Meghan Markle and Millie Mackintosh bonded over their martial woes, the Made In Chelsea star has revealed.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, and Made In Chelsea star Millie, 33, once had a friendship – before Meghan married Prince Harry.
Mum-of-two Millie, who is married to Hugo Taylor, revealed she and Meghan became friends around eight years ago.
The pair would meet up to "hang out" and Millie added how she gave the Duchess of Sussex her "little black book" of contacts when Meghan moved to London.
When the pair first met, Meghan was divorced from her first husband Trevor Engelson while Millie was going through a tough time in her first marriage to Professor Green, before the pair parted ways in 2016.
Millie said of the pair's first meeting: "I went to a hotel in Istanbul and I met Meghan Markle and I was a fan – I'd watched Suits and loved her in Suits and at that time it was airing.
"We met at the bar and we were both ordering a drink at the same time and started chatting. We both got on really well, we got on like a house on fire and spent the night partying and having fun and we stayed in touch."
Millie revealed the pair ended up chatting a fair bit about their marital troubles.
She told the Mumlemmas podcast: "When we first met I was married, going through a bit of a turbulent time, and I got divorced, and she was divorced so we had quite a lot to talk about because we'd both talk about our experiences and she'd been through it, I was going through it so that was quite bonding.
"And we were both into our wellness, she had her blog The Tig and we were both into the same things and we hung out a few times. I'm definitely not saying we were best friends but when she was in town she would let me know and we would hang out."
The MIC star also revealed how she took Meghan "to her favourite spots" and "connected" her with some friends.
Millie said how Meghan was "really fun" and the last time the reality star saw the Duchess was in the Cotswolds where the pair had "rosè and margaritas in the pool".
During the final meet-up, Millie revealed Meghan "told me about Harry".
She added: "A friend introduced them and they'd been messaging. She was gonna see where it went and I thought, 'great, that's nice'. To clarify, I've never met him – me and Harry do not know each other I've never met him. But, I was kind of like, 'great' didn't ask too much about it.
"Didn't really think that much of it at the time – if only I'd known! So, then, weeks later when it all came out in the press – it might have been months later – I hadn't seen Meghan since and it all the hit the press that Meghan and Harry were seeing each other."
Millie said that when Meghan dating Harry became public knowledge, she reached out to the future Duchess of Sussex.
She explained: "I messaged her and said, 'hey I hope you're OK, thinking of you'. And she sent me this really abrupt message that was really unlike any of our communication before.
"It wasn't like I'd messaged her asking if it was true – I didn't care, it was none of my business. I was like: 'Are you OK' and what I read from that message is she maybe needed a bit of space, she needed to cool off, she was angry, she was maybe under a lot of pressure. So I didn't message her again I just thought to leave it but I did expect that we would stay in touch."
Millie then said she expected Meghan to message her back "something" but Millie said Meghan "cut me dead".
