When Did Meghan Markle and Tyler Perry Meet?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s wedding was a star-studded affair, attended by A-list celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, David and Victoria Beckham, and George and Amal Clooney. Hollywood heavyweight Tyler Perry was not there but Meghan revealed that he did contact her when she and the duke tied the knot to tell her he was “praying for her,” and this was before they ever met each other.
In a 2022 interview with The Cut, Meghan shared that while she “had never met Tyler Perry in person he had reached out when she and Harry got married to tell her that he was praying for her ‘and that he understood what this meant,’ referring to the symbolic weight of their wedding, ‘and that he could only imagine what it was like.'”
So when did the Duchess of Sussex actually meet the actor and producer? Here’s the answer to that and more.
Perry gave Meghan a warning about family and fame
Perry had sent a note to Meghan around the time of her 2018 wedding after seeing media reports about her dad, Thomas Markle.
“I’m not a royal watcher … but I saw something about her father,” Perry recalled what he told her in the Netflix docuseries Meghan & Harry. “I found it to be hurtful … When my life changed and success started to come, family members became different people, and I know how hurtful that could be, and how horrible it could be.”
He added: “I immediately empathized with her … I sent her a note, just praying for her just to be able to move through it, and hold on, and let her know that everything in her life had prepared her for this moment, or so I thought.”
Perry also told Meghan to call him if she ever needed support or advice, which she did and he became one of her confidants despite still not meetiing in person at that point.
Perry let the Sussexes stay at his Beverly Hills home before meeting them
Fans remember when the Sussexes left Canada and moved to California in 2020, they stayed at Perry’s Beverly Hills mansion. What many people didn’t realize at the time is that they still had never met in person when they moved in there.
“He’s like, ‘My house is safe, and I’ll make sure you have security, and you take your time,'” Meghan remembered Perry telling her. “And I was like, ‘We only need to stay for like a week, if we could stay for just a week, and then we can find somewhere that we can live.’ And he was like, ‘You’re not going to stay for like a week, you’re going to stay for as long as you need, and I’m going to get you there safely, and I’m going to keep you there safely until you have somewhere to go.'”
It wasn’t until after they sought refuge at his residence that they finally met in person. And because they had already become so close when their daughter, Princess Lilibet, was born in 2021, Harry and Meghan asked Perry to be her godfather.
While the the Madea creator doesn’t speak about his relationship with the Sussexes too often, he did gush about Lilibet during the Let’s Talk Off-Camera With Kelly Ripa podcast in 2023 tellng the host: “She’s so adorable. Oh, she’s so beautiful. She’s just so beautiful.”
Perry’s reps have denied the accusations against him
Perry’s name is in the news right now for the wrong reasons. He is being sued by actor Derek Dixon. The two worked together in 2019 on the drama series The Oval, which Perry directed and produced.
Dixon is suing the star and Tyler Perry Studios over accusations of sexual assault and harassment. He is seeking $260 million in damages.
Perry’s reps have denied all the allegations against him in a statement to People, saying: “This is an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam. But Tyler will not be shaken down and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”
