Meghan Markle "loves" Kelly Clarkson and even voted for her during her winning 2002 run on American Idol, the duchess' Suits co-star Abigail Spencer recently told the pop-star and talk-show host.
Spencer appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show on February 26, alongside her Extended Families co-star Donald Faison, where she discussed her career and gave some rare detail on her friendship with Meghan, which was formed prior to the royal's wedding in 2018, at which she was a guest.
Spencer told Clarkson that she first met Meghan in 2007 at an audition for a TV show pilot being tested for the roles of two best friends. "I walk in I see this beautiful gorgeous creature at the end of the table and I'm like who is that?...We had an immediate something, you know," she said.
After discovering they share a birthday on August 4, it was four years later that both were cast in the hit legal drama Suits (Meghan as paralegal Rachel Zane and Spencer as attorney Dana Scott). There, the actress said their friendship "really developed."
Highlighting that both are still close, Spencer told Clarkson that Meghan had asked her to relay a message on her behalf.
"Meg says 'hello' and that she loves you and that she voted for you on American Idol," she said, to which Clarkson responded "it worked!" referencing her win of the show's first season in 2002.
Spencer also relayed that she'd been told Meghan recently had dinner with Canadian pop-star Michael Bublé who called Clarkson the "greatest singer on earth."
"This was unsolicited. She [Meghan] did not know I was coming on here. We were just chatting and I was like 'oh, I'm going to see Kelly next week,' and she's like 'I have a message,'" Spencer concluded.
Spencer has rarely spoken about Meghan in interviews and her comments follow a range of reports focused on the duchess' relationships with her former Suits co-stars, stemming from recent interviews in which they suggested they were no long in contact with her.
Speaking on the red carpet of the Golden Globes in January, Gina Torres, who played Jessica Pearson alongside Meghan on Suits and was a guest at her wedding, revealed that the duchess was not a part of the cast's text thread.
"We don't have her number. We just don't...She'll see. She'll watch. She'll be happy that we're here," she said.
Weeks later, Gabriel Macht, who played Harvey Specter on the show, and Patrick J. Adams, who played Mike Ross, both revealed that they had no contact with the royal.
"I have not communicated with her, other than seeing her big support for the resurgence [of the show] and that has been really nice," Macht told The Hollywood Reporter, with Adams adding: ""Zero. No communication."
Meghan has spoken positively of the show since her retirement from acting in 2018 and its resurgence in popularity on streaming platforms.
In November, she told Variety on a Hollywood red carpet that: "It was great to work on, such a great cast and crew, we had a really fun time."
Newsweek approached representatives of Meghan Markle via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
