Meghan Markle appears to be somewhat stunned about Suits having a resurgence in popularity, especially after the long-running legal drama, which aired from 2011 to 2019, received a new life on Netflix.
The Duchess of Sussex, who played Rachel Zane in the first seven seasons of the show, called the recent boom in popularity “wild” as she gave a red carpet interview on Thursday at Variety’s Power of Women event in Los Angeles.
When Variety’s senior entertainment writer, Angelique Jackson, told Meghan that the show had accrued more than 45 billion minutes viewed, according to Nielsen streaming charts, the former actor appeared to be taken aback.
“Is that right?” she asked, before jokingly adding, “But who’s counting?”
The journalist then asked Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, why she thinks the show has seen such a surge in popularity in recent months.
“I have no idea,” she replied. “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.”
She continued: “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. But good shows are everlasting.”
Meghan appeared in Suits as a paralegal who later became a lawyer. The Duchess of Sussex left the show in 2017 and announced that she was retiring from acting after she became engaged to Prince Harry. Her final episode on the show aired in 2018.
Though Suits ended in 2019, it had quite the resurgence with streaming on both Netflix and Peacock in recent months.
The show, which had already been available to stream on Peacock when it began on Netflix in June, set the record for having the longest streak at the No. 1 position for Nielsen’s weekly rankings in October.
In July, it became the most-streamed acquired title and then broke its own Nielsen record for most-streamed acquired title weeks later.
When discussing her decision to leave the series, Meghan told the BBC in her first joint interview with the Duke of Sussex in 2017 that she viewed her exit from the show as “a new chapter”.
“I don’t see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change,” she said. “It’s a new chapter, right?
“And also, keep in mind, I’ve been working on [Suits] for seven years. We were very, very fortunate to have that sort of longevity on a series… I’ve ticked this box, and I feel very proud of the work I’ve done there, and now it’s time to work with [Harry] as a team.”