Meghan Markle and Prince Harry may have announced they are “stepping back” from duties as senior members of the royal family, but they won’t have to forge their path in North America alone. The couple, especially Meghan, and infant son Archie have a strong gang of support in both Canada and the United States.
It helps that in her past life as a TV actor, Meghan split time between Los Angeles and Toronto. She also attended Northwestern University, where she built a crew of school mates whose friendship she has continued to cultivate as Duchess of Sussex.
Some of the names are well-known. Others are more anonymous. Either way, everyone on the list looks forward to welcoming Meghan and Harry to their new home(s).
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Jessica Mulroney
The Canadian stylist and wife of TV presenter Ben Mulroney may have been the most successful member of Meghan’s entourage to parlay her association with the Duchess into fame. A few months after the royal wedding, Mulroney became a fashion correspondent for Good Morning America, and she’s currently filming the upcoming Netflix series I Do, Redo.
The pair met in Toronto, where Meghan moved in 2011 for her role in Suits. Mulroney reportedly played a big role in the planning of Markle’s wedding, including helping her find the custom Givenchy gown she wore for the occasion. Her sons, who held Meghan’s train at St. George’s Chapel, reportedly call the Duchess “Auntie Meg.”
The friends were able to make long distance work, with Meghan secretly visiting the Mulroneys in Canada over the past year.
Serena Williams
The tennis champ said last year that Meghan “couldn’t be a better friend,” and the two have a decade-long history of praising each other in magazine interviews and on social media. Williams wrote on Twitter that she was “proud” and “inspired” by Meghan after the Duchess-to-be penned a piece for Time about period stigma in developing countries.
Meghan repaid the compliment by later telling Vogue that Williams “will be an amazing mother” and praising her karaoke skills. Williams footed the $300,000 bill for Meghan’s baby shower at the ritzy Mark Hotel in New York. Speaking of which. . .
Amal Clooney
The world’s most famous human rights barrister attended Archie’s baby shower last year in her typically glamorous fashion, wearing a red Sergio Hudson jumpsuit with gold pumps. Clooney and her husband, George, own a home in Sonning, Berkshire, which is not too far from Meghan and Harry’s (now former) Windsor residence.
They attended the royal wedding in 2018, where Clooney arguably won an award for best-dressed guest in her yellow Stella McCartney get-up. George hasn’t divulged how he and Amal met the Sussex family, but they’re all close enough now for the Oscar winner to defend them against the press, who he said were “villanizing” the couple.
Abigail Spencer
Meghan invited the Suits actress to her wedding, though their relationship began before the series aired, when they were both struggling actresses in LA. The two are quite close, with Spencer calling Meghan “glorious,” and they both share the same birthday—a true sign of their bond, for those who subscribe to that sort of thing.
Gayle King
King, a host of CBS This Morning, has both a personal and professional relationship with the couple. She reported on Archie’s shower and attended his first official photo call, but she also visited the family privately in Windsor. King has kept parts of her friendship with Meghan under wraps, but she has divulged nuggets of information, like how one shower activity included creating and donating flower arrangements to charity.
Priyanka Chopra
The Bollywood actress met Meghan—or “Megs,” as she calls her—at an Elle UK dinner back in 2016. Even then, Chopra predicted Meghan was “meant for big things.” Though there have been rumors of feuding between the two—Meghan did not attend Chopra's wedding to Nick Jonas—Chopra always dutifully shoots those reports down
Misha Nonoo
The fashion designer also raves about Meghan, calling her “the coolest girl in the world.” Nonoo says the relationship, which began at a lunch “years ago” in Miami, is based on a shared love of philanthropy and charity work.
Meghan wore one of Nonoo’s designs, the “Husband shirt,” during her first public appearance with Harry back in 2017. The placement may have been a nod to the fact that Nonoo is allegedly the much-discussed “friend” who introduced Meghan to Harry in the first place.
Meghan’s ties to Nonoo are so strong that she even grinned and bared being in the same room as Ivanka Trump during Nonoo’s star-studded Italian nuptials last year.
Markus Anderson
Anderson works as a “consultant” for the members-only Soho House, and aided in the opening the club in Toronto. Since he hobnobbed with both Meghan and Harry before they met, he’s also sometimes credited as their matchmaker.
Janina Gavankar
The actress who first shared Meghan, Harry, and Archie’s Christmas card last month has known the Duchess for 20 years. She sat near Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, at the royal wedding. Gavankar says they still manage to FaceTime “for hours” to speak about things that are “immensely important to them”—as friends tend to do.
Lindsay Roth and Genevieve Hills
Last summer, Meghan brought college friends Roth and Hills along to cheer on Serena Williams at Wimbledon. Roth, who works as a TV producer, met Meghan in a literature class, and Hills was a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sister.
Meghan planned Roth’s wedding, even flying her to the Canadian Kleinfield’s bridal salon (where Jessica Mulroney worked), to find a Zuhair Murad dress. Roth now works as one of Meghan’s unofficial spokespeople, being one of the few friends the Duchess has “authorized” to speak to reporters.
Heather Dorak
Dorak, who owns Pilates Platinum in LA, flew in to New York for Archie’s baby shower. She jetted off to Spain with Meghan for a trip in 2017, wrote about health for the now-defunct Tig blog, and—of course—trained the yoga-loving Duchess.
Benita Litt
The entertainment lawyer-turned-handbag designer (only in LA) also enjoys philanthropy, and has been spotted with Meghan at events. Her two daughters, Remi and Rylan, served as bridesmaids at the royal wedding, and the proud mother sat next to Ragland in St. George’s Chapel. Meghan is godmother to the two girls, and before she began spending Christmas with Harry and the Queen, she enjoyed the holidays at Litt’s home.
