Inside Meghan Markle and Jessica Mulroney's Fallout: What Happened Between the Former Best Friends?

Meghan Markle and Jessica Mulroney went from best friends to strangers overnight.

Their friendship first blossomed in 2011 when they met in Toronto, Canada, where the royal was filming Suits. After they bonded over a love for yoga, they began vacationing together and celebrating special occasions.

In the years after their meeting, they documented their flourishing friendship.

"Girls trip has officially begun with @meghanmarkle (which means don't bother me unless you have to)," the fashion stylist captioned a photo from their Cayman Islands vacation in 2016.

They also traveled to Italy and even showed off their friendship at the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto.

When Meghan was preparing for her wedding to Prince Harry, Jessica jetted to London as the "unofficial wedding planner" and attended the royal's bachelorette party.

"She is Meghan's best friend and the person Meghan trusts with helping to plan every detail," a source told Vanity Fair at the time. "She's the one helping Meghan to make all the key decisions. They are on the phone daily discussing every element of the wedding, from the dress to the flowers to the canapés and the photography."

The insider added, "Meghan is very dependent on Jessica and Jessica has been totally indispensable. She's helped Meghan and Harry with so much already."

In an August 2019 post, Jessica defended Markle against the "years of undeserved hate and abuse" her then-pal faced after joining the royal family, writing, "When someone faces unfair criticism, you call it out. When that person is your friend and your family, you call those critics what they truly are. Shame on you, racist bullies."

Meghan and Jessica's friendship reached a breaking point when the marketing consultant responded to Black Toronto-based influencer Sasha Exeter's Instagram Stories about Black Lives Matter. The blogger urged people with large followings to repost the generic call to action.

In a June 2020 Instagram video, Sasha said Jessica "took offense" and sent her a threat "in writing" after sharing the post.

"Listen, I am by no means calling Jess a racist but what I will say is this, she is very well aware of her wealth, her perceived power and privilege because of the color of her skin. And that, my friends, gave her the momentary confidence to come for my livelihood in writing," she continued.

Sasha also mentioned Jessica's friend Meghan, whom she called "one of the most famous Black women in the world."

Although Jessica issued a public apology, she was grilled further after she allegedly sent another message to Sasha alluding to her intent to sue for libel.

After the bombshell social media scandal, a source claimed the Duchess of Sussex was done with Jessica.

"Meghan could not get over that Jessica brought up her relationship with Meghan when she commented about her 'closest friend' in the discourse with Sasha," a source told Us Weekly. "That was hugely offensive to Meghan and the deciding factor for her. Meghan considers the relationship to be done."

A second source said Meghan was ready to "distance herself" from Jessica as she was being "very cautious with her affiliations."

Amid the white privilege scandal, Jessica was slapped with setbacks in her professional trajectory, including losing her job as a stylist on Good Morning America and her show, I Do, Redo, after Canadian network CTV pulled it.

She was also forced to quit The Shoebox Project, a charity she founded with her sisters-in-law.

"Jessica Mulroney is a founding member of The Shoebox Project and she has dedicated herself to its growth and success over the years, for which we are very grateful," the charity said in a statement. "In light of recent events, the charity supports Jessica's decision to step away from the Board of Directors."

After hitting rock bottom, Jessica dismissed the claims she and Meghan had fallen out.

"I'm going to tell this once and for all. Meghan and I are family. She is the kindest friend and has checked up on me everyday. Tabloid culture is atrocious. It creates lies and hurtful storyline. Stop feeding into it. Done," she shared in an Instagram Story post, which she later deleted.

Jessica proved she was still in touch with the royal when she stood by her side after Prince Harry's wife was accused of mistreating former Kensington Palace aids.

A year after the white privilege scandal broke out, Jessica shared a cryptic post about losing friends, which people believed was about her friendship with Meghan.

The post read, "Life changes. You lose love. You lose friends. You lose pieces of yourself that you never imagined would be gone. And then, without even realizing it, those pieces come back. New love enters. Better friends come along. And a stronger, wiser you, is staring back in the mirror."

She fueled fallout rumors when she shared more puzzling posts in the months thereafter.

"As loving as I am, my detachment game is strong too," the quote she shared in September 2023 read.

The following month, Jessica gushed over Brian and Mila Mulroney's 1991 meeting with King Charles and Princess Diana.

Meanwhile, a video she reposted in December 2023 said, "Anybody who believes lies about you, before even hearing your side of the story, was already looking for a way to be against you."

Jessica shared in another update from interior designer Tom Samet's account, which showed the text, "Best thing I ever did was learn how to move without the crowd."

Royal expert Charlotte Griffiths claimed Meghan had "unfriended family members, Suits costars, her best friend Jessica Mulroney whose children were page boys at the royal wedding."

"For somebody who is actually famous for unfriending her friends or casting aside her friends, it's amazing that she cited the word friendship in the blurb for this documentary that's sort of been leaked out," Griffiths added. "I think she's a bit strategic with her friends and once she's finished with them, she casts them aside and forgets all about them, deletes their number and blocks their number in some cases."

A few months later, in October 2024, royal commentator Ingrid Seward said the former Deal or No Deal star had "managed to alienate a lot of her former friends," adding, "She does something which is very distressing for people. She actually sort of just cuts them dead and ghosts them, as it's called. But to me, it's just called cutting them dead and not wanting to see them anymore. And if they upset her, that's what she does and it's very difficult to deal with somebody like that. I think that people are just fed up with Meghan."