In the last episode of the Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle revealed that Madea star Tyler Perry is their daughter Lilibet Diana’s godfather. The stars became acquainted when Perry reached out before Harry and Meghan wed. After he offered the couple help to start over after moving on from royal life, they gave him an honorable title.
Tyler Perry’s friendship with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Perry revealed on the last episode of Netflix’s Harry & Meghan series that he connected with Meghan before they met. He related to her relationship with her father, which was fodder for the tabloids early in her romance with Harry.
“When my life changed and success started to come, family members became different people, and I know how hurtful that can be and how horrible it can be,” Perry explained in the docuseries (per ABC News). “I immediately empathized with her.”
Perry sent a supportive note to Meghan before she married Harry in 2018.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle named Tyler Perry as Lilibet’s godfather
After providing Harry and Meghan a secure place to stay when needed, the couple reached out to Perry to tell him they’d picked him as their daughter Lilibet Diana’s godfather.
“We’ll call, and we’ll chat, and we’ll talk about silly things, and they were pretty serious on the phone,” Perry revealed for the docuseries (ABC News). “I go, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’”
“They said, ‘Well, we’d like for you to be Lili’s godfather,’” he recalled. He said he needed “a minute to take that in.”
“And I thought, ‘I’d be honored. I’d absolutely be honored,’” he shared. However, Perry developed a reservation. He noted, “… I got off the phone, took it all in, and then I called them back.”
“I go, ‘Uh, hold on a second. Does this mean we got to go over there and do all of that in the church with them and figure all that out? Because I don’t want to do that,’” he shared. “Maybe we can do a little private ceremony here and let that be that, and if you have to do it there, then that’s ok.”
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Tyler Perry said Meghan Markle was ‘afraid’ of the royal family ‘destroying her’
Meghan revealed that she called Perry exasperated in 2020. “[It was the] first time we ever spoke, and I was just a wreck,” she shared. “I was just crying and crying.”
The couple was in Canada without security. “They did not have a plan,” Perry recalled. So, they eventually moved into his house in Los Angeles.
Harry suggested the palace was behind the release of their location in Canada before they stayed in Perry’s $18 million home, pointing to an email he sent to King Charles III that ended up with the press. “That was the giveaway,” he concluded.
According to Perry, his mother was a victim of domestic violence, and he explained that he recognizes the behaviors (Page Six). In the last Harry & Meghan episode, he said, “I saw my mother be abused for years; I knew the symptoms. I knew what it was like.”
“[Meghan] was afraid of [the royal family] destroying her, or going crazy,” he explained, “or them making her think she was crazy.”
According to him, the “institution” ran an effort against Harry and Meghan “to try and do all the things a batterer would do.” He listed, “We’re gonna cut off the money. We’re not gonna leave you security. We’re gonna do all those things to make you comply and come back.”
Perry said he “applauded” the couple for their “wherewithal.”
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
