From Suits to besties! Meghan Markle sparked an instant bond with executive producer Silver Tree after joining the legal drama — and their friendship has stood the test of time.
The Flight Attendant director, 45, appeared in the first episode of Harry & Meghan, which premiered on Netflix on Thursday, December 8, as she recalled going to work with the Duchess of Sussex, 41, in 2016 after news broke about her romance with Prince Harry.
“[Photographers] started coming out to get eyes on her, and there were people trying to buy call sheets from production assistants on our show so they could find out when she was shooting,” Tree recalled in the first episode of the Netflix doc. “They’d get these really long lenses and, like, hide on hills so they could get a view of her. There were people breaking into the area where the trailers are and trying to get pictures of her coming in and out of her trailer. It started feeling a little bit dangerous for her.”
She continued: “I don’t think anyone knew how to manage that new normal. I mean, I was terrified somebody was just going to be in her trailer waiting for her. At a certain point, we had to cage in all the trailers and that was really challenging, logistically, because she was on a TV show, and her nature is never to make things more difficult for anyone. I don’t think anyone knew how to manage that new normal.”
Meghan and the Duke of Sussex, 38, secretly began dating in July 2016, flying back and forth between Toronto (where Suits was filmed) and the duke’s home base in London. After several months together, the twosome were “so petrified” of taking their romance public.
“H tried to prepare me for what that might be like, knowing what he’d experienced in the past,” the Bench author admitted in the first episode, using her initial nickname for her husband.
Shortly before news broke in October 2016 about the couple’s relationship, they wanted to enjoy their last bit of privacy while it lasted.
“[Harry] said, ‘Well, if it’s gonna come out tomorrow, let’s go and have fun tonight!’” Meghan said in Harry & Meghan, noting they decided to go to a local Halloween bash together with his cousin Princess Eugenie and her now-husband, Jack Brooksbank. “And we were like, ‘Well, this might be our last shot to just go out and have fun in the world.’”
The BetterUp CIO and the When Sparks Fly actress — who share son Archie, 3, and daughter Lilibet, 18 months — got engaged nearly one year before their royal wedding in May 2018.
Scroll below to get to know Meghan’s longtime pal: