BBC buys Meghan Markle’s legal drama Suits for iPlayer after it became the most-watched show on Netflix last year

The BBC has bought Meghan Markle’s legal drama Suits for iPlayer after it became the most watched show on Netflix last year. 

The Duchess of Sussex appears as paralegal Rachel Zane in the original show, which premiered in 2011 and came to an end in 2019, but she left in 2017 after her romance with Prince Harry took off.

Today the BBC announced it had acquired the drama from NBCUniversal and would screen it on TV channels and as a boxset on iPlayer. 

Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, called suits ‘a smart and stylish legal drama’ and praised its ‘star-studded’ cast. 

Suits became Netflix’s most watched show for 12 straight weeks after its introduction to the platform last summer – prompting rumours of a spin-off. 

Meghan Markle on Suits with her love interest, Mike Ross, played by Patrick J. Adams

Meghan has referred to the show’s cast as like a ‘family’ and invited some of them, including Adams, to her wedding 

The Duchess of Sussex attends a convention in August, Texas, on March 8 

It also stars as Mike Ross, the rising star of a New York Law firm who ends up marrying Zane, played by Meghan. 

The duchess, 42, has described her Suits co-stars as ‘family’ and invited several of them – including Adams – to her wedding in Windsor. 

The Duchess’s last episode as Zane, a role she had been playing since 2010, aired in April 2018, a month before the nuptials. 

According to Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton, the Queen told Meghan before joining the royal family that she could carry on acting if she wanted to. 

But in a joint BBC interview with Prince Harry following their engagement, she explained she was happy to end her acting career.

‘What’s been really exciting, as we talk about this as the transition out of my career is that the causes that have been very important to me, I can focus even more energy on,’ she said. 

‘You realize that as you have access, or a voice that people are willing to listen to, [it comes with] a lot of responsibility, which I take seriously.

‘I don’t see it as giving anything up. I just see it as a change. It’s a new chapter. 

Suits became Netflix’s most watched show for 12 straight weeks after its introduction to the platform last summer – prompting rumours of a spin-off 

Meghan played paralegal Rachel Zane in the original show, which premiered in 2011 and came to an end in 2019, but she left in 2017 after her romance with Prince Harry took off 

Last year, rumours began to spread that it was going to be rebooted after Patrick J. Adams started sharing a slew of never-before-seen shots from when he was making the show

‘And keep in mind I’ve been working on my show for seven years. 

‘We were very fortunate to have that sort of longevity on a series.

‘For me, once we hit the 100-episode marker, I thought, I have ticked this box and I feel really proud of the work we’ve done there and now it’s time to work as a team with [Harry].’

Meghan launched a new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, in a glitzy social media video last week, with the new venture set to coincide with a new Netflix cookery show featuring her. 

Royal watchers immediately called the name ‘pretentious’ and a ‘word salad’, with former Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne weighing in to dismiss it as ‘nonsensical’.

But the duchess is said to be standing the name, with an insider insisting it felt ‘authentic’ to her. The source told People: ‘Meghan finds the name American Riviera Orchard perfect. It feels authentic to her. She can’t wait for the website to launch.’ 

The actor posted a carousel of throwback behind-the-scene images of himself and his fellow Suits stars – including many intimate shots of the Duchess of Sussex – which he captioned, ‘I miss my friends’ 

Many of the original Suits stars reunited at the Golden Globes earlier in January, including Patrick, Gina Torres, Sarah Rafferty, and Gabriel Macht