits” pop off on streaming services this year, but she’s here for it.

While walking the red carpet at Variety’s Power of Women event Thursday, Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, was informed by Variety’s senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson that the legal drama has now crossed 45 billion minutes streamed on Netflix and Peacock combined, as of Nielsen’s latest weekly streaming report, released earlier Thursday.

“Isn’t that wild?” said Markle, who starred as paralegal Rachel Zane on “Suits.”

Markle said she has “no idea” what has caused the renewed interest in the series, but then ventured a guess: “It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew. We had a really fun time. I was on it for seven seasons, so quite a bit. But it’s hard to find a show you can binge-watch that many episodes of these days, so that could have something to do with it. But good shows are everlasting.”

While Markle retired from “Suits,” which aired for nine seasons from 2011-2019, when she got engaged to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in 2018, she has since returned to Hollywood, this time as a producer. The former actor and her husband are developing TV and film projects through their Archewell Productions banner, which has an overall deal with Netflix (coincidentally, one of the streaming homes of “Suits”).

To date, the Sussexes have debuted three projects with the streamer — documentary “Heart of Invictus,” docuseries “Live to Lead” and the autobiographical project “Harry & Meghan” — and Markle teases more to come, with a focus on titles that invoke emotional responses in viewers.

“Things that make people feel– I was going say ‘good,’ but it’s more than that, things that make people feel something, right?” Markle said. “And feel a sense of community. But we have so many exciting things on the slate. I can’t wait until we can announce them, but I’m just really proud of what we’re creating. My husband is loving it, too. It’s really fun.”

Watch Markle’s full interview with Variety in the video above.

Markle, who was set to be honored in the 2022 class of Variety’s Power of Women last September, but three weeks before the the issue was to be published, Queen Elizabeth II, grandmother to Markle’s husband, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, died at the age of 96. Instead of being included in the Power of Women issue, following the official period of mourning, Markle sat for a new interview with Variety, which was published as a cover story Oct. 19, 2022.

The 2023 Power of Women issue was published Wednesday, featuring honorees Lily Gladstone, Billie Eilish, Carey Mulligan and Fantasia Barrino, as well as the accomplished women profiled in the annual Women’s Impact Report, which highlights leaders in the entertainment industry.

Along with celebrating Barrino, Gladstone, Mulligan and Eilish at Thursday’s Variety Power of Women Presented by Lifetime event at Citizen News in Los Angeles, Variety also honored LuckyChap’s co-founders Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara with the Producer of the Year Award.

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