Many little girls grow up dreaming of being a princess and living in a fairytale castle.

For Meghan, this dream began to materialise when she was 36 years old – but the reality was very different from how she imagined. 

As the Duchess of Sussex celebrates her 44th birthday in her $29.6million Montecito mansion, she may be reminded of the time she spent in the humbler Nottingham Cottage. 

Leaving her successful acting career behind and uprooting herself to the UK, she had supposedly imagined a life very different to the one she stepped into.  

‘Harry was deeply shocked at Meghan’s reaction when she discovered, for example, that he was not personally hugely wealthy,’ Tom Quinn wrote in his book Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants.

‘As one staff member put it, “She expected a billionaire and got a millionaire”.

‘It was perfectly understandable that, coming from an American background, Meghan might imagine that Prince Harry, the brother of a future king, should have millions.

‘So when she discovered that Harry was only worth around £20million, she needed to reassess many other assumptions she’d made about this strange new family.’

Meghan’s ex-husband, film producer Trevor Engelson, married a multi-millionaire heiress worth $250million, Tracey Kurland, in 2019.

‘Then came Nottingham Cottage. Meghan had simply assumed that after her marriage she would live either in Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle,’ Quinn added.

‘It was a deep shock to find herself in this small house with no live-in staff in the grounds of Kensington Palace.’

Nottingham Cottage is a grace-and-favour house owned by the Crown and granted to members of the Royal Family to occupy rent-free.

It is 1,324 square feet in size and contains two bedrooms, two reception rooms, a bathroom and a small garden.

Before marrying into the Royal Family, growing up in Los Angeles, Meghan dreamed of one day being a global superstar and had a privileged upbringing, attending a private school just around the corner from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She participated in high school theatrical productions over the following years and school reports mentioned her starring role in a three-day sell-out of Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex and great applause in Annie, Damn Yankees and Into the Woods.

But one downside of Meghan’s success at her school productions was the ‘intense jealousy’ she felt if someone else took the limelight, according to a book.

Meghan became particularly irritated after one girl at her school got a job as an actress and two other girls auditioned for the 1992 thriller film Trace of Red, biographer Tom Bower claimed in his book Revenge.

Her father, Thomas Markle, who has been estranged from his daughter after he didn’t attend her May 2018 wedding, told Bower: ‘She wants to be the star of the stage and the star in life.’

Bower claims Meghan loved glamour and celebrity, using her father’s connections in Hollywood to launch her teenage career.

It is understood she asked her father to pay a professional photographer to take a ‘headshot’ of her and send it to studios. He did so but she received no replies.

‘I want to be an actress’, she kept saying, according to the book.

Thomas even took Meghan to the Emmy awards ceremony when he was nominated for best lighting director.

After they walked down the red carpet, the 17-year-old said: ‘Daddy I want to be famous just like you one day.’ Thomas nodded and went on to do anything to help make that dream come true, according to Bower.

He and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland had divorced when Meghan was little, but they raised her together – with the future duchess often seen around the sets he worked on.

Thomas wanted the best for his daughter, forking out on private elementary and secondary schools, including the $17,650-a-year Immaculate Heart school.

In her adult years Meghan achieved  recognition for her role as Rachel Zane in the popular legal drama Suits.

Before marrying Harry, Meghan’s net worth was around $5million – primarily due to her acting career.

Quinn wrote about Meghan’s discontent at finding she and Harry were expected to live in a smaller house than Prince William and Princess Kate.

The royal expert quoted one member of Palace staff as saying: ‘Starting life as a member of the Royal Family in Nottingham Cottage was the beginning of Meghan’s troubles – she felt it was so small it must be a reflection on how the Royal Family were belittling her husband.

‘She just didn’t understand that real royals don’t care much about houses and material possessions because always having had them they take them for granted.’

The royal expert wrote it was Meghan who illuminated Harry’s position as spare.

Quinn quoted a team member close to Meghan who said: ‘Meghan spotted immediately that Harry wasn’t quite as central to things as his brother William.

‘This was the start of the whole grievance thing of being a spare. I don’t think Harry had even thought much about the fact he was a spare until his marriage. 

‘I think she was over-sensitive on Harry’s behalf and convinced herself he was being treated as completely unimportant.’

The author spoke to royal staff who told him Harry seemed happy with his life prior to his marriage – getting on well with both his brother and Kate.

‘It was only when he began to feel he was being treated as a second-class citizen that the anger began to build up and then the rows – and there were a lot of rows – and the eventual split,’ a retired member of the Palace staff said.

Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior members of the Royal Family in January 2020 and relocated to the US.

As working royals the couple received 95 per cent of their annual income from Harry’s father, the then Prince of Wales. 

The taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant made up the other 5 per cent.

When they stepped down as senior royals, King Charles gave them ‘a substantial sum’ to help establish their new life.

In August 2020, the couple bought the sprawling nine-bedroom and 16-bathroom mansion in upscale Montecito, making them neighbours with Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres. 

The 14,563-square-foot home, known as ‘The Chateau’, sits on 5.4 acres of land and immaculately clipped hedges border the estate’s stone-pillared entry gates.

While Meghan used her father’s name to give her a head start in the showbiz world, Harry’s title has helped her business ventures as an adult.

Since stepping down the couple have launched several commercial ventures, including a $100million deal with Netflix and a lifestyle brand headed by Meghan.

William and Harry received the bulk of Princess Diana’s £13million fortune when she died in 1997.

In a 2021 interview, Harry told Oprah Winfrey his share of the money funded his family’s move to the US.

He is also thought to have inherited millions from his great-grandmother, the Queen Mother.

It is not known whether the late Queen left him any money.  

In recent months, Harry had voiced his frustration over losing an appeal regarding the levels of security he and his family are entitled to in the UK.

The duke appeared in a tell-all BBC interview during which he said he ‘can’t see a world’ where he will bring his wife and children to the UK.