Who are Meghan Markle’s friends? Meet the inner circle featured in Netflix series

If there’s one thing that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix docuseries has made clear, it’s that Meghan Markle has a solid group of friends behind her.

As one of the friends mentioned in the first instalment of Harry & Meghan, Meghan had a busy, fulfilling life before she met Prince Harry at the age 34 in 2016, which meant she had a close-knit circle of friends to lean on.

Some of these friends have appeared in the docuseries, including familiar faces like tennis pro Serena Williams and Meghan’s former co-star on Suits, Abigail Spencer.

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But who’s who from Meghan’s group of pals, how does she know them and why is former BFF Jessica Mulroney not included in the series? Read on as we explore these friendships.

Lucy Fraser

British woman Lucy Fraser, who reportedly works in PR, is thought to be a long-time friend of Meghan, and she even accompanied the royal on her travels during her “single-girl summer” in 2016.

“She had planned her single-girl summer and she had a lot of plans of going around Europe,” Fraser explained in one of the early episodes of the series, as images of her and Meghan were shown on screen.

Later, Fraser explained that she threw Harry and Meghan an engagement party before their big news was announced to the world in November 2017.

“We had a little engagement party and everyone was dressed in animal onesies. And Meg and Harry were in matching penguin onesies because penguins mate for life. And they were so sweet,” she said.

Fraser was also pictured attending Meghan and Harry’s wedding in May 2018.

Abigail Spencer

Meghan’s former Suits co-star, Abigail Spencer was one of the first to find out about Meghan and Harry’s burgeoning relationship. In one of the first episodes of the series, Spencer explains that Meghan and her went to Bergdorf Goodman in New York when Meghan told her that she was falling in love with the duke.

“She was like, ‘I think I met someone and I'm in love,’” Spencer explained. “I could feel everything vibrating. I was screaming because I could feel it was different.”

Spencer, 41, starred on Suits in a number of episodes throughout the nine seasons of the series. She has also starred in Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy and Gilmore Girls.

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Meghan and Spencer were friends long before Meghan met Harry, and Spencer attended both Meghan’s wedding and the baby shower that was held in New York in 2019 when Meghan was pregnant with Archie.

Serena Williams

Serena Williams, 41, and Meghan have been long-time pals, after first meeting at the 2010 Super Bowl.

However, it wasn’t until their paths crossed again in 2014 that they became firm friends, after hitting it off “immediately”.

“We are both the same age, have a penchant for hot sauces and adore fashion, but what connects us more than those things is perhaps our belief in exceeding expectations – our endless ambition,” Meghan previously wrote of the friendship on her former blog called The Tig.

The tennis pro attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018 and famously threw Meghan her lavish New York City baby shower in 2019 which was held in the penthouse suite of The Mark hotel.

“I'm looking at it through the lens of my friend, not a princess,” Williams said during the docuseries, after describing her and Meghan as “best friends”.

She added: “They [Harry and Meghan] as a couple are so tight. And rely on each other so much.”

Lindsay Jill Roth

Meghan met TV producer and author Lindsay Jill Roth while they were both studying at Northwestern University and they both took the same Toni Morrison literature class during their first year.

“We're the kind of friends who can be 3,000 miles away and still be talking about or thinking the same thing, and even texting each other the same thing at the same time miles away,” Roth told People magazine of their friendship in 2017.

During the same interview Roth, who co-founded Meghan’s former lifestyle blog The Tig, said: “While the public sees Meg as a strong advocate for women and girls, she is one behind the scenes too – she’s that friend who staunchly supports her friends’ dreams, is present even when she’s physically not present. [She] gives you her honest opinion even if it differs from yours and has the most kind heart.”

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Meghan was also maid of honour at Roth’s 2016 wedding to financier Gavin Jordan.

During the docuseries, Roth explained that Meghan was “just going to be free” in the summer of 2016, but that she was “giddy” when she met Harry.

Ashleigh Hale

Meghan’s niece Ashleigh Hale, 37, took centre stage in the second episode of the Netflix series, as she revealed that she wasn’t allowed to come to Harry and Meghan’s wedding because her birth mother, Meghan’s half-sister Samantha Markle, wasn’t invited.

Hale was raised by her grandparents and says she has little to no contact with her birth mother, but that she and Meghan developed a strong relationship regardless.

“I think we both craved the same thing,” Meghan said in the docuseries. “I wanted a little sister, and she was like a little sister.”

The second instalment of the Netflix series shows that Meghan and Hale were able to rekindle their friendship once Meghan and Harry stepped down as senior royals, with Hale now regularly spending time with Meghan and Harry, and their children Archie and Lilibet.

Hale is currently an immigration lawyer and lives in San Francisco. She graduated from the Charleston School of Law in 2010 and received a Master of Laws from the George Washington University Law School the year after.

Silver Tree

Silver Tree, 45, has been a long-time friend of Meghan after the pair initially worked together on Suits.

Tree has also produced shows such as The Flight Attendant, You and Shameless, and gives viewers some insight into what it was like for Meghan to shoot the show at the time when she and Harry were dating, saying the crew was forced to put up fences around the trailers to stop the swarms of paparazzi.

During the Netflix docuseries, Tree said that when Meghan first told her she was dating Harry, the crew “thought it was really funny”. “We were like, 'In what world does this happen?'” she added.

In March 2021, Tree posted a lengthy caption to Instagram calling any bullying claims from Meghan on the set of Suits as false.

“She is one of my very nearest and dearest. Like all her friends I love her madly,” Tree wrote.

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“She’s the friend who shares all of her secrets with you, because despite having so many reasons to put walls up her heart remains as wide open as it always has been.

“This is Meg before she met H. This is Meg now. She’s always been this person. She’s not a headline. She’s my friend. I love her.”

Jessica Mulroney

One noticeable absence from the docuseries is Meghan’s former BFF Jessica Mulroney. Stylist Mulroney, 42, is briefly mentioned in one of the first episodes as she is the friend that Meghan called when she thought that Harry was about to propose.

Mulroney and Meghan were long-time best friends before and after Meghan met Harry, Mulroney’s children were even in Meghan and Harry’s wedding party.

However, the pair reportedly had a falling out in 2020 when influencer Sasha Exeter called out Mulroney for displaying “textbook white privilege” within the fashion community.

In her apology, Mulroney reportedly cited Meghan as being one of her “closest friends”. Meghan, who is biracial, reportedly ended their friendship over this but no party has ever confirmed these claims.

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