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Meghan Markle‘s friendship with Tyler Perry comes into question amid his alleged involvement in sexual abuse and the ensuing lawsuit. The Duchess’ friendship with the entertainment mogul dates back to 2020 when he offered up his $18 million California home to her and Prince Harry to stay briefly following their royal exit. Their relationship deepened even further when Meghan recruited Tyler to be her daughter, Princess Lilibeth’s godfather, following her birth in 2021, officially becoming a huge part of their family of four. Outside of their friendship, Perry has also served as a mentor of sorts to the budding entrepreneur, who has been open about seeking business advice from him on occasion.
While this friendship has been lauded by Meghan and even fans over the years, things are about to take a devastating turn that could be a huge blow to her reputation. On Thursday, actor Derek Dixon, who had the recurring role of Dale in Tyler Perry’s drama series The Oval, filed a lawsuit against the entertainment mogul, alleging sexual abuse. The actor accused Tyler of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and battery, recounting instances of unsolicited advances from the mogul, and backing his claims with screenshots of their text exchanges.
Meghan Markle Blasted Over Tyler Perry Friendship Amid Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
Tyler Perry’s plunge into the sexual abuse scandal is not a good look for Meghan Markle, who already struggles with her dwindling reputation and media vitriol as she strives to grow her lifestyle brand. Yet, the damaging news has quickly cast the spotlight on this years-long relationship, threatening to drag the duchess down with Tyler.
Meghan’s critics have had a field day drawing connections between the duchess and her A-list friend’s alleged dark side, even accusing her of being complacent in his assault scheme. Taking to Reddit, several royal fans also slammed the lifestyle entrepreneur for dragging the royal family’s name in the mud by picking an alleged sexual abuser to become her daughter Princess Lilibet’s godfather without doing due diligence to know him well enough, ultimately creating a royal link to him. One enraged critic fired,
“Tyler Perry was chosen by Markle to be the godfather of the Girl Child, a grandchild of the King and an heir to the throne. The amount of toxic evil this woman brings to the Royal Family! This ILBW has besmirched the Royal Family again! What an ass-boil of a human. What an embarrassment. What a shame.”
Another Redditor wrote,
“Well, well, true or not, this is a smudge on him and by association Rachel and Harry, and Lilly bucks. As for Wretched Rachel, she will lay low to see which way the stench flows. Maybe behind the scenes phones may ring, but one thing is sure, Tyler does not need the darkness that Rachel brings with her.”
A third added,
“I don´t like mob rule… but one tends to believe this one. But still – innocent until proven guilty. He is guilty of being an idiot, however, accepting being godfather.”
Harry And Meghan Grappling For Damage Control Amid Latest Scandal
Some netizens suggested that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle already anticipated this blow, leading them to reinforce their communications team with two new staff members. Notably, the Sussexes added PR executive Emily Robinson to their lineup last week, shortly after hiring Meredith Maines, who has experience in political PR. Their latest addition, aside from prior experience working on Netflix’s The Crown, has also garnered backlash previously for promoting episodes of the series portraying Muhammad Al-Fayed sympathetically and being complacent in his sexual abuse allegations. Hence, critics believe hiring Emily right about the same time Tyler Perry’s sexual abuse scandal exploded was no coincidence for Meghan Markle and Harry. One suggested,
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence the Harkle’s went and hired a new comms person with experience handling 2 x principal client’s sex scandals.”
A second added,
“If you’re complacent, you’re complicit.”
Another wondered if Meghan was “going to bring Tyler Perry’s name up in conversations when she tries to flaunt that he’s ‘such a dear friend’ from now on.” The comment was a dig at the duchess’ penchant for bringing up her ties to Perry during public conversations.
The star notably made comments singing odes to the billionaire film producer during her sitdown with Beyonce’s mom, Tina Knowles, on her Confessions of a Female Founder podcast. In the episode that aired earlier this month, Meghan referred to Tyler as her “most extraordinary soundboard” and a great friend. She doubled down on her extraordinary friendship with Tyler during her sitdown with Emma Grede on Tuesday’s episode of Aspire With Emma Grede. With no way to retract her remarks, the duchess, who would no doubt find these recent sexual abuse allegations and lawsuit against Tyler Perry concerning, can only hope her words would not return to haunt her, or worse, become a cause for insurmountable regret.
