Meghan Markle dated porn star Simon Rex before Prince Harry
A PASSIONATE Latin tycoon, TV actors and a movie star who poses naked holding a pup over his privates — these are the men on Meghan Markle’s secret list of exes.
And friends of the royal bride-to-be recall how she took her search for Mr Right very seriously, swearing by a love bible called The Rules.
Aimed at women who want “marriage in the shortest time possible”, the self-help guide tells girls to be “easy to be with but hard to get” in order to win The One.
Meghan, 36, who will wed Prince Harry on May 19, studied the self-help guide so thoroughly she was able to recite passages off by heart.
The Sun reveals for the first time the identities of six men she dated who, according to a source, Markle measured up as husband material.
A source recalled: “Meghan used to quote The Rules all the time and really put it into practise with a number of her boyfriends.
“She was never without a boyfriend for more than two or three months and always striving to have someone by her side.
“She liked the idea of being part of a team and having a domestic life. Any relationship that she was in, there was always an element of marriage in the back of her mind.
“Meghan would very quickly go into thinking, ‘What would this relationship look like in ten years?’”
The book’s 35 rules include “No More than Casual Kissing on the First Date”, “Don’t Rush into Sex”, and “Don’t Talk to a Man First (and Don’t Ask Him to Dance).”
Written by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, the guide was an instant sensation when it was first published in 1995.
It was also controversial because its rules rejected many feminist ideas. But the source says the techniques Markle learned from the book were instrumental in her wooing first husband, film producer Trevor Engelson, now 41.
The pair began dating in 2004, became engaged in 2010 and married in September 2011. They split two years later.
The source said: “She put all The Rules into play with Trevor. He had the bravado, the charisma and the looks.”
He also — apparently — had the finger of fate on his side.
A source told The Sun that a fortune teller in Argentina once informed a young Markle that she would wed a man with “curly red hair”.
The aspiring actress was given the reading by a clairvoyant in Buenos Aires in 2003 while she working as an intern for the local US embassy.
The source said: “She took the prediction quite seriously and when her first husband Trevor Engelson came along, she believed it was a reference to his curly hair.
“She thought he must be The One.”
Here The Sun reveals six other romances in Markle’s life before she met her true Prince Charming.
THE SCARY MOVIE RAPPER
Markle had a single date in 2004 with Scary Movie actor Simon Rex — who long before meeting her had made several porn films.
Former model Rex, now 43, even claims to have won an award for Best Gay Solo Video in 1997.
He is now also a comedian and rapper, using the rap name Dirt Nasty, and proudly reclines naked on a bearskin rug with his dog Duane in the banner photo on his Twitter homepage.
Rex also posts crude jokes, recently posing in a Coca-Cola costume with the caption: “I think I have a Coke problem.”
Friends say Markle and Rex had their one-off date in Los Angeles after meeting on the set of short-lived US sitcom Cuts when they both guest-starred in the same episode.
He later landed a leading part as George Logan the Scary Movie franchise, and also had a small role in Baywatch. In a 2014 interview he admitted to doing porn as a young man to pay his bills.
He said: “I went there and did that sh*t. It was just enough to pay the rent at the time. I was living in the moment. In hindsight it wasn’t the best move.”
There is no suggestion that Markle ever knew about his porn past.
THE WELL CONNECTED COMEDY WRITER
Actor and screenwriter Shaun Zaken had a six-month romance with Markle in 2003.
The pair had both attended Chicago’s Northwestern University and both had ambitions to make it in Hollywood, Markle’s home town.
Zaken, now 38, who later played a waiter in an episode of Sex And The City, would practise his audition lines with her.
But when he did not want the commitment she craved, they split up.
A source said: “His family are well-off with a home in the Hamptons (a posh resort in New York State) and he had good connections in Hollywood. She liked that lifestyle and his access.
“But they were both quite demanding and there were passionate public rows.
“She really pursued him because she saw a future with him, but he wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.
“She was broken hearted by their split.”
Zaken is now a comedy writer and wrote a show last year about a fairytale Prince Charming landing in modern-day Los Angeles.
THE BESOTTED GOOD-GUY ACTOR
After splitting up from Shaun Zaken in 2003, Markle dated another actor and writer, Brett Ryland, for five months.
One pal said: “Brett adored Meghan. He was constantly trying to shower her with love and she enjoyed the attention, but she seemed to be in it more for the affirmation.
“He didn’t have the kind of bravado or high profile she was looking for in a partner. He tried hard but there wasn’t much glamour or huge chemistry.
“One day the switch just flipped, like it did with (first husband) Trevor, and she called it off. But he is a good guy, so they stayed friends.”
Ryland, who lives in Los Angeles, later became a writer for hit show Two Broke Girls before becoming a content media manager for a social media firm.
THE HANDSOME BASKETBALL STAR
During Markle’s first year at university in Chicago, she fell for strapping college basketball star Steve Lepore.
She would gush to pals about her “tall, dark, handsome all-American” boyfriend.
A source told The Sun: “She was moving into a new world from LA and being able to land a guy who was already settled and popular was important for her.
“She was very proud of having landed this handsome guy and happy to share photos of him. She spoke of how broad and beautiful his chest was.
“Meghan was used to being ‘the star’ of the pairing but Steve was the star of the basketball team. She hadn’t ever dated someone like that.”
But after five months in 1999, Lapore transferred from Northwestern University to a college in North Carolina.
Lapore, 38, now lives with wife Carrie, 33, and their baby daughter in Virginia, and is a basketball coach at a military academy.
THE PASSIONATE, RICH STUDENT
After striking out with Lapore, Markle began a stormy nine-month romance with a wealthy fellow student at Northwestern. They had a tumultuous relationship.
The source said: “She was very much in love with him, but it was a tempestuous relationship.
“It was highs and lows. She was ecstatic when things were good and then she would be in a really dark place.
“She was taken by his status as his family were wealthy diplomats, but when she went to Argentina she cut ties and it taught her some lessons about who she should be with.”
THE ARGENTINIAN BUSINESS TYCOON
WHILE working as an intern at the US embassy in Buenos Aires in 2002, 20-year-old Markle caught the eye of a passionate and wealthy Argentinian tycoon.
One evening, the smitten businessman sent his car to pick up the uni student and take her for a date.
A well-placed source told The Sun: “It was something of a liberation for her.
“She was off in Argentina, away from everybody and she had this little adventure on the quiet.
“He was a successful businessman and it was a case of, ‘I will send a car for you, be ready’.
“She was really taken by that.”
The source said Markle found the occasion “exciting” but added: “It was very unlike her.”
Meghan was in her final year at university at the time, studying international relations and theatre.
She took a break to spend “a few months” working at the embassy, where she says she became convinced she would “for sure have a career in politics”.
