Will the mystical power of 42 transform Meghan Markle’s life after her birthday today? The age is thought to have special properties… at least according to cultural conspiracy theorists

• Duchess of Sussex might celebrate her birthday with a great deal of satisfaction

Meghan Markle turns 42 today and thus attains an age thought to have special properties — at least according to cultural conspiracy theorists.

Why is 42 so special? It starts with the cult novel series The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, in which it’s proclaimed that the answer ‘to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything’ is 42. 

Several sages have also remarked upon 42 being a significant milestone in a woman’s life because it’s 21 twice over. I too am 42, and when you start digging into this number, its significance crops up again and again.

Coldplay’s song 42 is about life and death. It has figured in numerous films and TV shows, from Doctor Who to Finding Nemo to Supernatural. Google HQ in San Francisco and Cern’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva have both named office complexes ’42’.

But is it all just a global nerdy joke inspired by Douglas Adams’s books? Well, perhaps — but what about all those 42 instances that happened before the books were published?

Meghan Markle turns 42 today and thus attains an age thought to have special properties — at least according to cultural conspiracy theorists

You might feel differently if you were the Duchess of Sussex of course — world-famous and happily ensconced in that Montecito mansion with her Duke and her children

Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible was the world’s first modern book — and in it, 42 is the number of generations between Abraham and Jesus. Forty-two is woven throughout Alice In Wonderland, published in 1865. 

The original book had 42 illustrations, plus the King of Hearts’s Rule 42: ‘All persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately.’

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Perhaps the clue to this significance is in our own bodies. Another spooky fact: donated blood only lasts for 42 days.

So, is 42 an age of magic and mystery? I admit that when this idea was first put to me, I was sceptical. My first half of this milestone year has been spent wrangling my three small children and desperately encouraging them to eat something that is not beige.

I am also pregnant with my fourth, knackered, and permanently wearing clown trousers with elasticated waists.

Surveying the potato-shaped person in jogging bottoms in the mirror before me, I wonder: is this woman really at life’s peak? 

You might feel differently if you were the Duchess of Sussex of course — world-famous and happily ensconced in that Montecito mansion with her Duke and her children.

Despite the setback to her broadcasting career she’s suffered of late, she might well celebrate her 42nd birthday with a great deal of satisfaction at where she finds herself.

But then, no matter who you are, there is a certain equilibrium that is reached at 42. Your 20s and 30s are often about ‘the hustle’ — the vague, but persistent, urge to prove yourself in all sorts of ways. 

In your 20s and 30s you reason it might just be possible to get really good at yoga, to marry a prince, to take up philanthropy. With youth comes possibility — but with possibility comes pressure. You can often fail to enjoy life’s ride because you are fretting about where you’ll end up.

Then 40 hits and with it comes the realisation that you’re past a lot of the striving.

Despite the setback to her broadcasting career she’s suffered of late, she might well celebrate her 42nd birthday with a great deal of satisfaction at where she finds herself (pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan at their wedding in 2018)

So, Meghan, while I won’t claim that ‘life begins at 42’, in my experience, it’s a pretty good place to be. Happy birthday! 

You will never become a chess master. You will probably never grace the cover of magazines (unless of course you’re Meghan), play professional football or ping pong or tiddlywinks. 

For some there are less shallow realisations: you may never find your ‘passion’, or defeat some of the demons that have haunted you for decades.

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While this is painful initially, it can also be a liberation. Turning 40 itself may be a bit of a shock to the system — but by 42, you have hit your 40s stride.

In my experience, you no longer care so much about what you’re achieving, how you’re appearing, what the scales are saying. You are entering a phase of life when you are more likely to appreciate the small stuff.

By 42 you know who has your back and who’s a fake. I’m pretty sure Meghan gets this.

By 42 you know what you enjoy, which invitations to turn down and which to accept.

By 42 you know what suits you and what doesn’t — again, the elegant Meghan definitely ticks this box — but if you want to wear a pair of hip-inflating culottes then you will damn well wear them. 

By 42 you are likely to have been knocked about a bit by heartache, bereavement, major disappointments — and hopefully, you will have learned that life continues.

Winter passes, spring returns, the planet keeps on turning.

And by 42 you still, hopefully, have the vistas of new decades before you, fresh territory into which you can stride armed with confidence about what matters and what doesn’t.

So, Meghan, while I won’t claim that ‘life begins at 42’, in my experience, it’s a pretty good place to be. Happy birthday!

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