The unseen video of Meghan Markle that proves she was made for royal life

Meghan Markle has only officially been a member of the royal family for 11 months, but an unseen video has proven she really has found her calling.

New footage from 2017, released by ITV, of the former Suits star on a trip to India shows her work as an influential royal began long before she married Prince Harry.

Meghan joined World Vision – a charity which aims to help change the lives of the poorest children around the world – on a visit to Delhi and Mumbai, focussing on gender equality and issues surrounding the lack of access to education for girls.

The problem is particularly prevalent in India, which is the second most populated country in the world, as over 100 million teenage girls are at “risk of dropping out of school due to lack of basic sanitary facilities”, according to ITV. 

The Duchess of Sussex discusses such issues in the video.

"What we found is that the enrolment at this school went up three times once the latrines were built so that girls had access to clean hygiene and bathroom facilities while they're at school,” she says on a visit to one school.

In the never-seen-before footage, Meghan also takes part in painting a mural with schoolgirls, planting and watering flowers and meets a group of women while dressed in a green and gold saree.

The Duchess wrote about her visit to India in January 2017, in a piece for Time magazine explaining she travelled to the country with World Vision in order to “meet the girls and women directly impacted by the stigmatisation of menstrual health and to learn how it hinders girls’ education”.

Since officially becoming a member of the royal family, Meghan has made it clear women’s global issues and female empowerment are key matters she, along with the Duke of Sussex, wants to focus on.

On her first international royal tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand – when she and Harry announced they were expecting their first child – Meghan delivered a speechMeghan delivered a speech highlighting the importance of women having access to further education.

If this is the impact she’s been able to make barely a year into the job – and even before becoming a royal – just think what she’ll be able to achieve in the years to come.