Are Meghan Markle and Jacinda Ardern friends? New Zealand PM features in new Sussexes docuseries trailer

Jacinda Ardern may appear in the trailer for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s new docu-series featuring ‘inspirational leaders’ throughout history, but does that mean she is friends with the couple?

According to New Zealand website Stuff, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister told them that “all communication throughout has been with the Nelson Mandela Foundation (there has been no communication with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex regarding the project).”

Interviews for the new series were reportedly done in March 2019 and have since been adapted for the new docu-series.

In spite of this latest revelation, Meghan Markle and Jacinda Ardern have met on several occasions and are believed to have forged a friendship when Meghan and Harry went on a royal tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand in 2018. Meghan also reportedly met up privately with Jacinda on that trip.

In 2019, Meghan met with Jacinda Ardern at Kensington Palace where she reportedly thanked her for extending her and Prince Harry such hospitality when they visited New Zealand the year before.

Both Meghan and Jacinda seem to have a mutual appreciation of one another. When Meghan went to New Zealand on the royal tour, she was in her second trimester of pregnancy (with Archie).

Jacinda praised Meghan for the “role she’s playing at such an often tiring time.” She also added that she has “real empathy and I think she’s incredible.”

Meghan has also praised Jacinda in the past for her Covd-19 response. At Girl Up’s 2020 Leadership Summit, she told young female leaders that “we can take inspiration from women like Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who brought New Zealand together to swiftly and wholly tackle Covid-19.”

Other figures who will appear in Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s new docu-series include Greta Thunberg, the late US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Prince Harry has said that the series was inspired by Nelson Mandela.