Filmmaker Tyler Perry says Meghan Markle treated him like a ‘therapist’ as couple ‘hid’ at his mansion after royal split

Filmmaker Tyler Perry revealed this Wednesday that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry had reached out to him for help after their split from the Royal Family in 2020.

“I sent them a note … and just said, ‘If you ever need anything, I’m here,’ and she called months later and just talked to me like I was a therapist you talk to and we just had a great conversation,” he said on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast.

“It is very important for people in this business to have a safe place to land, to have a place where they can trust and talk freely and get advice that’s not going to be biased or from somebody who wants something from them,” he added.

As to what had inspired him to reach out to the former royals, Perry said he “got the tremendous sense” that Markle’s experience of joining the Royal Family and then leaving it was “overwhelming,” and he wanted to be there for her.

Listen:

After they all became friends, the filmmaker eventually invited the two into his $18 million Beverly Hills mansion.

“They hid out at my house for a long time. It was so great,” Perry told Ripa.

“Every day that they were there, I looked to see if anything’s happening online. Nothing. They don’t even know, so weeks and weeks they were there. They were so happy. It was such a beautiful moment,” he said.

Some of this was previously revealed when part two of the docuseries “Harry & Meghan” premiered on Netflix last year.

“Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were looking to relocate with their young son Archie from where they had been staying in Canada because the media had discovered the location and their security detail had been removed after the pair announced they were stepping back from their positions as senior royal family members,” Entertainment Weekly reported at the time.

“This was like a week before COVID, and we’d been stuck at this house where everyone in the world knew where we were, unprotected, no security,” Harry reportedly said in the series.

That was around the time Perry sent a note to Markle offering her help.

“I’m not a royal watcher… but I saw something about her father. 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 reportedly said in the docuseries.

“I immediately empathized with her. This was before the wedding, and 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,” he added.

“I’d never met him before,” Markle said in the docuseries. “He sent me a letter before the wedding, saying he was praying for me, and that if I ever need anything, he would be there.”

As previously reported, she eventually took him up on his offer.

“Months and months and months went by, and then one day, when we were in Canada I had called him, finally after years at that point, first time we ever spoke, and I was just a wreck. I was just crying and crying. Like, sometimes, it’s easier to just open up to someone who knows nothing at all, and that was that moment with me and Tyler,” she said.

“I could hear the fear,” Perry said in response. “It was palpable. I could hear it. So I asked her what was she afraid of, and she took a deep breath, and she started listing the things that [she was] afraid of, and I said to her, ‘Every one of your fears are valid.'”

In the docuseries, Markle also talked about moving in with Perry.

“He’s like, ‘My house is safe, and I’ll make sure you have security, and you take your time.’ 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,'” she called.

“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,'” she added.

Dovetailing back to Perry’s interview with Ripa, he also told her that he calls Markle’s daughter Lilibet, who she had in 2021, “Little Lili.”

“Oh, she’s so beautiful. She’s just so beautiful,” he said.

Vivek Saxena

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles