The former husband of one of Meghan Markle’s former best friends in Hollywood has broken his silence about the alleged rift that led to their drifting apart. Meghan Markle used to be very close to Jessica Mulroney, a Canadian stylist who played a prominent role in her life before and during her relationship with Prince Harry.
Her children also attended the Sussex wedding in 2018, with Jessica's sons, Brian and John, serving as page boys and her daughter, Ivy, serving as a bridesmaid alongside Princess Charlotte. But the two appeared to have a fallout after Jessica got embroiled in a “white privilege” row with Sasha Exeter, a black social media influencer, which took place in 2020. Now, Ms Mulroney’s husband, Ben, opened up about how he and his wife were “cancelled” in Hollywood in mid 2020 as he called black media influencer Sasha Exeter a “racial grifter”.
Ms Mulroney’s clash with Ms Exeter took place in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Floyd was an African American man whose murder by white police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May 2020 during an arrest sparked major protests linked to the Black Lives Matter movement.
At the time, Ms Mulroney allegedly took offence after Ms Exeter’s “generic call to action” online.
The influencer claimed the two had argued about the importance of influencers “speaking up” and later added that she had been threatened by Ms Mulroney, who subsequently apologised on multiple occasions.
Ms Mulroney’s ex-husband, a Canadian TV host and the son of Brian Mulroney, Canada’s former prime minister, accused Ms Exeter of “taking advantage” of the Floyd movement.
He told the No But Seriously Though podcast: “A racial grifter decided to take advantage of the George Floyd moment and make up a complete fiction about my wife and the country decided to bend over backwards and say: ‘OK, well, here’s our hero and here’s our villain and everything was taken from my wife overnight’.”
Mr Mulroney alleged the scandal was “made up,” as per the Mail, adding: “What the DMs show is not that this woman was abused by my wife’s white privilege, but that this woman was antagonising my wife and so my wife said, 'If you are going to threaten me, I’ll threaten you.’”
Last year, it was reported that the Canadian couple had split up after 16 years of marriage; however, Mr Mulroney referred to Jessica as “his wife” in the podcast.
The Duchess of Sussex and Ms Mulroney would regularly hang out while the duchess was in Toronto filming Suits, years before their fallout.
The stylist would often post various snaps of the former actress while the two were holidaying around the world and enjoying dates together.
She even posted a snap of her and Meghan enjoying drinks just two days before the Sussexes' bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey on March 7, 2021.
She captioned the post: "I don’t know that anyone has ever had to deal with the pressure, the politics, and the press like this woman.
"In the face of it all, I have never seen her waver from kindness, empathy, and love."
Since then, the Duchess has not publicly mentioned her former pal, albeit a small mention in the Sussexes's bombshell docuseries, Harry & Meghan, where footage from the night Harry proposed in 2017 was shared and Meghan appeared to FaceTime her friend "Jess" - thought to be Ms Mulroney - as she walked into Kensington Palace.
The duchess would previously regularly mention her ex-BFF on her now-defunct blog, The Tig.
The two women do not follow each other on Instagram.
