The royal family's influence on Meghan Markle's career began long before she ever went public with now-husband Prince Harry.
Suits creator Aaron Korsh revealed as much in a recent interview, detailing how Buckingham Palace gave surprising feedback on the scripts for the wildly popular USA series that launched the Duchess of Sussex's acting career.
"I will say, and I think Harry put this in the book, because I heard people talking about it—[the royal family] weighed in on some stuff," Korsh told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Aug. 29. "Not many things, by the way, but a few things that we wanted to do and couldn't do, and it was a little irritating."
Specifically, Harry's family took issue with one very famous British colloquial term Korsh wanted Markle's character Rachel Zane to say to her love interest Mike Ross, played by Patrick J. Adams.
"My wife's family, when they have a topic to discuss that might be sensitive, they use the word 'poppycock,'" Korsh, married to Kate Korsh, explained. "So, in the episode, Mike and Rachel were going to have a thing, and as a nod to my in-laws, we were going to have her say, 'My family would say poppycock.' And the royal family did not want her saying the word."
As for why?
"They didn't want to put the word 'poppycock' in her mouth," he continued. "I presume because they didn't want people cutting things together of her saying 'cock.' So, we had to change it to 'bulls--t' instead of 'poppycock,' and I did not like it because I'd told my in-laws that it was going to be in the show. There was maybe one or two more things, but I can't remember."
And while Korsh followed through with the palace's request, he says he never found out if it was Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III, Prince William or an unknown member of the royal staff who culled through the scripts.
"I don't know how they got 'em," he admitted. "I was aware that they were reading them because I got the feedback, but I don't remember the process by which they got them."
Keep reading to relive Meghan's rise to fame.
(E! and USA are both part of the NBCUniversal family)