Meghan Markle is celebrating her 45th birthday today.
And the Duchess of Sussex is marking the occasion in a way that will probably earn her some harsh criticism from the stodgy haters in the British tabloid press.
Yes, instead of posing for an official pictorial by a photographer who was handpicked by her in-laws, Meghan took a much more Californian approach to her big day.
She donned her swimsuit, grabbed some balloons, and jumped into the nearest pool.
“Thank you for the birthday love!” she captioned the post, which was appropriately paired with Cliff Richard and The Shadows’ 1963 hit, “Summer Holiday.”
According to People, the photos were taken during an early birthday celebration in California by a friend of Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland.
As usual, the celebration extended beyond Meghan’s personal account.
Her lifestyle brand, As Ever, also honored its founder with an Instagram tribute featuring a mix of recent and childhood photos, including a snapshot of a young Meghan wearing pigtails.
“Happy birthday to our founder, @meghan,” the brand wrote before adding,
“Lighting No. 084 to celebrate!” — a reference to the company’s Signature Candle No. 084, which is named after Meghan’s August 4 birthday.
While Meghan chose to share a glimpse of her birthday festivities online, she has generally kept the actual celebrations private in recent years.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends Annual Fifteen Percent Pledge Fundraising Gala Honoring Ms. Tina Knowles at Paramount Studios on February 07, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Savion Washington/Getty Images)
She and Prince Harry typically spend the day with their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, away from the public eye.
Last year, the couple celebrated Meghan’s 44th birthday with a dinner at Beverly Hills restaurant Funke, which she later described as one of the “top five meals of my life” in an Instagram post thanking Harry, friends, and family for making the occasion special.
The birthday comes after a busy stretch for the Sussexes.
In recent weeks, Meghan has been promoting Cookie Queens, the Girl Scout-inspired documentary she co-executive produced through Archewell Productions.
She has also shared glimpses of the family’s summer travels, including a European vacation with Harry, Archie, and Lilibet that reportedly included stops in Portugal and the United Kingdom.
For now, however, Meghan appears content to keep things simple — celebrating with balloons, a pool, and a heartfelt thank-you to those who helped make her 45th birthday memorable.
There’s no shortage of star talent in college football ahead of the 2026 season, and that’s apparent when you look at Joel Klatt’s list of the top 10 players in the sport. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith is widely viewed as one of the best receivers in college football since the turn of the century, and he’s only heading into his junior year. Several quarterbacks are also talented enough to potentially be a top pick in the 2027 NFL Draft, like Texas’ Arch Manning and Notre Dame’s CJ Carr. Which of those players is the best in college football, though? Here’s Klatt’s top 10 players for the 2026 season. 2025 stats: Completed 77% of his passes for 3,610 yards, 32 touchdowns and 8 interceptions Klatt’s thoughts: “To be candid with you, they played it safe with him. … If you’re looking for some areas of improvement with Juian Sayin, I’ve got a couple for you … he’s not a gunslinger. I don’t want him to get careless with the football. … But there are times where there are throws to be made down the field, big throws to be made down the field … there are times the throw is there down the field to Jeremiah Smith and he checks the ball. “I think his next step in his maturation as a quarterback is to take those shots down the field. I think the other area that hurt them is the fact that he’s not a very big guy … the short yardage issues for Ohio State were a thing. “This is likely going to be an offensive-led team. This is one of — if not the best — offenses in college football. Led by Sayin. He’s calm, cool and collected. He learned some lessons late last year… I think he’s going to be better for it as he moves into his second year as starter.” 2025 stats: 33 total tackles, 4.5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles Klatt’s thoughts: “I love watching this guy on film. He’s quick, he’s fast, he’s got a good motor. … Remember, two years ago, he was incredible as a freshman. … He backed it up with a pretty productive year last year, and I think he’s likely going to be a top four, five, six pick in next year’s NFL Draft. “Do I love South Carolina? No. But do I love Dylan Stewart? Yes. This guy is an elite player and there’s no doubt. … Could this guy absolutely wreck a game? Yes. That’s what makes South Carolina such an interesting case study. Fabulous player. I love watching him play.” 2025 stats: 2 sacks, 7 pressures allowed at Colorado (per Pro Football Focus) Klatt’s thoughts: “This is a guy that I love more than most. … He’s 6-foot-7, he’s 307 pounds, and he’s got 22 starts under his belt. … He was already [LSU’s] best offensive lineman right when he walked through the door. This guy was an elite player, an elite pass protector. “I think this is a guy who can go in the top 10 of the NFL Draft next year. … He’s certainly going to anchor what I feel like is a really good offensive team… This is one of the pieces to fix that LSU offense.” 2025 stats: 43 total tackles, 12 sacks, 3 forced fumbles Klatt’s thoughts: “The moment I saw him as a true freshman at Texas, I was like, ‘Yup, that’s an elite player right there.’ He was elite last year as well, 12 sacks a year ago, and now he has 21 sacks in his first two seasons in college football. An elite pass rusher and edge player since he stepped foot on campus there in Austin. “This is a defense that’s going to need to improve. This is a team with high expectations. One of those consistent performers for that Texas team a year ago was Colin Simmons. He needs to have a great year for them to bring Will Muschamp along, improve the defensive side … this is the type of guy who can do it.” 2025 stats: Completed 71.8% of his passes for 3,565 yards, 30 touchdowns and 10 interceptions; rushed for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns Klatt’s thoughts: I want to put this guy higher, but there are incredible players ahead of him. Moore was outstanding last year. Outstanding. Truth be told, if he had come out for the draft last year, he would’ve been the No. 2 overall pick. … 15 touchdowns on deep throws last year, nobody was better in college football. They’re going to be an elite team around him. “He’s entering his second year as the starter, I’m a big believer in experience at the quarterback position. There are some absolute dogs in the top five.” 2025 stats: 109 receptions, 1,211 receiving yards, 10 receiving touchdowns; 113 rushing yards, 1 rushing touchdown Klatt’s thoughts: “Was there a better player, other than Fernando Mendoza, than Malachi Toney in the College Football Playoff? “I believe he could have a really good year. I love his playmaking ability. [I love] his versatility in the way that he can impact and attack the defense. Can you get him the ball right away on the outside? Yes. He’s a terrific slot receiver and has a really good feel for space for such a young player. I’m a big Malachi Toney fan.” 2025 stats: Completed 61.4% of his passes for 3,163 yards, 26 touchdowns and 7 interceptions; 399 rushing yards, 10 rushing touchdowns Klatt: “Here’s the problem from last year for Arch: The expectations were outrageous. … If you look after his first few starts, he was elite … with a supporting cast that was subpar. … Their wide receiver room, woefully short of Texas standards. Their offensive linemen, woefully short of Texas standards. Their ability to run the football, or lack thereof, woefully short of Texas standards. So, it fell all on Arch’s shoulders. “He’s not a bust. He’s got that running ability when he gets loose on the outside, he’s got that Trevor Lawrence quality to him when he gets space. I think it could be a big year for Arch.” 2025 stats: Completed 66.6% of his passes for 2,741 yards, 24 touchdowns and 6 interceptions; 33 rushing yards, 3 rushing touchdowns Klatt: “I cannot contain my excitement for CJ Carr at Notre Dame. I think CJ Carr is incredibly talented. This is going to be a different style of Notre Dame offense this year. “What people fail to realize is how explosive [Notre Dame was], and can be this year, offensively throwing the football. They averaged over 40 points last year, 42 to be exact. “Carr got a bunch of experience a year ago. They got a chip on their shoulder after not being in the playoff. This is an offense that’s going to be more quarterback-centric than it was running back-centric than it was a year ago. … He could have a monster, monster season in terms of numbers. He’s probably my Heisman frontrunner.” 2025 stats: 31 total tackles, 1 forced fumble, 5 interceptions Klatt: “I think he’s absolutely the top cornerback in next year’s draft. … Leonard Moore is fantastic. He’s going to allow them to do so much on that defensive side. This should be one of the best defenses in all of college football. They’re good up front, they’re good at linebacker, they’re really good in the secondary. “I can’t wait to see what Leonard Moore does in the playoff. I think this is absolutely a playoff team. He can do everything. He can play well in zone, he’s got good instincts. He can play well in man; he’s got good coverage ability. He’s loose, he’s flexible, he’s fast, he’s terrific once the ball is in the air.” 2025 stats: 87 receptions, 1,243 yards, 12 receiving touchdowns Klatt: “There’s no other No. 1 when he’s playing in college football. He’s physical, he’s fast, he’s great catching the football. He’s got great hands. He’s a technician. If [Julian] Sayin lets it loose and throws the ball down the field, Jeremiah Smith might have 15, 18 touchdowns this year. He’s a regardless receiver, which means regardless of what coverage you’re in, they’re throwing him the football. “Nobody can cover him. The only guy I think who can have a chance is Leonard Moore, my No. 2 player. He’s that elite. It’s, candidly, not even close.”Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
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Cloud patterns and the midnight sun reflect over the Chukchi Sea, where the summer sea ice floats in large slabs. The Trump administration wants to conduct several lease sales in the Chukchi and other offshore Arctic areas, and it is now proposing to relax safety rules put in place by the Obama administration. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
The Trump administration is proposing to loosen the regulation of offshore Arctic oil drilling by revoking several safety regulations put in place during the Obama administration.
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Monday that it will propose a new rule to change what it called “a burdensome regulatory framework” imposed a decade ago on oil development in federal Arctic waters.
In a statement, Interior officials said the move would encourage oil development in the region.
“President Trump has made clear that America must fully avail itself of Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential for the benefit and security of the Nation and the citizens who call Alaska home,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the statement. “This proposed rule reflects a disciplined, mission-focused approach that strengthens regulatory efficiency, reduces unnecessary barriers and ensures that Arctic energy exploration proceeds safely, responsibly and under strong federal oversight.”
“The Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf contains some of America’s most promising offshore resources,” Matt Giacona, Interior’s acting marine mineral administration director, said in the statement. “These targeted updates would provide clear, practical compliance options for Arctic Outer Continental Shelf exploration while preserving safeguards to protect workers, the environment and Alaska’s precious natural resources.”
The proposal drew immediate criticism from one environmental group.
“There’s no such thing as safe drilling in the Arctic Ocean, and that’s why it should never, never happen,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Having these very stringent rules and regulations to protect the Arctic and avoid catastrophe is the bare minimum.”
Arctic conditions, that feature shifting sea ice, harsh weather and remoteness, make oil spill response virtually impossible – and they make oil exploration impractical, Freeman said.
A polar bear is spotted on a multiyear ice floe in the Beaufort Sea on Aug. 13, 2023, where the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy crew and researchers conducted an on-ice equipment installation. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Bice/U.S. Coast Guard)
“It’s incredibly expensive, risky, dangerous, uncertain,” he said. Alternatively, leaders could be developing renewable energy infrastructure now, but “that’s not what our federal or state leadership are focusing on, and it’s just hurting our environment, hurting the climate and hurting the pocketbooks of Alaskans.”
Details of the newly proposed rule were not available on Monday. The proposal will be published in the Federal Register in future days and subject to a 90-day public comment period after that, the Department of the Interior said in its statement.
There has been only sporadic oil exploration drilling in federal waters of the Arctic in past decades, and there has never been any oil produced from there or any part of the federally managed outer continental shelf off Alaska except for a small part of the Hilcorp-operated Northstar field, which is located mostly on state territory.
There has been no oil production in Canadian Arctic waters, either. Canada has long maintained a two-rig requirement, and oil development in Canadian Arctic waters has been barred under a moratorium imposed in 2019.
Arctic oil policy changes
Monday’s Department of the Interior announcement is the latest episode in a back-and-forth pattern of Arctic oil policy.
The Obama-era rule standardized some requirements that had been applied to Shell’s multibillion-dollar exploration program in the early 2010s in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.
That rule included a requirement that each operator have a designated backup drill rig to be available to respond to a well blowout and an integrated operating plan with steps to be taken and equipment to be used in the event of emergencies such as oil spills and extreme weather events.
The Obama-era rule went into effect in 2016, after Shell abandoned its offshore Arctic program.
The first Trump administration tried to loosen those Obama-era requirements. In a proposed rule released in 2020, the administration said it intended to relax the relief-well requirement and eliminate the requirement for an integrated operating plan among other changes.
That first Trump administration rule never went into effect. The Biden administration in 2021 rescinded the proposal, keeping the Obama-era rules in place.
The Trump administration’s proposed lease sales in federal waters off Alaska are shown on a map included in the draft five-year leasing plan. (Map provided by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
The new Trump proposal, like the proposal in the first Trump term, seeks to relax the relief-well requirement and eliminate the requirement for an integrated operating plan, according to the Department of the Interior statement.
The attempt to loosen Arctic drilling rules comes as the Trump administration is pushing to expand oil development in that remote region.
The administration’s draft five-year outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing plan calls for numerous lease sales in federal Arctic waters, along with several lease sales in the Bering Sea and Bering Strait region.
That is despite President Barack Obama’s actions that withdrew the entire Chukchi Sea and much of the Beaufort Sea from the leasing program.
A previous federal court ruling struck down an earlier attempt, during the first Trump administration, to allow oil drilling in Arctic waters that Obama had withdrawn from leasing. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Act, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in 2019, presidents may withdraw territory from the leasing program but they may not add territory.
Despite Gleason’s ruling, and despite a new lawsuit filed last year over the same issue, the Trump Department of the Interior is proposing to sell oil and gas leases not only in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas but in a newly designated, farther-north offshore region it calls the “High Arctic.” U.S. rights to that High Arctic territory have yet to be internationally recognized.
One Department of the Interior agency warned in December that it lacks the resources to properly regulate an expanded Alaska offshore leasing program. In comments on the Trump administration’s draft leasing plan, the Alaska director of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said the staff in the state was down to only four and the draft leasing plan “does not address the appropriations or staff required for any amount of additional leasing, exploration, or development activity” that the administration proposed for waters off Alaska.
The Trump administration in November reinstated expired Hilcorp offshore leases at the long-languishing Liberty project. The Biden administration in late 2024 denied Hilcorp’s request for extended time to develop the leases; it was the 12th such request made since oil was discovered there in the 1990s.
Plans for the Liberty development stretch back decades. BP, the original operator, had two general proposals, one for an artificial island to be the drill site and the second for drilling from an existing onshore area using ultra-extended-reach wells. Hilcorp, after it acquired Liberty and the operator position from BP, reverted to the artificial island concept but, as of 2024, switched to the ultra-extended-reach-drilling concept that BP had tried but rejected as unfeasible.
The Center for Biological Diversity and a Native organization, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, have notified the Department of the Interior and its officials that they intend to sue over the reinstatement of Liberty leases. That lawsuit has not yet been filed, Freeman said.
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