They were once inseparable, but the Duchess of Sussex’s friendship with stylist Jessica Mulroney could come under almost intolerable strain because of Meghan’s legal battle over privacy.
The relationship has already become fraught after 40-year-old Jessica dragged her pal into an online row over racism.
And if she is called to testify under oath about their friendship and what she knows of the Duchess during the case in London’s High Court, those bonds could be broken irreparably.
The Duchess of Sussex’s friendship with stylist Jessica Mulroney could come under almost intolerable strain because of Meghan Markle’s legal battle over privacy
A mutual friend of the women said: ‘Meg needs to be careful. Jess is the keeper of her secrets. She knows where all the bodies are buried and she does not forgive and forget public disavowals easily. She is said to be keeping a note of everyone who has come out for or against her.’
The pair were once incredibly close, having met in Toronto when Meghan was filming the legal TV drama Suits, which made her name.
Jessica’s twin sons Brian and John, now nine, were pageboys at Meghan’s wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018, with her daughter Ivy a flower girl.
Jessica helped Meghan choose her wedding dress and was reportedly made a godmother to 14-month-old Archie, although she could not attend last year’s christening at Windsor Castle.
In turn, Meghan is Ivy’s godmother. But last month, Meghan failed to get in touch on Ivy’s seventh birthday, despite normally marking such celebrations with multiple presents.
The relationship appears to have cooled after Jessica became embroiled in a row with social-media influencer Sasha Exeter, who called for high-profile people to be more vocal in support of Black Lives Matter movement, which Jessica took to be a personal attack.
This comes after Jessica Mulroney dragged Meghan Markle into an online racism row with social-media influencer Sasha Exeter, putting strain on their once incredibly close friendship
Ugly messages were sent behind the scenes, with Jessica reportedly threatening to harm Sasha’s career. When Sasha accused Jessica of trying to silence her, as a black woman, Jessica name-dropped her friendship with bi-racial Meghan as evidence that she wasn’t racist.
Jessica apologised, but lost lucrative TV jobs hosting a Canadian reality show and as a correspondent on Good Morning America.
Meghan’s publicists then briefed reporters that the Duchess was ‘mortified’ by her best friend’s behaviour and that she ‘could no longer be associated with her’.
Another friend told the New York Post their relationship was already on the way out, even before that row, because Meghan felt that Jessica was ‘making a career out of the friendship’.
‘The white privilege row has really given Meghan the excuse she was waiting for to cut Jess off for good,’ they said. ‘I don’t know what the tipping point was, but Jess has been on the outs for some time.
‘Their friendship is definitely not what it was. And really, how can you have such a close friendship when one person is basically making a career out of the friendship?’
Meghan’s court case against The Mail on Sunday revolves, in part, around five of her friends who spoke about the Duchess to America’s People magazine.
The lawsuit last week revealed Meghan’s anger with the Palace staff who she claim left her ‘unprotected’. Above, Jessica Mulroney and Meghan Markle together in 2016
In the article, they mentioned a letter she sent to her father, Thomas, which is at the centre of the privacy claim.
The lawsuit last week revealed Meghan’s anger with the Palace staff who she claim left her ‘unprotected’. Turning on her former courtiers, she claims the communications team ‘prohibited [her] from defending herself’.
That claim was met with incredulity by those who know her. ‘Anyone who has met the Duchess knows she cannot be prohibited from anything,’ said one source
The court case raises the possibility that staff who worked in Kensington and Buckingham Palaces may also be called as witnesses.
The court papers, detailed in written answers provided to The Mail on Sunday’s legal team by the Duchess’s lawyers, add to the very public fallout from the Sussexes’ departure from the UK.
The Duchess is suing The Mail on Sunday on the grounds of breach of privacy, data protection and copyright, over the publication of parts of the handwritten letter to her father.