Who are Meghan Markle's friends? After claims of rifts and fall-outs over the years

Meghan Markle is one of the world's most famous women, thanks to marrying Prince Harry and her successful acting career and networking ability.

Meghan has forged many friendships over the years, some with very high profile people. We take a look at who is still close to the Suits actress.

Jessica Mulroney was arguably the name most people would have associated as Meghan's best friend. The Canadian stylist met Meghan in 2011 when she moved to Canada to film the show Suits. She advised Meghan on styling and even helped to choose the 2015 wedding dress that Meghan wore on the Netflix series as her character Rachel got married.

The children of Jessica and her husband, Ben, played huge roles in the 2018 wedding of Meghan to Harry. Their identical twins, Brian Gerald Alexander Mulroney and John Benedict Dimitri Mulroney were page boys and daughter Isobel 'Ivy' was a bridesmaid.

The stylist was one of the 20 or so friends who gathered in NYC for Meghan's baby shower in 2019. Things are looking cooled down between the pair in recent times, though. Although Jessica has said they're in 'regular touch', they haven't been pictured together for a couple of years.

This could be due to fashion and lifestyle writer Sasha Exeter posting a video telling her followers that Jessica used 'textbook white privilege' to try to sabotage her career, simply because Sasha posted a call to action asking peers (like Jessica) to support the fight for racial justice. Jessica denied the allegations but did apologise for offending her in any way. It's claimed she lost many work contracts due to the claims from Sasha.

Meghan was apparently offended that Jessica referenced their friendship when defending herself against the Sasha Exeter claims of 'white privilege'.

"As I told you privately, I have lived a very public and personal experience with my closest friend where race was front and center," said Mulroney to Exeter. "It was deeply educational." Seemingly, in reference to the racist abuse that Meghan has received.

Jessica has broken her silence over the weekend, however, by sharing a white and black picture on her Instagram of her and other friends of Meghan taken at the Duchess of Sussex's wedding reception and shared in her and Prince Harry's explosive series.

A less complicated friendship in the form of tennis legend Serena Williams has been ongoing since at least 2014, when the two were pictured as part of a five-aside beach bowl game. Meghan has attended many Wimbledon games watching her friend Serena play and supporting her over the years and enjoying the royal box seats before her and Harry left their royal roles.

Serena, in turn, showed her support for Meghan when she was interviewed for the Netflix series about the royal couple's life.

"I'm looking at it through the lens of my friend, not a princess," Serena explained. "They as a couple are so tight. And rely on each other so much... I was just super excited."

As the pair continue to build a life in Montecito, California, with their two children, Archie and Lilibet, Serena insists that they are surrounded by people who adore them.

"They are creating their own family and friends can be family too," she concluded.

Serena appears to have maintained a closeness with Meghan that is maybe alluding Jessica these days.

Another two friends who have stayed close to the Duchess are Abigail Spencer, a co-star from Suits, and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra. The women were both in attendance at Meghan and Harry's wedding.

Abigail also spoke on the Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, in solidarity with them.

She spoke about how she felt unable to help her friend when Meghan was struggling with suicidal thoughts. She said, “That was a really dark... That was a really dark time.

"And I didn’t know what to do. Like, that’s the thing, they are in this complex organism that I don’t know anything about or how to help or what to do. And I’m not allowed."

Markle had previously discussed how she struggled with suicidal thoughts during her and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.

Spencer also discussed the treatment of her friend by the press, saying, "Anything that anybody was printing wasn’t coming from anybody that knew her. There’s all this untruth, there’s all these lies, and it just seemed to be getting worse."

Amal Clooney, a leading human rights lawyer, became friends with Meghan AFTER attending her wedding. There may have been friendly interactions between Meghan and fellow actor George Clooney, husband of Amal, in the years before her wedding to Harry - however, the couple were invited to the royal wedding in 2018 despite no real closeness at the time.

In the years since the wedding the two couples have enjoyed meals and Italian trips to Amal and George's holiday home. Amal attended Meghan's baby shower in NYC in 2019.

Boris Johnson's sister wrote for AirMail following the wedding, "There’s a story doing the rounds that while Carolyn Bartholomew, Diana’s former flatmate, was waiting for the wedding service to start, she turned to the couple alongside her and asked how they knew Harry or Meghan.

"'We don’t', the Clooneys answered brightly."

However, it seems that their 'friendship' actually stepped up a gear in the proceeding months. A bizarre case of a friendship in reverse.

Music icon Beyoncé has also fallen under the friendship spell of Meghan. Beyoncé first expressed her affection for Meghan when she and Jay-Z displayed a portrait of Meghan in the background as they accepted the BRIT Award for their song 'Apeshit' in February 2019. Then, in July, the two couples met in person at the London premiere of The Lion King.

In one of the episode's in Harry & Meghan there's a text message sent to Meghan from Beyoncé which causes them both to marvel that the singer knows and cares enough to get in touch.

Friendships throughout a lifetime can ebb and flow and not everyone is there for each other when it matters. Meghan's friendship circle is in many ways larger than it has ever been, but how close she is to these celebrities is questionable.

The fact she reunited with her estranged niece, Ashleigh, as documented in the Netflix series, suggests a woman who has seen the hollow and fickle nature of some of the more glamorous people she has met.