Revealed: Meghan's mission to explore her roots in Malta. Exclusive pictures ... trends now

An exuberant Meghan Markle could barely contain her excitement when she arrived in the land of her forebears, ready to explore and reconnect with her roots.

‘The trip was mostly about trying to understand where I come from, my identity,’ she gushed after her three-day whistle-stop tour. ‘There is something so lovely about fitting in a piece of the puzzle. It felt like home.’

To be clear, this wasn’t last week’s much-trumpeted trip to Nigeria where the Duchess of Sussex — who recently claimed to be 43 per cent Nigerian — thanked locals for ‘welcoming me home’ to ‘my country’.

This was another jaunt, now long-forgotten, to the Mediterranean island of Malta.

There, in 2015 — barely a year before she went on her first date with Prince Harry — the then Suits actress embarked on a jolly to explore her ancestry in ‘the land from which my great-grandmother hailed’.

Speaking of her visit, Meghan said: ‘Before I came, people were telling me, “When you go to Malta, everyone will look like you,” and I started to say, “Oh my gosh I do sort of blend in,” and it’s the loveliest feeling. The Maltese people have been so kind.’

More, in a moment, of her trip which, by all accounts, was a delightful affair featuring a luxury boutique hotel, a trip to a vineyard and an impromptu photoshoot in traditional costume, all organised by the country’s tourist board.

More too, of Meghan’s ancestry, which even to genealogists is somewhat muddled due to lack of documents and long-lost memories. Or — to borrow an oft-repeated phrase first uttered by the late Queen Elizabeth — because ‘recollections may vary’.

W hile the Sussexes’ visit to Nigeria last week shone a new light on her African-American roots, the story of Meghan’s European ancestry, on her father’s side, is equally fascinating.

Back in 2015, then 33-year-old Meghan was commissioned to write an article about her Malta trip for Elle magazine. But, in the end, she chose to focus on life in the U.S. and ‘finding her voice as a mixed-race woman’. The Elle article, published in 2015, made no mention of Malta or Meghan’s European ancestors.

Instead, the trip in March that year was mentioned on her now defunct lifestyle blog, The Tig, in which she heaped praise on the island’s hospitality and its food and drink.

‘When asked to go to Malta for ElleUK, to not only discover the beautiful island, but also the land from which my great-grandmother hailed, I said yes without hesitation,’ she wrote.

‘It’s Malta! A beautiful jewel of an island dotted in the Mediterranean between Sicily, Tunisia and Libya. A dream for one who relishes culture and history set against a backdrop of the ever-so beautiful sea.’

Those who crossed paths with Meghan during her brief sojourn on the island had no idea they were rubbing shoulders with a woman who would, one day, become one of the most recognisable faces on the planet.

‘To be honest I had no idea who she was when I met her,’ says Kurt Arrigo, the Maltese photographer commissioned by Malta Tourism Authority to accompany Meghan around the island along with a private tour guide and Meghan’s then business adviser, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne. ‘Her fame wasn’t what it is. I knew she was an actress but I had never watched Suits. She was a bit guarded at first but it became easier as time went on and she relaxed.

‘It was a pleasant time. She was easy to work with because she had done modelling and photoshoots before. She knew what to do and how to pose and how to hold herself.’

Meghan arrived in Malta in early March 2015 and stayed at the newly opened, small luxury boutique hotel, Casa Ellul, where fabulous suites cost around £600 a night. Co-owner Matthew Ellul, whose family have owned the historic building for 250 years, remembers that Meghan stayed in Suite No 7 — ‘the one with the terrace and the Jacuzzi’ — at the four-star hotel, a former palazzo, which has just nine rooms.

Meghan’s suite boasts views stretching across the rooftops of Valletta to the sea.

‘It was a cultural visit,’ he recalls. ‘The Maltese Tourism Authority were taking care of her. She was a very nice lady, very outgoing. She was interested in food and wine. She had a fabulous time.’

The future royal had such a good time that she left behind a hand-written card, stamped with The Tig logo, thanking Matthew and his brother Andrew for their hospitality and promising to return soon.

Meghan toured around the island in a people carrier. In addition to her business adviser Gina, and photographer Kurt, she was accompanied by private guide Clive Cortis who was contracted by Malta Tourism Authority.

First stop was a tour of the island capital, Valletta, where Meghan looked around St John’s Co-Cathedral and paused inside its Baroque interior to admire two early 17th-century masterpieces by Caravaggio: The Beheading Of St John The Baptist and St Jerome Writing. She later wrote on her blog that the art ‘took her breath away’.

Mr Cortis wrote on his website that he ‘immediately felt at ease’ in Meghan’s company, adding: ‘She’s a very down-to-earth person, fun and humble to be with.’

After the cathedral, Meghan — dressed in ripped jeans, grey T-shirt, pumps and her favourite £1,600 Max Mara ‘Manuela’ coat — pootled through Valletta with her entourage, stopping off at Casa Rocca Piccola, a stunning palace built for a Maltese knight almost 500 years ago and the ancestral home of the 9th Marquis de Piro.

‘She turned up and said I think my

read more from dailymail.....