When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped away from “the Firm” back in 2020, the couple were almost immediately anointed royalty of a different kind. Alongside advocacy from the Clooneys, Serena Williams and Elton John, the Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry offered his Los Angeles home as a temporary refuge until they eventually settled in the hillside enclave of Montecito. The Sussexes’ entrance into this new elite was subsequently laid bare in a televised conversation with Oprah Winfrey, and later in the Netflix show Harry Meghan, in which the Duchess received a text from Beyoncé, who told her she’d been selected to “break generational curses that need to be healed.”
Meghan and Harry first met the musician back in July 2019 at the London premiere of The Lion King, but in a sense their ties already ran deep. It was only five months earlier, after all, that Beyoncé and Jay Z had accepted a Brit award for Best International Group via a pre-recorded speech, which was delivered before an Elizabethan-style portrait of Meghan dressed in royal regalia. “Meghan’s charitable work in communities of color began years before becoming the Duchess of Sussex,” read a concurrent post on the #WeGood section of Beyoncé’s website, dedicated to celebrating Black cultural figures. “At the wedding her culture was front and centre, and she and Prince Harry have continued to push the race relations dialogue forward both near and far.”
While the details of their continued friendship remain as secretive as everything else in Beyoncé’s personal life, the former royals have become familiar faces at her gigs. They danced alongside Kelly Rowland and Kerry Washington at a 2023 Renaissance concert, and enjoyed a pre-mother’s day outing at this weekend’s Cowboy Carter stop in Los Angeles. Meghan offered a discreet nod towards the album’s Americana aesthetic in a denim Carolina Herrera dress and Aquazzura sandals, while Harry’s Kemo Sabe hat (embossed with “Archie”, “Lili” and “My love” beneath the brim) was a little more on the nose. Both of them seemed to have been enjoying themselves far more than they would have been cutting a ribbon at a supermarket in, I don’t know, Piddlesworth. “About last night,” Meghan captioned an Instagram carousel. “Thank you @beyonce and team for an amazing concert (and a very fun date night)! All love.”