A friend of Meghan Markle has opened up on how his friendship with the royal led to speculations that they were romantically involved while she was engaged to Prince Harry.
Canadian hockey player Michael Del Zotto recalled meeting the "Suits" actress through one of her co-stars on the series and his friend, Rock Hoffman. During this time, she was still married to film producer Trevor Engelson and was living in Toronto in the middle of filming the show.
"I remember I got (Hoffman) a signed hat by all the boys and he was extremely thankful for it," Del Zotto said on the "Spittin Chiclets" podcast.
He added: "And through these times Meghan was around with him, you know, co-stars on the show and she was married at the time. We had a picture of us together where I think it was the three of us were out. I believe it was Soho House, in Toronto. We had a drink before dinner."
Meghan Markle eventually split from Engelson after two years of marriage and she then met Prince Harry reportedly through a mutual friend, Markus Anderson, who is Soho House's global membership director. They announced their engagement in November 2017 and the British tabloids started digging into her life to know more about her past romantic relationships.
Del Zotto continued: "Fast forward, she's now engaged to the prince and headlines are blowing up. Everyone's digging into her past, her past dating history: who she knows."
He added: "I started getting calls, like we're friends, you know, I was friends with her through Rick. Sure enough, my mom's getting called. They get access, the British press is getting access to my mom's cell phone, asking 'hey did your son and Meghan Markle have a relationship?'"
The hockey player shared that his mum called him right away to let him know. But the paparazzi were relentless. One time as he was leaving practice in Vancouver, one reporter approached him and asked if he had "relations" with Meghan Markle.
"I'm like, 'who the f***s this guy? What's this guy asking me?'" Del Zotto shared adding: "And sure enough in the background, there's probably I don't know like four cars in the background and there's numerous cameras taking pictures and video of me, the paparazzi's back there, asking what the f*** is going on right now?"
He had to run to his car and later explain to his teammates what was going on.
"I sprint to my car, a bunch of the boys come out. They call me after like, 'what is going on?' I'm like 'I don't know apparently I dated or was married to Megan Markle," he shared.
Del Zotto added: "So that's a rude awakening for me. You got to be careful with who you're friends with and what pictures you post out there because nothing ever happened but the paparazzi somehow found me."
Del Zotto was not the only celebrity who was asked if he was romantically involved with Meghan Markle. Simon Rex had also admitted that "several" British tabloids offered him $70,000 to claim that he had slept with her. They appeared together in a 2005 episode of the short-lived sitcom "Cuts".
Rex said he was broke at that time but refused the money. He said: "But I'll be on food stamps before I do that." The actor said Meghan Markle wrote him a thank you letter afterward which read: "It's nice to know there are still good people." He said he had the letter framed in his home out in Joshua Tree. His relationship with the Duchess of Sussex reportedly never got any further than one platonic lunch.
