In an open letter to Congress, Meghan Markle wrote about how she “grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler” and “felt lucky.”

The Duchess of Sussex wrote a letter to Democratic leaders advocating paid parental leave for all Americans as President Joe Biden’s planned child tax credits are under threat of being slashed from his social welfare spending proposal. Despite her private schools education and upbringing in a household headed by an award-winning lighting director and photographer, the duchess portrays her upbringing as a fight against poverty in the essay.

In addition to becoming the mother of two children with her husband, Prince Harry, the letter described her path from humble origins to working as a Hollywood producer, ethical investor, and activist.

“I grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler—it may have cost less back then (to be honest, I can’t remember)—but what I do remember was the feeling: I knew how hard my parents worked to afford this because even at five bucks, eating out was something special, and I felt lucky,” Meghan wrote.

When Meghan Markle was 9 years old, her now-estranged father, Thomas Markle, won the lottery in 1990 and got $750,000 (equal to $1.5 million today). He was a successful lighting director on several television shows before and after that lucky break, winning the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Design Excellence for a Daytime Drama Series for his work on General Hospital. He used some of his lottery winnings to cover Meghan Markle’s tuition at Immaculate Heart, a Los Angeles-based private all-girls Catholic school.

“And as a Girl Scout, when my troop would go to dinner for a big celebration, it was back to that same salad bar or The Old Spaghetti Factory—because that’s what those families could afford to do too.”

Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was a yoga instructor.

Meghan Markle attended Northwestern University in Illinois after graduating from high school, one of the world’s most elite academic institutions, which was also sponsored by her father’s financial fortune.

Meghan has previously stated that she had to join a work-study program in order to pay her way through college.

Meghan wrote in her open letter: “I started working (at the local frozen yogurt shop) at the age of 13. I waited tables, babysat, and piecemealed jobs together to cover odds and ends.

“I worked all my life and saved when and where I could—but even that was a luxury—because usually it was about making ends meet and having enough to pay my rent and put gas in my car.”

The duchess went on to declare that the topic of parental leave was not about “Right or Left” but rather “right or wrong,” and that paid leave “should be a national right.” She suggested that the controversial tax credits were “something we all seem to agree on,” adding, “At a point when everything feels so divisive, let this be a shared goal that unites us.”

Meghan’s letter was released on the 20th of October.