How a billionaire filmmaker helped Meghan Markle and Harry stay in America and claimed the Duchess treated him 'like a therapist' – as she supports him at LA gala

Meghan Markle last night supported her friend Tyler Perry at The Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills – and the two are clearly very close. 

The Duchess of Sussex, 43, was seen hugging and holding hands with the billionaire filmmaker, 55 – demonstrating the typical pally affection she displays towards her most loyal allies. 

Meghan and her husband Prince Harry, 40 – who recently said the pair have no plans to return to the United Kingdom – were part of the Tribute Host Committee Chairs for the event, though he was not present on the red carpet.

The event marked Meghan and Tyler’s first red carpet appearance together – but despite only being seen in each other’s company a handful of times over the years, they have shown their unwavering support for one another on numerous occasions. 

In many ways, the Madea actor was the key figure facilitating Meghan and Harry’s move to the US – offering his private jet for their so-called ‘freedom flight’ to relocate the couple from the home in Vancouver, where they had been staying. 

Famously, it was Perry who offered up his $18million home in Santa Barbara for the couple to live in in the early days after quitting the royal family in 2020. 

According to The Cut, Tyler offering his home to the pair ‘became, in many ways, the reason that Meghan and Harry started their new life in Southern California.’ 

He was also a key figure in Meghan and Harry’s bombshell Netflix documentary, and is so close to the couple that he is godfather to their daughter Princess Lilibet, three. 

Meghan Markle last night supported her friend Tyler Perry at The Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills – and the two are clearly very close

The first public signs of their blossoming friendship came in early 2020 when Perry expressed sympathy for Meghan, referencing comments that she made to ITV news presenter Tom Bradby for a documentary shot in Africa.

Perry said: ‘Remember when Meghan Markle did that interview? She said ”Thanks for asking if I’m okay. Because no one ever asks me that.”

‘I felt her when she said that. People toss it out. ”How are you doing?” But not many people really mean it. Or pay attention to the answer.’

After Harry and Meghan announced that they were saying goodbye to their royal duties and relocating to California, the couple, along with their then-one-year-old son, Archie, spent a few months living in Tyler’s Beverly Hills mansion.

The sprawling 22-acre estate is set in the ultra-exclusive Beverly Ridge Estates guard-gated community, offering sweeping views of the city from the backyard.

It was from there that the duo celebrated Archie’s first birthday – and where he took his first steps – as they shared tiny glimpses of the home while appearing on video chats and in social media clips throughout their stay.

During an interview with The Cut in 2022, Meghan, spoke out about her bond with Tyler, explaining that he got in touch with her after she first wed Harry in 2018.

She added that he sent her a ‘note’ in which he said he ‘understood’ the intense pressure she was under, and encouraged her to reach out if she ever needed help.

Famously, it was Perry who offered up his $18million home in Santa Barbara for the couple to live in in the early days after quitting the royal family in 2020

Perry was a key figure in Meghan and Harry’s bombshell Netflix documentary

He is also godfather to Meghan and Harry’s daughter Princess Lilibet, three (pictured in 2022)

She soon began to open up to him about her struggles and the two grew close, despite them never even meeting in person.

‘Sometimes, you can tell your life story to a stranger on a plane as opposed to some of the people that are closest to you,’ she told The Cut.

Meanwhile Perry previously shared about his friendship with the royal couple: ‘They hid out at my house for a long time. It was so great.’

The Hollywood titan revealed that the duo had previously shared the same publicist whom he used to deliver a message of support.

‘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 and we just had a great conversation.’

‘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.’

Elaborating further, he said: ‘Every day. 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.

The Duchess of Sussex was clearly glad to see her long-term pal as they shared a hug at the Paley Center Fall gala last night

Meghan was demonstrating the typical pally affection she displays towards her most loyal allies

Meghan wowed in a strapless black Oscar de la Renta gown with a sizzling front slit and strappy Celine heels

Meanwhile the Duke of Sussex spoke onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024 in the Big Apple yesterday

Perry posted gushing compliments on Instagram for Meghan’s birthday in 2022

‘They were so happy. It was such a beautiful moment.’ 

In November last year, Tyler claimed Meghan used him like a ‘therapist’ as he opened up about the extreme measures he took to shield her and Prince Harry in his home.

He sat down with Kelly Ripa on a recent episode of her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast on SiriusXM.

He explained how he first reached out to mom-of-two Meghan with a note that offered his support before their friendship blossomed.

Speaking about the couple, Perry began by explaining how ‘everything is still larger than life for them.’

‘Everywhere she goes or whatever she does or she puts on something, it sells out. There are paparazzi in the corners,’ he added.

The billionaire filmmaker continued: ‘I just want it to be a safe place not only for her, but you know, there are many people who don’t have a name or who are not a part of a royal family who just need somebody to be there for them so I sent her a note.

‘Everybody thought Oprah introduced us, but Oprah didn’t even know that I reached out to them.’

Perry was part of Harry and Netflix’s bombshell Netflix documentary (pictured)

Tyler also featured in Meghan and Harry’s Netflix series – where their closest confidantes and allies gave testimonies about their lives during and after the royal family. 

He said he’d been inspired to get in touch with Meghan after seeing stories about her relationship with her father Thomas Markle in the press. 

He said: ‘I’m not a royal watcher, I don’t really pay attention to a lot of stuff,’ he said. ‘But I saw something about her father [posing for the paparazzi]. I found it to be hurtful if he were my father.

‘And I couldn’t even imagine this woman finding the man that she loved, the man of her dreams, and him being a Prince, and then to walk into all of that madness and need the security of family and then have your father do some horrible things.’

Meghan added: ‘That’s where Tyler came into the picture,’ she recalled. ‘I had never met him before. He sent me a letter before the wedding just saying he was praying for me. And that if I ever needed anything he would be there.

‘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.

‘[It was] the first time we ever spoke. And I was just a wreck, I was 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.’

Meghan recalled Tyler asking them, ‘What can I do to make it easier? How can I help you?’ 

In footage from the couple’s Netflix documentary, Archie was pictured playing – thought to be inside Perry’s mansion 

Adorable footage showed Archie’s birthday party – which viewers first caught a glimpse of in the first three instalments of the documentary series

‘He was like, “My house is safe and I’ll make sure you have security. Take your time.” I was like, “We only need to stay for a week, we can find somewhere to live,”‘ she continued.

‘He was like, “You’re not just going to stay for 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 gonna keep you there safely until you have somewhere to go.”‘

‘They just wanted to be free. Be free to love and be happy. They did not have a plan. There was no plan,’ Tyler added.

Perry previously explained why he offered help to the couple, insisting that it was a ‘very difficult time for them’ and that he wanted to ‘support them’ in any way possible.

The filmmaker added that he was inspired by Harry and Meghan’s love, telling the Today show, ‘What I know about the two of them – and I wish the world knew – how much these two people love each other.

‘They found each other, out of all these odds against them finding each other, they found each other.

‘The love they have is really, really moving and I wanted to do anything I could to support them.’

He added of Meghan and Harry’s relationship: ‘If I don’t have that, what she and Harry have, I don’t want it. That’s really amazing.’

Speaking on The Today Show, Tyler praised Harry and Meghan’s ‘amazing’ love

Also in the Netflix documentary, Perry accused Buckingham Palace of abusing Meghan and Harry, and compared it to watching his mother suffer domestic violence.

The billionaire claimed the Royal Family cutting off the Sussexes’ money and ending their security was ‘all the things a batterer would do’.

The actor argued he ‘knew the symptoms’ of coercive control and abuse after watching his late mom Maxine being abused by his alcoholic father Emmitt.

Referring to Meghan and Harry, Perry said: ‘She was abused. And so was he. I knew the symptoms, I saw it. I saw my mother being abused for years.’

Perry and his mother Maxine were abused by his alcoholic father Emmitt Perry, who he has previously revealed once beat him so severely as a child with a vacuum cleaner cord that his skin ripped off his back.

Referring to how the palace behaved, he added: ‘To use the institution to try and do all the things a batterer would do, like ‘here’s what we’re going to do, we are going to cut off the money, not leave you with security, we’re gonna do all those things to make you comply and come back.’

‘And for the both of them to have the wherewithal to say ‘I don’t give a damn if it’s the palace, I’m out of here’, I applauded that.’

Perry’s $18million mansion, where Harry and Meghan stayed when they first moved to the US

During the documentary, Perry said the most he knew about the Royal Family was around Princess Diana’s death and claimed he saw her being ‘thrown to the wolves’ after her marriage ended.

He said: ‘So to tell Meghan that her feelings were valid hurt. I didn’t want to say that to her. I didn’t want her to feel that but I didn’t want to lie to her.

‘She was afraid of them destroying her or going crazy or them making her think she was going crazy.’

After Meghan and Harry purchased their own house, a sprawling mansion in Montecito located just a stone’s throw from the home of another celebrity pal, Oprah, Tyler sent them a generous housewarming gift – a grand piano – with a note that read, ‘Write the soundtrack for your life.’

He has since visited the couple, arriving on his $125million private jet in March 2023.

He flew for 20 minutes to Santa Barbara, where he and the Sussexes met for about two hours before he headed back to his jet, which then made its way to his empire in Atlanta, Georgia. 

The plane was the same one Perry let Meghan and Harry use for their ‘freedom flight’ from to America in 2020, as they set out to begin their new lives. 

For Meghan’s birthday in 2022, the Madea star shared a sweet tribute to her on Instagram.

The Suits star was there to cheer on Perry, 55, as the Paley Center for Media honored the visionary director, actor and philanthropist with a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of his career

Meghan Markle, 43, dazzled during a solo red carpet appearance on Wednesday, as she supported her friend Tyler Perry at The Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills 

‘I’ve had a front row seat in your life for the past few years. I’ve watched you endure things that would have broken a lot of people,’ he gushed.

‘I’m so incredibly proud to see how happy you, your husband, and your kids are now.’ 

Perry is godfather to Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Princess Lilibet, three. 

Tyler reportedly attended her birthday party in June as she turned three, according to People Magazine. 

However, in December 2022, Tyler revealed he’d refused to travel to the UK for Lilibet’s christening, despite being her godfather. 

Perry suggested that he didn’t want to take part in the pomp and circumstance of a traditional royal ceremony, telling the couple’s bombshell Netflix docuseries that he didn’t want to ‘do all of that in the church with them and figure all of that out.’

The director added that he would rather have done a private ceremony in California.

Speaking of the moment that Harry and Meghan asked him to serve in the role of godfather, Perry recalled: ‘They were pretty serious on the phone and I am like, “OK what’s going on”, and they said, “Well we would like for you to be Lili’s Godfather.”

‘I had to take a minute to take that in and I thought I’d be honored, absolutely be honored.’

After thinking about what his role as godfather might mean, Perry says he made clear to the couple that he didn’t want to travel to the UK in order to take part in a traditional christening ceremony with the royals.

‘I got off the phone and took it all in and then I called them back and said, “Hold on a second, does that mean we have to go over there and do all of that in the church with them and figure all of that out? Because I don’t want to do that.”

‘Maybe we can do a private ceremony here and let that be that and if you have to do it there then that’s ok.’

Traditionally, children born into the royal family are christened at one of the royal residences – with Harry and Meghan choosing to host Archie’s ceremony at Windsor Castle in July 2019.

However, after the birth of their daughter Lilibet, the couple chose not to travel to the UK for a christening, with sources at the time saying that they were ‘likely’ going to opt for a ceremony in California near their Montecito home.

In September, Meghan and Harry attended Tyler’s star-studded 55th birthday bash with Oprah – showing that their friendship has only gone from strength to strength in recent months. 

Tyler denied that Meghan and Harry had been introduced to them by mutual friend Oprah (pictured on her show)

Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey ‘Tyler Perry’s BOO! A Madea Halloween’ film premiere, Los Angeles in 2016

They appeared to be in great spirits, with Meghan grinning and giggling next to her husband in the backseat of a black Range Rover. 

They spent hours partying with close pal Tyler, late into the night. 

A worker from a nearby lighting company seemingly hired to help decorate for the party said as he was leaving that there was ‘a lot of music, dancing, and singing.’

‘Lots of speeches and food too. Everyone was having a lot of fun. It was a good party. There were a lot of famous people but I cannot say any more,’ he dished.

Perry, who states he was once ‘poor as hell’ and homeless, dropped out of high school and struggled as a playwright before his career catapulted him to stardom, becoming the first African American to independently own a studio. 

Despite the tragedies of his childhood, Tyler rose above the trauma to become a heavy-hitter in Hollywood having earned more than $500million alone for films on his most famous character to date — Madea, which drew the attention of Oprah Winfrey.

The popular character was inspired by his late mother Maxine and his aunt Mayola, and helped Perry set the pace to create a 330-acre movie studio just minutes outside of downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

‘She’d be very, very proud,’ he said. ‘She’d say, ‘Who’d have thunk it?’ That was her thing. ‘Who’d have thunk you could have made all of this.”

Prior to their friendship, both Tyler and Meghan were close with tennis pro Serena Williams, who Meghan first met in 2010 at the Super Bowl. 

Meanwhile Serena and Tyler posed together at a 2014 Vanity Fair Oscar Awards afterparty. In addition, they have strong friendships with talk show host Oprah, and have both in the past been spotted with pop superstar Beyoncé.  

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