Tyler Perry Opens up About the Phone Call With Meghan Markle That Helped Kickstart ‘Megxit’

Tyler Perry has opened up about the phone call he had with Meghan Markle in 2020 that helped kickstart “Megxit.” Speaking to Kelly Ripa on the most recent episode of her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, Perry explained, “I sent them a note … and just said, ‘If you ever need anything, I’m here,’ and she called months later and just talked to me like I was a therapist you talk to and we just had a great conversation.”

“It is very important for people in this business to have a safe place to land, to have a place where they can trust and talk freely and get advice that’s not going to be biased or from somebody who wants something from them,” he added. After Markle and her husband Prince Harry left their royal duties behind, they went to live in Perry’s $18 million Beverly Hills home, something he is very proud to have been able to do for them. “They hid out at my house for a long time. It was so great,” he said, later adding of the paparazzi not knowing where the couple was, “Every day that they were there, I looked to see if anything’s happening online. Nothing. They don’t even know, so weeks and weeks they were there.” The filmmaker then said, “They were so happy. It was such a beautiful moment.”

Perry’s comments come about a week after it was reported that Markle’s relationship with the Royal Family has taken a dramatic fall. Speaking to PEOPLE, author Omid Scobie — whose new book Endgame “chronicles both the breakdown of the royal family and the weakening of the modern monarchy” — says that the 42-year-old Duchess of Sussex has “moved on” from the royals. Her husband Harry, however, “still has unfinished business” with his family.

“Quite early on in the [book-writing] process, some of those Meghan sources that I really leant on in the earlier years this time were like, ‘You know what? She doesn’t want anything to do with it,’” said Scobie, who has covered the British royal family for over 10 years. “For Harry it’s different. He still has unfinished business when it comes to his battles with the press. His challenge will be to find something that balances that out so we can see him working in a space that isn’t connected to the ties that bind from the past.”

While the couple have put their royal lives behind them, they have remained in communication with Harry’s father and sent him well wishes. “With Harry, there’s a reluctant acceptance that this is just who his father is. He would rather have that in his life than to cut it off completely. Hence, when they talk it is often [Harry] reaching out,” said Scobie. “And I was surprised to learn that even Meghan has some sort of correspondence with Charles, sending over photos of the children, although they’re not directly to him. So there is a willingness there.”