Meet Meghan Markle's best friend Abigail Spencer - From royal wedding, Suits, People Magazine secret and always coming to her aid
The pair met on Meghan Markle's TV show Suits...The Duchess of Sussex rubbed shoulders with Hollywood long before the world knew her as Prince Harry‘s girlfriend back in 2016. Since then, Meghan Markle has evolved into a royal, mother, wife and a brand owner – but one person who’s always been at her side is best friend Abigail Spencer.
The duo worked together on Suits, but they actually met a long time before the legal drama aired. Their friendship lasted after the TV show wrapped up, with Spencer joining the royal couple on a hiking trip in Victoria Island, Canada, in 2020.
Let’s take a look back at their decades-long friendship and how it’s stood the test of time (and drama), as Abigail Spencer is set to appear in Meghan Markle‘s new cooking show.
Meghan Markle and Abigail Spencer met at an audition
Both budding actors, the pair met at an audition more than 10 years before she tied the knot with Prince Harry in 2017. Although the now 43-year-old is well-known for her role of Rachel Zane on Suits, she had a long acting career and appeared in 11 movies too.
Spencer, who played Dana Scott in Suits, told ET: “I saw her and was like, ‘Who is this gorgeous girl?’
“She was just so stunning and there was just something about her, and that’s how we met.”
Then, they began working together on the hit USA Network series, and continued to bond away from the camera. Spencer even contributed to her now defunct lifestyle blog, the Tig, which she gave up after becoming the Duchess of Sussex.
Abigail Spencer received one of the rare invites to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal wedding
Only 600 people had the privilege of being invited to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding, and that royal invitation made it’s way to Abigail Spencer’s door as well.
In 2017, she was spotted entering the church alongside another one of Meg’s famous friends – Priyanka Chopra.
Although she wouldn’t dish details on what the big day was like, she did tease what wedding gifts the newlyweds asked of from their guests.
She said at the time: “I think what [Harry and Meghan] would love is [for people] to donate to one of the charities that they are involved in”.
Royal baby shower
Still close two years later, Abigail received another special invitation to her celebrity-filled baby shower in New York City, alongside another close pal, Serena Williams.
It drew backlash from commentators as no family members, or family-to-be, were invited, including Kate Middleton. Instead, it was just a room full of her closest friends and Hollywood elites, like lawyer Amal Clooney.
Reports also claimed that the extravagant event cost a staggering six-figure sum.
Three years later, Meghan defended her get-together at The Mark Hotel in the Big Apple. In her and Harry’s Netflix docuseries, she said: “My girlfriends surprised me with a really beautiful baby shower in New York. They’re like: ‘We’re gonna shower her with love and shower her baby and she’s gonna survive this. We’re gonna get through it with her.'”
But headlines were focused on how it cost up to £400,000 ($500,000), and it upset the royal who went on to set the record straight that her friends forked out the cash for the special day.
Showing solidarity with Netflix venture
Abigail came to their defence in their Netflix show, Harry & Meghan, when it aired in 2022.
She shared her perceptions of the Duchess after she joined The Firm.
Speaking of the Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s first royal tour in 2018, Abigail Spencer said in the doc: “The work that they were doing the speeches they were giving, it seemed to be amazing and then I don’t understand what happened after that.
“It was almost like in the wedding and everything, I saw that they were building her up, and then there was a shift and they started to tear her down.”
Being there for Meghan during a ‘really dark time’
Abigail also admitted on the series: “That was a really dark time, and I didn’t know what to do.
“I was not allowed to say anything. Anything that anybody was printing wasn’t coming from anybody that knew her. There’s all this untruth, there’s all these lies, and it just seemed to be getting worse.”
But it was her decision of contacting someone who worked at People magazine that shows she’s been in Meghan’s corner for several years.
In 2019 the magazine spoke to five women from Meghan’s inner circle who were trying to stop the abuse online. They chose to break their silence to support her, but it came back in court when Meghan sued Associated Newspapers in 2020, over a letter she sent her father Thomas Markle, which the Mail Online published.
Meghan denied authorising the interview, and her lawyers said she did not know which friends broke their silence or what magazine was publishing the story.
She can’t stop hyping up her friend
Abigail doesn’t hesitate to gush over her pal Meghan Markle, with Spencer telling Extra in 2018: “She’s had such a glorious and long career, obviously we worked on Suits together, and she’s such a self-made woman. She had her own company, has designed clothing, she’s really phenomenal. She’s done so much work with World Vision and all of her charity efforts. She’s really helped me learn more about things in the world that I need to be more involved in. I think it’s wonderful she has a larger platform to do the work she’s been doing, and I think Harry’s pretty lucky.”
Then to Vanity Fair she praised her fashion sense, calling it ‘timeless and classy’, before confessing to People: “I always say everywhere she walks, it’s like, little love notes come out of the bottoms of her feet”.
Abigail Spencer on With Love, Meghan
The Suits star is teaming up with Meg again for her new venture on Netflix, With Love, Meghan, airing March 4.
After Meghan’s cooking show was delayed following the devastating LA wildfires, she’s going to host several celebrity guests as she embraces her love for baking, entertaining and hosting. Abigail Spencer is joining in one of the episodes, as well as another close friend, Mindy Kaling.
Gathering her feelings on their friendship so far, it’s safe to assume Abigail is a fan of her new project.
