Serena Williams became friends with Markle in 2014 while playing in the DirecTV Beach Bowl, and they continue to support each other.

The pair have remained friends over the years, appearing in Instagram posts together and congratulating each other on their accomplishments. Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, even attended the royal couple’s wedding in 2018.

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra met Markle at Elle’s Women in Television dinner in January 2016 and remains a close friend till this day. Chopra spoke about her friendship with Markle in Elle’s February 2019 issue.

“Megs … she was always meant for big things,” Chopra said. “To be a change and be an important voice in doing that. It’s amazing that she found that calling and has the platform to be able to do it.”

Chopra also called out Wendy Williams in 2017 for referring to Markle as only Harry’s girlfriend and ignoring her other achievements.

George Clooney

Harry and George Clooney connected through their philanthropic work. Clooney is the co-founder of Not on Our Watch, an organisation that aims to minimise genocide in Sudan, as well as the Clooney Foundation For Justice with his wife, Amal, a human rights lawyer. Meanwhile, Harry co-founded Sentebale in 2006, a charity focused on the mental health and well-being of HIV-stricken children in Lesotho and Botswana.

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David Beckham

Beckham continued to stay in touch with Harry after he stepped back from royal life, and the two have bonded over being fathers.

“I haven’t spoken to Harry about him moving. We speak as friends and that’s the most important thing for me”, Beckham told Entertainment Tonight in 2020. “I think he’s enjoying being a young father for the first time and that’s what we always spoke about. When you are a parent, it changes everything for you. He always needs to be happy.”

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez

Back when they were still a couple, J-Lo and Alex Rodriguez went on a double date with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. E! News reported that the two power couples met for dinner at Habitat, a restaurant at 1 Hotel in Miami, while Harry and Markle were in Florida in February 2020 for an appearance at a JP Morgan event.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Beyoncé and Jay-Z paid tribute to Markle while accepting a Brit Award in 2019. They recorded their Brit Award acceptance speech for best international group in front of a portrait of Markle, referencing their music video for Apesh*t where they stood in front of the Mona Lisa.

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Beyoncé also featured the portrait, painted by artist Tim O’Brien, on Instagram in a February 2019 post, and included Markle on her website in honour of Black History Month.

The two couples finally met at the premiere of The Lion King (2019) in July that year. The Daily Mail reported that Jay-Z encouraged the new parents to “always find some time for yourself”.

Katharine McPhee and David Foster

Markle and Katharine McPhee attended the same school growing up. They got back in touch when Foster helped arrange for the royal couple to stay in a friend’s Vancouver Island mansion.

“I felt honoured that I was able to help Meghan there, because I’m a Canadian and we’re a Commonwealth country, we’re the Crown’s. It’s important to us, so I grew up with that kind of sentiment”, Foster told The Daily Mail in 2020. “I was really happy to be able to help them to find a respite just to take a little time off.”

McPhee told Access Hollywood in 2020 that Harry and Foster also share a close bond: “My husband has a really, really beautiful relationship with Harry. They’re like, they’re so cute. They’re like father and son.”

Patrick J. Adams

Adams, whose character was engaged to Markle’s on the show Suits, joked on Twitter that “She said she was just going out to get some milk …” when news of her engagement to Harry broke.

Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey’s friendship with the couple began in 2018, when Markle invited her to Kensington Palace. Winfrey then hosted Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, at her home in Montecito, California and sent her home with a basket of kumquats.

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In 2019, Harry and Winfrey began working together on an Apple television docuseries about mental health called The Me You Can’t See. And when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were ready to open up about leaving royal life behind, they granted Winfrey the coveted interview. They now live down the road from each other in Montecito.

They’re also friends with Winfrey’s best friend, CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, who attended their wedding and Markle’s baby shower in 2019.

Tyler Perry

Harry and Markle told Winfrey in their interview that they moved to Los Angeles with their son, Archie, because their location in Canada, where they had initially settled after stepping back from royal duties in early 2020, became public. When the palace told them they would stop receiving security, Tyler Perry offered his home and security detail to the couple.

Markle said: “We didn’t have a plan. We needed a house, and he offered his security as well, so it gave us breathing room to try to figure out what we were going to do.”

Harry and Markle stayed at Perry’s home for three months, then they decided to stay in California and bought their own home in Montecito.

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom

On a 2021 episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert, Harry shared that he and Bloom – who has a daughter, Daisy Dove, with Perry – alert each other when there are photographers in the area.

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“Just two days ago Orlando Bloom sent me a message because he s down the road and we sort of keep in contact because of the paparazzi”, Harry said. “He sent me a photograph, which his security got, of this long-haired guy with a beanie on, with his AirPods in, with his massive camera lying in the back of his 4x4 truck, blacked-out windows, a woman driving … and he’s laid down in the back of this truck taking photographs of them out with their kid and whoever else is in that area. How is that normal? How is that acceptable?”

Ellen DeGeneres

DeGeneres visited Harry and Markle while on a trip to the UK in 2019, and she told her audience on an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she had fed and held their son, Archie.

“He weighs 15 pounds, which is, the exchange rate, is 17 dollars here!” she joked.

When the couple faced criticism for flying on private jets in August 2019, DeGeneres defended them on Twitter.

She wrote in a tweet: “Portia and I met Prince Harry and Meghan in England to talk about their work on wildlife conservation. They were the most down-to-earth, compassionate people. Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you’re trying to do is make the world better.”

Markle appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on November 18 in her first major televised interview since the bombshell tell-all with Winfrey in March.