There are star-studded guest lists, and then there was the roster of luminaries who attended Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding nearly eight years ago, on May 19, 2018. It was a dazzling affair that brought together a mix of Meghan’s co-stars from her television series “Suits,” including her bridesmaid and close friend, stylist and influencer Jessica Mulroney, alongside a who’s who of celebrities and dignitaries.
On that memorable day at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the newlyweds were surrounded by notable figures such as Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, David and Victoria Beckham, Serena Williams, and actor Idris Elba, mingling with members of the royal family and aristocracy. It was a gathering that marked a moment of unity and celebration.
However, as time has progressed, so too have the dynamics within this once-illustrious circle. It seems that a number of those high-profile friends who were present eight years ago have since distanced themselves from the Sussexes. This reflects a broader pattern of estrangement between Harry and Meghan and the Hollywood elite, a divide that has become increasingly pronounced.
Insiders suggest that the couple, much like their relationship with the entertainment industry’s power players, have encountered rifts with many of their former A-list connections, leaving them with few bridges left to cross. Yet, despite the apparent shift in their social sphere, Harry and Meghan reportedly remain unfazed, with an associate noting, “They don’t get it. They never think it is them.”
Not that Harry and Meghan believe that this could possibly be their fault. ‘They don’t get it. They never think it is them,’ one associate of theirs tells me.
So, where once there was a warm connection between the couple and those powerful friends in the pews, there is now, if not outright froideur, a puzzling distance.
My source tells me: ‘They love famous people – they are very name-droppy. The association gives them a kick. But if someone stops calling they don’t ask why.’
Over time, of course, some friendships naturally peter out, particularly if you change continents as the Sussexes did following Megxit in 2020.
Harry and Meghan have fallen out with many showbiz power-players, and now, Alison Boshoff reveals, there have been similar fallings-out with the A-list friends who attended their wedding
But this appears far more than naturally just losing touch.
Arguably the most powerful guest at the wedding in Windsor, in a rose pink Stella McCartney dress, was Oprah.
She professed herself in awe on the day. ‘I can’t wait to see the goodness that will come from their union,’ she wrote in her Oprah magazine. ‘Goodness that I know for sure will help change the way the world thinks about what is possible, even more than it already has.’
People were at a loss as to how she knew the couple. It later emerged she had not actually met Meghan before the wedding – but had invited Meghan’s mother Doria over for lunch at her Montecito house, followed by kumquats in the garden and a yoga session.
Commentators immediately speculated that Oprah had already launched a charm offensive hoping to secure a big exclusive with the pair – and so it proved in March 2021 with her bombshell two-hour interview; Meghan pregnant and wiping away tears as she talked about how living in the Royal Family had caused her to become distressed to a suicidal degree, Oprah brimful of sympathy.
Today, though, things are rather chillier. While Meghan has ‘definitely been to Oprah’s house’, I am told by a source ‘they are not as close as they once were’.
Indeed, the relationship appears to be existing on a hair’s breadth for one reason, as well-connected broadcaster and former Page Six columnist Paula Froelich, of NewsNation, tells me. ‘The truth is Oprah has been long-arming the Sussexes for some time,’ she says. ‘She can’t let them drift too far away because if something happens – one of the three big Ds, divorce, death or drama – she will want the interview. But she is not actually friends with them.’
Froelich also believes long-term alignment with Brand Sussex carries a reputational risk, hence former celebrity friends distancing themselves. ‘No one wants to hang out with Meghan.
‘Lots of reasons, but she might sell clothes while using their name,’ she says, referring to Meghan’s latest business wheeze where she promotes her outfits through a fashion app that gives her a 10 per cent cut of the sales generated. Can you imagine? “What to wear to visit Oprah,”’ Froelich adds, with a shudder.
Indeed, a distance had already emerged, quite deliberately on Oprah’s part.
Arguably the most powerful wedding guest, in a pink Stella McCartney dress, was Oprah. But her relationship with Harry and Meghan today is reportedly ‘chillier’ than it was back then
As Froelich says: ‘Oprah was tarnished by her association with them. The interview she did in 2021 was so soft and she didn’t push back on anything said, so she was seen as a sycophant rather than a great interviewer.’
Certainly, Oprah seemed keen to disassociate herself from the family drama, which she was asked about repeatedly in the months following the interview. She took particular offence at the description of the interview as ‘bombshell’.
There were other indications of a rupture setting in. Asked about the Sussexes and their estrangement from the royals in September 2022, after the death of the Queen, she said: ‘I think in all families – you know, my father passed recently, this summer – and when all families come together for a common ceremony, the ritual of, you know, burying your dead, there’s an opportunity for peacemaking. Hopefully, there will be that.’ My source is blunt about Oprah’s dissension with the Sussexes.
‘The bottom line is Oprah only likes people when they have something to offer her. Honestly, I think she might be worse than they are for that.’
A cynical view, perhaps, but Oprah is oddly absent in Harry and Meghan’s lives after 2021, just when you might imagine she would weigh in to help friends starting a new life.
For example, did Oprah lend her immense clout to Meghan’s Netflix show With Love, Meghan, filmed in 2024? She did not.
Instead, Meghan had to make do with a largely obscure crop of guests to chat and cook for, which included people she plainly barely knew such as comedian Mindy Kaling (who was chided: ‘It’s Sussex now’ when she called the Duchess ‘Meghan Markle’).
Did Oprah feature Meghan’s children’s book The Bench in her book club – which has a million followers on Instagram? Again no, and it would have been a useful boost.
But on her personal Instagram account – where she has 22million followers – Oprah shows lots of love for entrepreneur Emma Grede and podcaster Jamie Kern Lima, both also in Meghan’s circle, and their books. But there is nothing of the Montecito Two.
The only sign there’s any life in the association came last November when Meghan’s ‘fruit spread gift box’ from her brand As Ever was featured on Oprah’s annual holiday wish list.
Meghan was quoted in Oprah’s newsletter saying: ‘We’re honoured to be included in the season’s quintessential guide to gifting. So much love is poured into each recipe to bring the brightness and warmth of the garden to your home in every season.’
It could hardly sound any more corporate and less like what you might say about a friend.
George and Amal Clooney also attended St George’s Chapel, Windsor. How did they know the couple? Some say they didn’t and the invitation was a simple ‘reach out’ from the Sussexes
The other most high-profile guests at the Sussex wedding were George and Amal Clooney. Amal commanded attention in a spectacular yellow dress and the actor and his human rights lawyer wife had prime seats, sitting next to Lady Carolyn Warren, the wife of the Queen’s bloodstock adviser John Warren, and opposite Princess Margaret’s son Viscount Linley.
How did they know the couple? Some say that – just like Oprah – they didn’t and the invitation was a simple ‘reach out’ from Meghan and Harry to those more successful and connected than themselves.
Others say Amal and Meghan share common ground via the private members’ club Soho House, albeit on a casual basis.
There must have been some kind of link because soon after the wedding, in August 2018, Harry and Meghan enjoyed a secret, three-day ‘mini-moon’ vacation at George and Amal’s Lake Como estate, Villa Oleandra, in Italy.
The Clooneys were in residence and sent their jet to pick up and drop off the couple from the UK.
By February 2019, Meghan was heavily pregnant with baby Archie and Amal was prominently involved in her flashy baby shower in New York – attended by US TV anchor Gayle King, Serena Williams and others.
The Clooneys, who live between New York, LA, London, France and Italy, again found space for Meghan on their private jet for that jaunt – a luxury which would have been well beyond the Sussex pocket – and retired tennis champ Serena apparently picked up the huge tab for the swish Mark Hotel.
An associate says this kind of gifting from friends is very much the done thing for the Sussexes, whose money troubles have only grown since the end of their lucrative Spotify and Netflix deals.
‘They ask for a lot of resources to be spent as they believe it is a privilege to be in their circle,’ says a source, adding: ‘They think they are entitled to all the private planes.’ The source also observes that Meghan is ‘cheap’ or stingy in British parlance. ‘She is the cheapest!’ the insider exclaims.
The burgeoning friendship with the Clooneys ended, however, with Megxit. The source says: ‘The Clooneys now want nothing to do with them.’ Certainly Harry and Meghan have never been invited to the Clooneys’ annual fundraiser, The Albies, which honour humanitarian work. Nor have the Sussexes, who regard themselves as prominent humanitarians, ever won an honour, which appears to be quite a snub. Paula Froelich says: ‘George and Amal Clooney were never friends with her… they have literally nothing in common and side with the actual royals.’
This is true: the Clooneys are long time supporters of the King’s Trust. This week both attended an event to celebrate the trust’s 50th anniversary where Amal, in vintage McQueen, made an effusive speech, saying: ‘I’m grateful to the King for all the incredible work the trust is doing for young people around the world… and Your Majesty, having just watched your recent trip abroad, I think I can speak for everyone here tonight when I say we’re so proud to have you as our King.’
The Sussexes’ association with Idris Elba, who DJ’d at their wedding, seems to have ended in the same way for the same reasons – Elba has long been a prominent supporter of the King’s Trust.
Indeed the star, who was also at the event on Monday night, started his acting career with the help of a £1,500 grant from the then Prince’s Trust which allowed him to train at the National Youth Music Theatre. Elba has even made a documentary with the King about the charity, which will be out on Netflix in the autumn.
And so, while the actor once called Harry a ‘good friend’ and revealed bride Meghan had sent him a playlist of tunes for the wedding, including Dr Dre, there has been no sign of them as much as meeting in six years.
Harry and David first got to know each other when backing the FA’s bid to host the World Cup, and their friendship progressed. (Pictured together in 2010 at an FA reception in South Africa)
David and Victoria Beckham said they were thrilled to be at the wedding in 2018. But as David grows closer to Prince William and King Charles, his bond with Harry has seemingly tailed off
‘From what I can see the people who have stayed most loyal to them are beneath them and get something out of it. Everyone else they fall out with,’ a source tells our columnist
The falling out with David and Victoria Beckham is no less notable. The pair had declared themselves thrilled to be at the wedding in 2018, some eight years after Harry and David first got to know each other when backing the FA’s bid to host the World Cup. Their friendship further progressed when they worked together on the successful London 2012 Olympic bid.
Then, after the wedding, David travelled to Australia to lend his lustre to the Invictus Games and was puzzled when Harry didn’t meet him.
Some have speculated this snub was down to Meghan, who believed the Beckhams were beneath her. They were said to have fallen out more when Meghan suspected Victoria of leaking information about her to the papers – a suggestion which apparently made David rage.
In contrast, things have been far more equable between the Beckhams and the other royals. David remains close to Harry’s ‘nemesis’ William, and is closer yet to King Charles. The friendship with Harry has, you could say, been allowed to tail off.
The other big star at the wedding, tennis legend Serena, introduced Meghan to her agent Jill Smoller in 2006 when Meghan was an obscure actress writing her blog The Tig. I hear Serena is ‘fine’ with the couple but they definitely aren’t as close any more.
While Serena was at the wedding with her husband Alex Ohanian, she has since put distance between herself and Meghan because, I’m told, ‘she is not a drama queen and she tires of it all’.
Apparently Serena’s new bestie is social butterfly Emma Thynn, the Marchioness of Bath. Serena posed with her at the recent Met Gala, along with Meghan’s ex-friend, former Vogue editor Edward Enninful.
Meghan’s formerly close friendship with Canadian socialite and stylist Jessica Mulroney has also ended, somewhat spectacularly, after Mulroney got caught up in a racism storm over an argument with an influencer in 2021.
Her TV show was cancelled and so was her relationship with Meghan, who had made her chief bridesmaid, yet did not speak publicly in support of her old friend.
The Duchess’s old agency boss, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, who represented her in her Suits years, once remarked: ‘Meghan moves on,’ and so it proved.
Many others who in 2018 had seemed a part of their clique are also no longer in the Sussex gang.
Meghan’s colleagues from Suits were at the wedding in force but only Abigail Spencer appears to have stayed close to Meghan.
Actor Patrick J. Adams confirmed in 2024 that he wasn’t really in touch with her, as did Gina Torres, who said the cast no longer had the Duchess’s phone number and she was not part of their group chat.
A handful of close friendships remain. Elton John is still very tight with Prince Harry, although it is observed ‘that is a Harry relationship,’ rather than a Meghan one. It’s also interesting he no longer sends his private plane to bring Harry and his family for holidays at his Saint-Tropez home.
Soho House executive Markus Anderson, who was instrumental in the early days of the couple’s romance and honoured with a front row pew at their wedding, is still very close to Meghan, staying at their Montecito home and going on family holidays with them. One source says: ‘It is a genuine relationship and he says they are lovely people whom he cherishes.’
Another, though, offers: ‘It’s for clout. They made him.
‘From what I can see the people who have stayed most loyal to them are beneath them and get something out of it. Everyone else they fall out with.’
