Patrick J. Adams Says It Was ‘Clear’ Meghan Markle Would Land ‘Suits’


Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle.
(Photo by Getty)

She may have married a prince, but Meghan Markle once also had a sizzling (on screen) romance with a high-profile lawyer: Suits costar Patrick J. Adams. 

Adams, 43, played Markle’s love interest Mike Ross on the USA Network series from 2011 to 2018. While appearing on the Tuesday, October 1, episode of the “Sidebar: A Suits Watch” podcast, the actor revealed the pair had chemistry from the get-go.

“It was pretty clear, if I remember correctly, that she was going to get the part [of Rachel Zane] from the minute we did the chemistry read,” Adams shared on the SiriusXm podcast. “It was just so much easier than it was with anybody else.”

The actor recalled that he and Markle, 43, previously worked together on a failed pilot, Good Behavior, and chalked their spark in the Suits audition to having previously met on set.

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“When I went in to do the chemistry reads with [potential actresses for] Rachel, [Meghan] was right there and she said, ‘Hi,’” the Take Me Out actor recalled of the audition. “And I went, ‘Oh my God, so good to see you!’”

Adams said that familiarity helped ease the pressure of trying to find a rapport quickly with a potential on-screen love interest.

“Just knowing each other and getting to calm down and not have those nerves of just getting to know one another really helped,” Adams continued. “It was just clear that we had an easygoing thing when we went into that room.”

Patrick J Adams

Patrick J. Adams.
(Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

During their run on the popular drama, Adams and Markle’s characters Mike and Rachel struck up a romance while working together at a legal firm.

Their story arc culminated in a wedding at the end of season 7  — after which both Adams and Markle exited the show in real life. (Suits ultimately ran for 9 seasons from 2011 to 2019. A spinoff series, Suits: L.A., is currently in the works starring Stephen Amell, and is speculated to debut in early 2025.)

In parallel, Markle tied the knot with Prince Harry, 40, the same year, in a Royal Wedding watched by an estimated 1.9 billion viewers all over the world, according to media reports. The pair have since welcomed two children together: Archie, born in May 2019, and Lilibet, born in June 2021.

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Ahead of the wedding, Adams made reference to his and Markle’s on-screen relationship as he joked via Instagram, “I’m beginning to think she might not actually be out getting milk. #royalwedding.”

To accompany the hilarious caption, the actor uploaded a photo of the front page of British newspaper, The Times, which featured a photo of Markle and her mother, Doria Ragland, at the Royal Wedding rehearsal.

Adams attended the high-profile nuptials with his wife, Troian Bellisario, with whom he shares two daughters, along with several other Suits cast members including Gabriel Macht, Gina Torres, Rick Hoffman, Sarah Rafferty and Abigail Spencer.