Meghan Markle was best recognized for her role as Rachel Zane in the TV legal drama Suits before marrying Prince Harry.

In 2014, Meghan was said to have spoken with the show’s creator about drafts that had her strolling into scenes wearing nothing but a towel.

She played the role of Rachel Zane in the popular legal drama show Suits
Credit: Getty – Contributor

Speaking at the time, she said: “This season, every script seemed to begin with Rachel enters wearing a towel. And I said, no, not doing it anymore.

“I called the creator and I said and I was like, it’s just gratuitous, we get it, we’ve already seen it once.

“So I think at a certain point you feel empowered enough to just say no.

Once a struggling actress and “hungry for work,” the TV star said “you’re willing to do things like that” while trying to make it as an actress.

“What we need to shift in [women’s] minds is that they have a higher value than that and they don’t need to be doing that.

“So I think for me, speaking up and being able to say I’m not going to do that anymore, has been a big shift for me personally.”

Meghan departed Suits in November 2017 after being engaged to Prince Harry, 35, and her last scenes aired just before the royal wedding in May 2018.

Netflix has now offered the pair a multi-million dollar deal.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Found Leaving Royal Life “Harder Than They Would Have Ever Imagined”

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s transition from royal life hasn’t been easy or straightforward, thanks to a global pandemic, family feuds, and constant media attention, but the unexpected changes in course have surprised them for the better, as Omid Scobie tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.

In January 2020, the royal couple declared their desire to stand down from their duties.

Of course, from their emotional and personal sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year to Harry’s participation in The Me You Can’t See, his and Oprah’s Apple TV+ series about mental health, Harry and Meghan have been quite open about it.

“The hardest part for them was taking those initial steps away from their royal roles,” says Scobie, who co-wrote Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family with fellow royal writer Carolyn Durand.

“That was harder than they would ever imagined. They had had it all mapped out in their heads,” he tells PEOPLE

The book focuses on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s marriage. The book was written with the help of a third-party source provided by Markle.

The book, which was based on interviews with persons close to the Sussexes, was first released in August 2020 and will be updated for its paperback version on August 31. The update comes in the form of a new epilogue that goes over some of Meghan and Harry’s recent experiences.

The couple’s original desire for a “one foot in, one foot out” strategy that would allow them to do both royal duty and private employmen was opposed by Harry’s grandmother, 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth.

“They knew that they had to change things, but what they had actually planned wasn’t actually what was best,” the royal expert said.

“They tried to find a way to compromise,” Scobie added. “But would that have enabled them to have that level of happiness and security that they have today? Probably not. Those ties to the institution [of the monarchy] would have still been strong and there would have constantly been issues about financial endeavors and the business decisions they made.”

The parents of Archie and Lili are energized to turn a new page — their “thrive chapter,” as Scobie calls it — now that they’ve had some time away from the day-to-day demands of working royal life, and aided by the financial freedom secured by their multimillion-dollar streaming, speaking, and publishing deals.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex began stepping down from royal responsibilities in 2020, citing intrusions from the British media and prejudiced sentiments toward the former “Suits” star, 40. The family now lives in Montecito, California, on the coast.