Tyler Perry invited Harry and Meghan to stay at his house before he even met them: 'I could hear the fear'

Clark Collis
·4 min read
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It's good to have friends, or even just long-distance acquaintances. Say, for example, Tyler Perry.

Part 2 of the docuseries Harry & Meghan, which premiered today on Netflix, reveals that the actor-writer-director offered for the titular royal couple to stay at his Los Angeles house in the spring of 2020 before he even met them.

At the time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were looking to relocate with their young son Archie from where they had been staying in Canada because the media had discovered the location and their security detail had been removed after the pair announced they were stepping back from their positions as senior royal family members.

"This was like a week before COVID," says Harry in the series, "and we'd been stuck at this house where everyone in the world knew where we were, unprotected, no security."

Tyler Perry; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
Tyler Perry; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Mike Coppola/Getty Images Tyler Perry; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Perry had sent a note to Markle ahead of her and Harry's 2018 wedding after media reports depicted a schism between the onetime Suits actress and her dad, Thomas Markle.

"I'm not a royal watcher... but I saw something about her father," says Perry in Meghan & Harry. "I found it to be hurtful... When my life changed and success started to come, family members became different people, and I know how hurtful that could be, and how horrible it could be. I immediately empathized with her. This was before the wedding, and I sent her a note, just praying for her just to be able to move through it, and hold on, and let her know that everything in her life had prepared her for this moment, or so I thought."

Says Markle, "I'd never met him before. He sent me a letter before the wedding, saying he was praying for me, and that if I ever need anything, he would be there."

She eventually decided to take Perry up on his offer.

"Months and months and months went by," she continues, "and then one day, when we were in Canada I had called him, finally after years at that point, first time we ever spoke, and I was just a wreck. I was just crying and crying. Like, sometimes, it's easier to just open up to someone who knows nothing at all, and that was that moment with me and Tyler."

"I could hear the fear. It was palpable. I could hear it," says Perry. "So I asked her what was she afraid of, and she took a deep breath, and she started listing the things that [she was] afraid of, and I said to her, 'Every one of your fears are valid.'"

Perry then invited the couple to stay at his mansion in Los Angeles.

"He's like, 'My house is safe, and I'll make sure you have security, and you take your time,'" recalls Markle. "And I was like, 'We only need to stay for like a week, if we could stay for just a week, and then we can find somewhere that we can live.' And he was like, 'You're not going to stay for like a week, you're going to stay for as long as you need, and I'm going to get you there safely, and I'm going to keep you there safely until you have somewhere to go.'"

In the docuseries, Harry describes their temporary home as "just bliss because no one knew we were there… We were there for six weeks, and no one knew. My family still thought I was in Canada."

After six weeks, the media discovered where the couple were staying, forcing Perry to construct a fence so paparazzi couldn't take photographs.

"I'd been at that house for many, many, many years," says Perry. "And across the canyon are all these other celebrities, and no one had seen an assault like this, with helicopters 24/7, drones flying over. We would go up every day, and the chain link on the fence would be cut, and people would sneak in onto my property… It was crazy."

The couple's stay at Perry's abode came to an end in the summer of 2020 when Harry and Markle moved to their new permanent home in Santa Barbara.

Watch the trailer for part 2 of Harry & Meghan below.

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