It was bound to happen sooner or later. Meghan Markle’s returning to acting – and her first role back is a tough nut to crack. Lady Macbeth? Desdemona from Othello? What about Ophelia from Hamlet or maybe Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire – they’re all challenging characters for a female actor.

But none are as complicated and in some ways simple; capricious yet predictable, and sweet yet seemingly vengeful as the dizzying character Meghan is playing in new movie Close Personal Friends. Yup, you guessed it – she’s playing herself.

I guess for a US TV actress who took a deep dive into a real-life fairytale by marrying a prince, cutting ties with many of her own family, cutting ties with many of his, playing the victim then subtly sticking the knife in – Lady Macbeth was too much of a wuss.

But playing herself in a cameo for the upcoming Amazon film, which also stars Brie Larson, could be her toughest role yet – because maybe Meghan herself actually doesn’t know who she is anymore.

This is not meant to disparage her. I mean she’s had a mixed up life. The romantic Prince Charming bits you couldn’t make up – the embarrassing Oprah Winfrey stuff you wouldn’t want to.

Neither Meghan or Harry had normal upbringings.

Harry’s was in the public eye, shattered by divorce and then trauma at Diana’s death, and the public craving to share and witness his grief has clearly made him bitter, maybe justifiably so.

His years of privilege should have cushioned that – a lifestyle most of us who experience tragedy or grief don’t have; we have no choice but to crack on.

Meghan’s parents Thomas and Doria split when she was two and despite being Daddy’s girl she grew closer to her mum and has been embroiled in a war with her paternal half-siblings.

Half-brother Thomas Markle Jr calls her “a phony” while half-sister Samantha brands her a “shallow social climber” whose behaviour was not “befitting of a Royal Family member”. Meeow!

Dad Thomas Snr recently said he will “always love” his estranged daughter, despite “not liking some of the things she has done.” It’s very messy.

Her first marriage to US film producer Trevor Engelson in 2011 ended in divorce in 2014 and in 2016 she supposedly hooked up with Prince Harry on Instagram – before their celebrity-packed schmaltzy royal wedding in 2018.

What did Engelson reportedly say of his ambitious ex-wife when he heard she was dating a prince? “Oh, she’ll close” – as in ‘seal the deal’ and reel in her royal.

So from being a model on the US version of Deal or No Deal to starring in US legal drama Suits, marrying a prince and whipping him away to a celebrity-fuelled life in California you could say she has it all.

But bemoaning their lack of security and privacy in the UK as a major factor in moving to the film, social media and TV capital of the world, Meghan and Harry are a once-refreshing spring that’s simply dried up.

They helped write the book Finding Freedom then did their 85-minute 2021 ‘Oprah with Meghan and Harry’ interview, dropping the race bombshell that an unnamed royal jokingly asked Harry if Archie could end up with ginger afro hair.

Buckingham Palace responded that “recollections may vary”.

Then the couple did their relentless six-part Netflix show Harry and Meghan. It featured black historian David Olusoga, black studies academic Kehinde Andrews and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho.

In case you wanted more, that was followed by Harry’s 2023 tell-all book Spare with the nasty slur that Queen Camilla “sacrificed” him “on her personal PR altar”.

Now their deals are drying up because peeling away roles like an onion – race victims, media victims, family strife victims, privacy victims and establishment victims – all Harry and Meghan have left is themselves. An eternal victim is so boring.

US chat show hosts that sucked up to them are publicly mocking them. A South Park comedy special showed cartoon versions of the Sussexes embarking on a worldwide ‘privacy tour’.

So Meghan is left having to play Meghan, begging the question: “Which one?”