Meghan Markle's 'Suits' Dad Wendell Pierce Shares Fatherly Advice He Gave Her About Prince Harry
SUITS -- "Donna" Episode 710 -- Pictured: (l-r) Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane, Wendell Pierce as Robert Zane -- (Photo by: Ben Mark Holzberg/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Wendell Pierce had some wise fatherly advice to share with Meghan Markle shortly before his onscreen daughter left acting and married Prince Harry.
Pierce, 60, worked with Meghan for seven years while the two starred together on the legal drama Suits, which aired from 2011 through 2019 on the USA Network. Meghan played paralegal Rachel Zane, the daughter of Pierce’s Robert Zane, before leaving the show after its seventh season.
During a recent interview with E! News, The Wire actor recalled a conversation he had with Meghan, now 42, before her engagement to Harry, now 39. The royal family announced the couple’s engagement in November 2017, well over a year after they began dating in 2016. They married in May 2018.
Pierce said he remembered warning Meghan during their final day working together that her life was about to become a “whirlwind” and that she would “be in this bubble.”
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"'I just want you to remember that no matter what happens, you always have friends,’” he recalled telling the actress, a sentiment he told E! News that he is now “grateful” he had the opportunity to express. He made sure to let her know at the time that he also had “hope” that she would “count me in that number” of friends.
Pierce proved that friendship earlier this year when he defended the Duchess of Sussex from critics who slammed her for skipping a Suits reunion at the 2024 Golden Globes. Pierce pointed out that Meghan has Harry and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, to focus on.
“That’s the most important thing,” he told Page Six at the time, adding, “outside of that means nothing, you know?”
Though Meghan left acting, controversies involving the royal family and the press have kept her and Harry solidly in the spotlight. Less than two years into their marriage, Harry and Meghan decided to “step back” from their duties as senior royals and move to California to stake out some independence for themselves away from the royal family.
The public has for years speculated about the state of Harry’s relationship with his father, King Charles, and older brother, Prince William, after Harry’s move to the U.S. Following the king’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year, Harry visited his father during a brief trip to the U.K. He and Meghan later sent well wishes to the Prince and Princess of Wales after William’s wife, Kate Middleton, revealed her own cancer battle last month.
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