Inside Prince Harry and Meghan’s ever-changing friendship group and ‘feuds’ with ex-pals

Prince Harry and Meghan have had an ever-changing circle of friends over the past few years after they quit as working royals in 2020 and began a new life in the US.

While they have been close for years to the likes of Serena Williams and Misha Nonoo, they have also more recently got to know Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey.

Others in the Sussexes’s trusted inner circle include Gayle King, Misan Harriman and Sophie Trudeau as well as Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank.

They also have those with whom there have been alleged feuds, including Jessica Mulroney and Tom Inskip – while others such as Lizzie Cundy, Ninaki Priddy and Millie Mackintosh have openly spoken about the relationship breaking down.

The Duke and Duchess will no doubt be turning to their trusted friends as they work out what to do next after their £18million Spotify deal ended early. They also still have an £80million Netflix deal and Harry’s £29million four-book deal.

Here, MailOnline looks in detail at those who are still close to Meghan and Harry and those who have drifted away:

INNER ORBIT 

Tyler Perry

American actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry has become one of Harry and Meghan’s closest friends since they moved to California – but they first had contact before their wedding in 2018.

Meghan revealed in the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary that Perry sent her a letter expressing his sympathy over how she was estranged from her father Thomas.

She said in the programme: ‘I’d never met him before. He said he was praying for me, and if I ever need anything, he would be there.’

Perry then invited Meghan and Harry in 2020 to move into his 18-bedroom home in Los Angeles worth £16million – without even having met them.

The couple spent six weeks there before later moving into their first home together, the £12million mansion in Montecito where they live now.

The trio have since become good friends, and Perry is now Lilibet’s godfather –but told the Netflix documentary that he did so on the insistence that he would not be involved in any royal ceremony at a church in Britain.

The Sussexes are also said to have enjoyed holidays on Perry’s private island in the Bahamas. 

Oprah Winfrey

Perhaps Meghan and Harry’s most famous friend is Oprah Winfrey, who conducted the bombshell interview with the couple in 2021 that caused a huge fallout over a series of allegations including racism and bullying.

Later reflecting on the interview on CBS in September last year, Oprah – who is a close neighbour of the couple in Montecito – claimed that she ‘didn’t set out to do a bombshell interview’.

She added: ‘I was as surprised by the bombshell as everybody else. I was doing an interview to offer them a platform, to tell their story about why they left.’

In March this year, Oprah said the couple had not consulted her on whether to attend the King’s Coronation – which led to some claims on Twitter that she was distancing herself from them.

But there is no suggestion that they have had any falling out, and she has always been very respectful of the Sussexes in interviews.

Asked by Gayle King last year whether Harry and Prince William could reconcile after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Winfrey replied: ‘I do not get into people’s family matters.’

And back in 2020 when Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior royals, Oprah told TMZ: ‘I support them 1,000 percent.’

Gayle King

CBS presenter Gayle King was one of the guests at Meghan’s famously lavish baby shower in New York in 2019 and has regularly defended the couple on US television.

Now one of the couple’s chief cheerleaders in America, King also recently praised how they handled the decision for Harry to attend his father King Charles III’s Coronation in London in May and leave Meghan in California.

In April, she told Us Weekly: ‘I think Meghan and Harry should do what’s best for them. Clearly they know what’s going on in their family life. They know what’s going on over there.’

But King added that the Sussexes do not ask for advice, saying: ‘They consult me about nothing when it comes to that or anything for that matter.’

Back in 2021 at the time of the Oprah Winfrey interview, King also defended Meghan over accusations of falsehoods given in the bombshell chat – and said the Duchess ‘has documents to back up everything that she said’.

Earlier this month it was claimed that King was trying to secure Meghan as a guest on her new CNN show King Charles. The title comes from King’s own last name, and her co-host Charles Barkley’s first name.

Misan Harriman

Misan Harriman is a Nigerian-born British celebrity photographer and a family friend of Harry and Meghan, who claims to have helped them meet.

He took the pregnancy announcement photograph of the couple in February 2021 sat under a tree in Los Angeles, with Harry resting his hand on Meghan’s head as she lay in his lap cradling her bump.

Mr Harriman then took a portrait of their daughter, Lilibet, to mark her first birthday in June last year.

He has spoken about his pivotal role in Meghan and Harry meeting.

Mr Harriman previously told British Vogue: ‘Meg reminded me that had I not introduced her to a mutual friend then she wouldn’t have met Harry. I’m grateful for whatever small part I played.’

As well as Meghan, he has photographed a range of celebrities including Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett, Olivia Colman and Rihanna.

Serena Williams

Meghan’s bond with Serena Williams dates back to 2010 and is one of the longest friendships the Duchess has had with a major celebrity.

They first met at the Super Bowl that year, and then again at the event in 2014 in New York.

Meghan then started watching Williams in tennis tournaments, including the US Open in 2014 and the Australian Open in 2015.

Williams recalled to Vanity Fair in 2017 that after Meghan started dating Harry, she told her: ‘You’ve got to be who you are, Meghan. You can’t hide.’

The tennis star and her husband Alexis Ohanian attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May 2018 – and then Meghan watched Williams at Wimbledon in June that year, alongside Kate in the Royal Box. They did so again in July 2019.

Williams then defended Meghan after the Oprah interview in 2021, writing on social media: ‘Meghan Markle, my selfless friend, lives her life – and leads by example – with empathy and compassion.

‘She teaches me every day what is means to be truly noble. Her words illustrate the pain and cruelty she’s experienced.’

Then in August last year, Williams appeared on Meghan’s Spotify podcast Archetypes and the Duchess recalled meeting her in 2014, saying: ‘I show up and I see you walking toward someone.

‘I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, who is Serena Williams going to talk to?’ I looked behind me and when I turned around, you were there right in front of me… We became such fast friends.’

Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank

Prince Harry has been very close with his cousin Princess Eugenie since they were children, and that bond has strengthened since he married Meghan and Eugenie wed Jack Brooksbank – both in 2018.

Eugenie was one of the first people Harry introduced Meghan to before they revealed their relationship back in 2016 – and he said in his memoir Spare that the women instantly became friends and were soon hugging ‘like sisters’.

The Princess has since visited the couple in California. Footage of her trip to see them featured in the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary – and they were also seen attending the Super Bowl together in 2022.

A source told Us Weekly in December last year that Eugenie and the Sussexes are in ‘regular communication and FaceTime at least once every couple of months with the children’.

Harry and Meghan also went on a night out to a Halloween party in Toronto with Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank in 2016 – before the Sussexes had gone public with their relationship.

And Harry wrote in his book about how Eugenie introduced him to the model and actress Cressida Bonas who later became his girlfriend.

Harry said he and Ms Bonas shared an awkward kiss because his ‘aim was off’, and he then phoned Eugenie to tell her about this. But the Duke added: ‘She’d already spoken to Cressida. She sighed. Awkward.’

Misha Nonoo

Misha Nonoo is a fashion designer and the former wife of Harry’s friend Alexander Gilkes. She is one of a few people rumoured to have set up the couple.

Meghan first met Ms Nonoo when she was filming the TV drama Suits in Toronto, and they became good friends – even going away on holiday together.

Ms Nonoo was a guest at Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and they have worked together on a clothing line for the charity Smart Works.

Meghan has also backed her friend’s brand – wearing her ‘Husband’ shirt at her first public appearance with Harry at the Invictus Games in Toronto in 2017.

Ms Nonoo and her husband Mike Hess are also known to be friendly with Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, having been pictured going for dinner together in London’s Mayfair in July last year.

Sophie Trudeau

Meghan first became friendly with First Lady of Canada Sophie Trudeau in 2016, according to the biography Finding Freedom.

Mrs Trudeau appeared on her Spotify podcast Archetypes last November, with the Duchess revealing how she threw a pool party last summer with her and they ‘giggled like schoolgirls’ on her latest podcast episode.

Meghan described Mrs Trudeau as ‘a dear friend’ and said she hosted the event at her home in Montecito earlier last year, adding that it was a chance to ‘get the kids together, drink wine, swim.’

She described how she had bought an ‘inflatable pizza slice online’ which the family ‘splashed about on’ – calling it ‘a big hit.’

According to Finding Freedom, when she began dating Harry in 2016, Meghan was urged to take advice from Mrs Trudeau by her friend Jessica Mulroney, who deemed the two women ‘now had a lot in common’.

Meghan had previously met her husband, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the One Young World summit in Ottawa in 2016, with the pair pictured deep in conversation.

Prince Harry and Mr Trudeau have always appeared to enjoy each other’s company at events such as Commonwealth commemorations. The two have also encountered each other on multiple occasions through Harry’s Invictus Games.

Victoria Jackson

Victoria Jackson is a former make-up artist who Meghan met through their mutual friend Gloria Steinem, a well-known feminist journalist and women’s rights advocate in the US.

Ms Jackson who is 26 years older than the former Suits star and appeared on the Duchess’s recently axed Spotify podcast Archetypes, built one of the first TV ‘infomercial’ make-up empires.

Ms Jackson is married to Bill Guthy whose direct marketing company Guthy-Renker helped ex-supermodel Cindy Crawford turn her Meaningful Beauty line of creams and cosmetics into an £80million brand, and also represents Jennifer Lopez’s JLo Beauty.

There have been claims that Ms Jackson and her husband would be the woman to help Meghan develop a skincare or make-up range.

Meghan celebrated her 41st birthday at Ms Jackson’s ranch close to Santa Barbara, where Harry plays polo for Los Padres, and the couple’s children, Archie and Lilibet, have spent time petting the businesswoman’s mini pigs on her farm.

In August last year, Ms Jackson told The Cut that the couple are ‘good people’, saying she wants to help them ‘get out of the house because it’s complicated for them to go anywhere’.

MIDDLE ORBIT

Omid Scobie

Royal reporter Omid Scobie was thought to have been a friend and trusted contact of Harry and Meghan – but both parties have moved to distance themselves from each other in recent weeks.

Earlier this month Harry told his High Court hacking case that he ‘knows of’ Mr Scobie, who is Bazaar.com’s royal editor-at-large and co-authored the 2020 book Finding Freedom about the Sussexes

At the High Court on June 7, Mr Scobie was mentioned by Mirror Group Newspaper’s barrister Andrew Green KC in his cross-examination of Harry.

Mr Green quoted how Mr Scobie has previously spoken about the importance of sources in royal reporting. The barrister then asked Harry: ‘Do you know Mr Omid Scobie?’ The duke replied: ‘Yes.’ Harry then clarified: ‘I know of him.’

Mr Scobie also insisted that he is not the Sussexes’ ‘friend, mouthpiece, cheerleader’ as he gave evidence at the High Court for Harry last month.

A profile in the Sunday Times last month claimed Mr Scobie met Meghan in 2015 at Toronto Fashion Week, before she started dating Harry.

It also reported that he claimed to have given Meghan ‘a big farewell hug’ beneath the ‘malachite candelabras’ of the 1844 Room in Buckingham Palace after her final engagement as a working royal.

Mr Scobie is releasing new book called ‘Endgame’ – described as a ‘penetrating investigation’ about the Royal Family ‘s ‘fight for survival’ – on November 21. 

Wendell Pierce

Meghan and actor Wendell Pierce were known to be close while they filmed the TV drama Suits together, in which he played her on-screen father.

Pierce walked her down the aisle for her wedding in the TV show, and recalled talking to her about her real-life relationship with Harry and future life.

He said: ‘We had a moment I cherish. I was sitting with Meghan in her wedding dress, as we waited for a set-up. We were alone. I said to her, ‘Your life is going to change’.

‘It’s going to be amazing and I’m very happy for you but I want you to know that I’m your friend, and no matter where you are or what’s going on – if the fishbowl that you’re in ever starts getting to you – you can call me’.’

Pierce did not attend her wedding unlike several of Meghan’s other Suits co-stars, but this is understood to have been due to a clashing work schedule.

However he then slammed her interview with Oprah in 2021, telling LBC that the timing of the programme was poor due to the ongoing pandemic at the time.

He added: ‘It was quite insensitive and offensive that we are all complicit in this sort of palace… gossip in the midst of so much death. I think it is insignificant.’

He later clarified his comments and tweeted: ‘Clarity: The British monarchy is archaic in my American eyes. If slavery, colonialism and apartheid didn’t educate you that they are racist, you failed history.

‘I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best. Predicting this hellacious maelstrom I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that.’

However, Pierce also said that they had not spoken with each other since 2019.

Tom Inskip

Tom Inskip, also known as ‘Skippy’, is one of Prince Harry’s oldest friends, having met the Duke at Eton College.

Mr Inskip was with Harry on his ill-fated trip to Croatia in August 2011, when they got drunk on vodka, whisky, beer and tequila, and were photographed jumping into a pool fully-clothed at a nightclub on the party island of Hvar.

And he was with Harry during his trip to Las Vegas in 2012, when the prince was photographed naked during a game of ‘strip billiards’.

Mr Inskip married literary agent Lara Hughes-Young in Jamaica in 2017, with their wedding being one of the first events to which Harry took Meghan – and he was also one of the ushers.

However the two apparently fell out after Mr Inskip warned Harry against marrying Meghan.

According to the book Finding Freedom, Mr Inskip expressed doubts about how quickly the relationship was moving and decided to warn his friend Harry.

He is believed to have advised Harry and Meghan to live together before ‘doing anything more serious.’

A source close to Sussexes told the book’s authors that although his advice ‘came from a good place,’ Harry ‘didn’t totally see it that way’.

However, it has since been suggested that the two have made up.

Mike Tindall

Mike Tindall has attended numerous royal events with Prince Harry over the years, but after the 2021 Oprah interview he joked that the royals would like to throw a few punches at the Duke.

Speaking at an event with former England teammate Matt Dawson, they recalled a boozy night out celebrating England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup win at a bar in Sydney, where they were joined by Harry, who had travelled to Australia.

Tindall and teammate Iain Balshaw thought it would be amusing to throw a few punches at Harry, to see how long it would take his protection officers to pin them to the ground – which turned out to be a few seconds.

And Tindall – the husband of Harry’s cousin Zara – said: ‘At Balmoral, the family are now having the same conversation. Except the Queen has taken his security away.’

Tindall was also alleged to have used an insulting phrase to a fellow guest in reference to Harry at a reception following the Platinum Party at the Palace in June last year – although that report in the Daily Express has never been confirmed.

But the Tindalls are thought to be among the few royals with whom Harry still has a close relationship since he moved to the US. 

Sarah Ferguson

Sarah Ferguson is not thought to be close to Harry and Meghan nowadays, and recently appeared to subtly criticise their decision to step down as working royals.

In an interview with the Independent in April, she said: ‘Well, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t sit on the fence and keep one foot in and one foot out. You’re either in or out. But then don’t cry about not being invited to weddings. You chose to leave, now go and live it – and be it.’

However, she has also admitted she ‘does not really know’ Meghan, although she is sure that Meghan ‘really loves’ Harry.

And she has said that Meghan gives Harry ‘love he’s never felt before’.

The Duchess of York was not invited to Prince William and Kate’s wedding in 2011, but did go to Harry and Meghan’s in 2018.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain in 2018, she said: ‘I felt like I was really happy for my friend Diana, who I love, and my mum and dad, and I felt honoured and grateful for Harry and Meghan to invite me.

‘It was very kind of them and I think I can’t thank them enough for doing that because it was nerve-wracking but I knew I was ready.’

George and Amal Clooney

George and Amal Clooney were among the two most famous non-royals to attend Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018 and were given prime seats in St George’s Chapel.

After the marriage they were said to have become closer and Mrs Clooney was even invited to Meghan’s baby shower in New York in 2019.

The Clooneys hosted Harry and Meghan at least twice at their home in Sonning, Oxfordshire, according to the Sussexes’ biography Finding Freedom.

The book also claimed that the Clooneys invited the Sussexes to Lake Como only weeks after their wedding, flying them out on their private jet.

Finding Freedom co-author Omid Scobie also told Good Morning America that Harry and Mr Clooney had bonded over a love of motorcycles and basketball.

Asked by the Daily Mail in 2019 how he knew the couple, Mr Clooney said: ‘I’ve just known them. We live not too far from one another and we have dinners and stuff and we’re friends with them for all the reasons that you’re friends with anybody.

‘They’re just really nice, fun, kind people, they’re a very loving couple, and they’re going to be great parents.’

But the Clooneys have not taken sides in the transatlantic row between the Sussexes and the rest of the Royal Family, and turned out in support of King Charles III at a Prince’s Trust event in London in May.

OUTER ORBIT

Lizzie Cundy

Presenter and model Lizzie Cundy made friends with Meghan a pre-dinner for a charity event at the home of Phones 4U founder John Caudwell in 2013.

She told Grazia in 2021 that they met and ‘got on like a house on fire instantly’, adding ‘Meghan was very friendly, great fun, with a big smile.’

Cundy said Meghan had openly talked about her recent split from husband Trevor Engelson after two years of marriage, and said she wanted to ‘work here in England and maybe even work on Made In Chelsea’.

She claimed Meghan told her she wanted an English boyfriend, and so she tried to set her up with footballer Ashley Cole, but ‘she wasn’t his type’.

Cundy said that when Meghan started dating Harry, she ‘texted her to say how amazing it was and she did reply’.

However, she continued: ‘But once the ring was on the finger, I soon realised she was off Twitter and that her number wasn’t working. And that was it. I’m afraid both Piers Morgan and I got ghosted.’

Cundy added that she was not left upset by this, adding: ‘Personally I don’t think they’ve gone around things the right way, but if I saw her today, I’d give her a big hug. I’m happy that they’re happy.’

Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne

Meghan’s former friend, advisor and confidante Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne spent two years together travelling the world for corporate and charity events.

Ms Nelthorpe-Cowne and her husband Mark established Kruger Cowne Talent Management and they met Meghan in 2014.

This was when they were working with the One Young World – and Meghan, who was in the TV drama Suits at the time, was interested in becoming involved.

Ms Nelthorpe-Cowne said they ‘just clicked’, adding: ‘We spoke on the phone and through emails a number of times before actually meeting, but it was an instant connection.’

She became Meghan’s commercial agent, helping her obtain endorsements and sponsorship deals with top brands.

But Ms Nelthorpe-Cowne said that Meghan eventually told could no longer do commercial work once she was in the Royal Family.

She wrote in The Mail On Sunday in 2020: ‘Meghan’s last email to me was to say that her life had changed and she could no longer pursue commercial work. She really wanted to remain friends, she said, adding that it was very important to her.

‘Alas, that was not to be: I’ve never heard from her directly again.’

Jessica Mulroney

Meghan and stylist Jessica Mulroney were once best friends and were pictured at a number of high-profile events together after meeting in 2011. 

Meghan and Harry spent time with Mrs Mulroney and her husband Ben while in Toronto before their relationship was made public in 2016. 

Mrs Mulroney played a key part in Meghan’s wedding, and is said to have flown in to London four days beforehand to help her get fitted for her dress.

Meghan also asked her three children John, Brian and Isabel to be in her wedding party – while the stylist was given a starring role as she entered St George’s Chapel alongside Kate Middleton.

Mrs Mulroney was also then also among several famous faces who organised Meghan’s baby shower in New York in 2019, and defended the couple when they were slammed for using private jets, saying they had been the target of ‘racist bullies’.

But it appears the pair became distant after Mrs Mulroney became embroiled in a ‘white privilege’ row with lifestyle blogger Sasha Exeter.

Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, Sasha posted on her Instagram Stories and encouraged her followers and fellow influencers to speak out about the Black Lives Matter movement.

However, the blogger claimed Mrs Mulroney ‘took offence’ from her ‘generic call to action’ post. In a follow-up video, Ms Exeter said: ‘What happened next was a series of very problematic behaviour and antics […]

‘I’m by no means calling Jess a racist but what I will say is this: She is very well aware of her wealth, perceived power and privilege because of the colour of her skin and that, my friends, gave her the momentary confidence to come for my livelihood in writing. Textbook white privilege really, in my personal opinion.’

Following the blogger’s claims, Mrs Mulroney issued three public apologies, but was dropped by numerous television networks including ABC’s Good Morning America and Canadian TV network CTV.

Despite publicly supporting Meghan as she adapted to life as a Royal, the stylist was not among the women featured on the Duchess’ Archetypes podcast.

And Mrs Mulroney was also noticeably absent from the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary series.

Ninaki Priddy

Meghan’s childhood friend Ninaki Priddy was maid of honour at Meghan’s first wedding to Trevor Engelson in front of more than 100 guests on a beach in Jamaica.

She told the Daily Mail in 2017: ‘Meg literally shone with happiness. We’d been like sisters since we were two years old, so I knew she’d always wanted to get married. 

They had been inseparable from their first days at Hollywood’s private Little Red School House, which they both joined at the age of two, before moving on together at 11 to the Immaculate Heart girls’ high school in Los Angeles.

But Ms Priddy said they fell out after she disapproved of the manner of Meghan’s break-up from Mr Engelson.

She added: ‘All I can say now is that I think Meghan was calculated — very calculated — in the way she handled people and relationships.

‘She is very strategic in the way she cultivates circles of friends. Once she decides you’re not part of her life, she can be very cold. It’s this shutdown mechanism she has. There’s nothing to negotiate. She’s made her decision and that’s it.’

Millie Mackintosh

Made In Chelsea star Millie Mackintosh become friends with Meghan after they met at a hotel event in Turkey, and ‘gave her all of her contacts’ when the actress was in London.

She and Meghan met up in the capital and she shared her favourite hotspots, and they were even pictured together during a girls’ weekend at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire in 2016.

Mackintosh said she and Meghan bonded over their marital troubles, as she was married to rapper Professor Green at the time, and Meghan had split from her first husband Trevor Engelson.

But Mackintosh said that she felt ‘snubbed’ by Meghan when she began dating Harry.

She claimed that she sent Meghan a message offering her well-wishes, but was surprised to receive an ‘abrupt’ response and decided not to contact her again.

Mackintosh said: ‘It’s not like I messaged her asking if it was true, that was none of my business. What I read from that message was that she needed a bit of space, to cool off.

‘I didn’t message her again, but I did expect that we would stay in touch. I thought she’d message back and say, ”Sorry everything is a bit stressful right now.”

‘I never heard from her again. I felt like she’d basically told me to f**k off in that message. So I did. And we haven’t spoken since.’

Bill Simmons

Harry and Meghan signed a huge Spotify deal worth an estimated £18million in 2020, as part of the media empire they have hoped to build.

But earlier this month it emerged that they are set to lose millions after the deal was pulled because they produced only one podcast series and a half-hour festive special in three years.

The news sparked further revelations, including an attack by Spotify executive and podcaster, Bill Simmons, who blasted the couple as ‘f***ing grifters’.

He also referred to a Zoom call he once had with Harry about podcast ideas but said he would have to get drunk to recount the tale – which is one of his ‘best stories’.

And he has previously spoken of his embarrassment at sharing the same platform as the Sussexes and said the prince ‘just complains about’ the Royal Family.

Last January, he said it was ’embarrassing’ to be affiliated with the same company. ‘Shoot this guy to the sun,’ he said, according to sports website The Big Lead .

‘I’m so tired of this guy. What does he bring to the table? He just whines about s*** and keeps giving interviews. Who gives a s***? Who cares about your life?

‘You weren’t even the favorite son. You live in f***ing Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them.’

Earlier this week it was claimed Harry suggested interviewing Russian president Vladimir Putin about ‘childhood traumas’ as part of a podcast pitch.

Edward Enninful

Vogue editor Edward Enninful – who is poised to take on a new global role at Conde Nast – has previously spoken in support of Meghan.

In August 2020, he denied criticism of her was racist and suggested it ‘took a minute’ for the Duchess to ‘understand the rules’ of the royal institution.

Speaking in an interview with Sky News, Enninful said he wouldn’t put criticism of her ‘down to racism’, explaining: ‘The Duchess of Sussex is a brave woman. I feel that it wasn’t. Parts of it were probably racism, but it was more of an institution.’

He added that while criticism was ‘harsh’, he ‘wouldn’t just blame it on racism’, saying: ‘She walked into an institution and everyone expected her to know the rules. And I think sometimes it takes a minute to understand the rules.’

But they were said to have feuded when she guest edited the magazine’s September 2019 issue, according to Tom Bower’s book ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry, and the War between the Windsors’.

He claimed Meghan clashed with Enninful and his staff on her suggestions for the issue and trying to alter when it would be published in the US and Britain.

Mr Bower also claimed Enninful and Markle had different views on how to publicise the book, with Meghan’s plan to ‘lighting up the internet’ with leaks, but Enninful favouring secrecy.

Meghan was said to have asked her head of communications, Sara Latham, to get Vogue to publish in the US first and the UK second – a change to the schedule.

But Enninful was said to have rejected Latham’s request, which severely damaged Meghan’s relationship with the magazine.

But two years later, Enninful then sent Meghan text messages of support during her television interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

However, in April this year, he came under attack from the so-called ‘Sussex Squad’ of Meghan fans for writing a Time Magazine essay praising King Charles III.

Katy Perry

Meghan has been claimed to hold a ‘grudge’ against the singer Katy Perry over a critical comment made about her wedding dress.

During a promotional tour in the US for American Idol in May 2018, Perry joked to Entertainment Tonight she ‘would’ve done one more fitting’ in relation to the dress at St George’s Chapel.

A source told the Daily Star in August 2022: ‘Meghan is keenly aware of a comment that Katy Perry made in 2018 about her wedding dress and is notorious for holding a grudge.

‘While the comment wasn’t meant to be hurtful, Meghan felt under siege at that time and was overwhelmed by arguments with staff, the Duchess of Cambridge, and Thomas Markle.’

However, this did not stop Harry making friends with actor Orlando Bloom, who is Perry’s fiancé, after the family moved to Montecito.

In May, Perry sang at the King’s Coronation concert in front of 20,000 members of the public and invited guests at Windsor Castle. Harry did not attend, after leaving Britain to return to California shortly after the Coronation ceremony itself.

Prince William and Kate 

Prince Harry once referred to Kate Middleton as the ‘sister he never had’, but she and his wife Meghan had an extraordinary series of fallings out after she entered the royal fold.

Harry is said to have introduced Kate to Meghan in January 2017 after they had been dating for six months, with Meghan having met Prince William two months earlier.

Meghan revealed she was ‘barefoot’ and wearing ripped jeans when she first met Kate, saying in the Netflix documentary that she did not know the ‘formality’ continues behind closed doors and that she is a ‘hugger’ – which she did not realise was ‘jarring for some Brits’.

Harry claimed in his book Spare that Meghan asked to borrow a lip-gloss from Kate ahead of their appearance at the first Royal Foundation forum summit in 2018 – and Kate was surprised, but rummaged around in her bag before offering it to Meghan.

Harry then claimed that Meghan applied a little gloss to her finger, and rubbed it across her lips, before Kate made a ‘disgusted’ face.

The Duke also wrote in Spare about how the women were both left in tears during the infamous bridesmaid dress row.

It was initially claimed Meghan had made Kate cry during a row over the outfits.

But Meghan later disagreed in her Oprah interview in 2021, claiming: ‘She [Kate] was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers’.

Harry also wrote about various rows between the two couples, although Omid Scobie has insisted on The Heirpod podcast that the Duchesses were ‘never at war’ – but their relationship lacked any ‘depth’.

The two women have rarely appeared in public in recent years – although they did come together for the Queen’s funeral events in 2022 and meet well-wishers.

However, Meghan did not attend the Coronation – with Harry only making a swift visit, then returning home to California, where she had stayed with their children.