Former bestie tips a bucket on Meghan
MEGHAN Markle’s former best friend has unleashed a tirade of criticism against Prince Harry’s bride-to-be.
Ninaki Priddy, who was last week featured in a picture with Markle outside Buckingham Palace as 15-year-olds, says her former friend is cold and calculating and “pulled the rug” from under her former husband.
Priddy says she and Markle were “like sisters” from the age of two but fell out when the Suits star moved to Canada and split with Trevor Engelson two years after the wedding, The Sun newspaper in Britain reported.
The designer, who was maid of honour at their wedding in Jamaica, said: “What came to light after Trevor and I spoke ended my friendship with Meghan. I think everybody who knew them both was in shock.
“Meghan was calculated, very calculated, in the way she handled people and relationships,” she said.
“She is very strategic in the way she cultivates circles of friends. Once she decides you’re not part of her life, she can be very cold. There’s nothing to negotiate.
“The way she handled it, Trevor definitely had the rug pulled out from under him. He was hurt.”
The women, both now 36, grew up together in California. They visited Europe together at 15 and posed for the snap outside Buckingham Palace.
Ninaki Priddy, whom Markle called Niki, said the future star always wanted to be famous, owned a book about Princess Diana and loved the Princess Diaries film.
She recalled Meghan “literally shone with happiness” when she wed Engelson, a 41-year-old Hollywood producer, in 2011.
She said: “We’d been like sisters since we were two years old, so I knew she’d always wanted to get married.
“It was such a moving wedding. I started crying the moment I saw her in her dress.
“We had the ceremony on the beach. It was so beautiful to watch, beautiful to be a part of. They each wrote their own vows. They loved each other so much.”
At the time, Markle had recently moved to Toronto to film Suits.
Priddy said: “Meg had just finished the first series. It was a big part for her – her first full-time role. She’d hustled for years to get there.
“Trevor was so supportive. He travelled back and forth from LA and there was a lot of Skyping and FaceTiming going on.”
Priddy says she fell out with Markle because she disapproved of the manner of the break-up of the star’s first marriage.
She said Markle also developed a sense of “entitlement”.
“After the wedding, it was like a light switched off. There’s Meghan Before Fame and Meghan After Fame,” she said.
The two former best friends stopped speaking soon after Markle’s first marriage came to an end.