Meghan Markle's estranged best friend in cryptic post while Sussexes hit slopes

16 February 2024 , 10:21

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Meghan Markle and Jessica Mulroney were best friends (Image: Instagarm)

Meghan Markle's estranged best friend Jessica Mulroney shared a seemingly cryptic post on social media as the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes hit the slopes in Canada this week.

The post, shared by the 43-year-old Canadian stylist on her Instagram stories on Valentine's Day, was originally posted by Toronto fashion brand Province of Canada and read: "Less candy hearts, more bunny hugs." Jessica, whose friendship with Meghan came to a halt over three years ago, shared the quote with her 403,000 followers on Wednesday but did not add any comments to it.

She shared the post as Harry and Meghan hit the slopes in Canada, where they joined Invictus Games competitors training to mark a year until the global sporting event. Harry even attempted sit-skiing, and then he and Meghan met athletes at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle 'makes the first move towards reconciling with Kate Middleton after fallout'

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Meghan Markle attending the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 at Mountain Square in Canada (REX/Shutterstock)

Meghan Markle's estranged best friend in cryptic post while Sussexes hit slopes

Harry and Meghan on the slopes this week (REX/Shutterstock)

Harry founded the Paralympic-style sporting competition in 2014 for injured and sick military personnel and veterans to aid their recovery. At the Games next year, around 550 competitors from up to 25 nations will compete in indoor adaptive events like sitting volleyball, swimming and wheelchair basketball, and for the first time, winter sports like alpine skiing, snowboarding and wheelchair curling will be on the schedule.

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Sit skis enable people who might usually use a wheelchair or find it difficult to stand for long periods to ski, both with and without assistance. Jessica's Valentine's Day post is not the first time she appears to share cryptic messages on social media.

Back in September, she shared a quote saying: "As loving as I am, my detachment game is strong too." Jessica was so close with Meghan at the time of her nuptials that her twin sons Brian and John were page boys at the ceremony.

Meghan and Jessica had a fallout in 2020 (WireImage)

The post Jessica shared with her followers on Instagram on Wednesday (Jessica Mulroney/Instagram)

However, their friendship appeared to take a turn in 2020 when the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement was carrying out protests following the death of George Floyd. At the time, Jessica was called out by influencer Sasha Exeter who labelled her as "problematic" when she did not publically voice her support for the movement. Jessica was then dropped from many of the high-profile networks she worked for as a stylist.

She had been hugely successful up until this point, dressing globally recognised names including Sophie Trudeau. However, following the fall in her popularity, Meghan appeared to distance herself from her despite their many years of friendship.

The pair were close friends (Jessica Mulroney/Instagram)

While Jessica has never made any official comment on the state of her friendship with Meghan, a source told the Daily Mail that the friendship is no longer "what it once was". Meghan, on her part, has not mentioned publicly Jessica in years.

Meghan and Jessica first met when the actress was working on Suits and living in Toronto. The pair were regularly photographed together at events at the time, as well as sharing posts of one another on their Instagram accounts. Meghan would even write about Jessica on her lifestyle blog The Tig.

In December 2015 one post described how "the room stops" whenever Jessica "shows up at an event." In Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary the Duchess was seen in footage of the night Harry proposed to her in 2017 where she mentioned she had Facetimed "Jess" during the proposal.

This week has seen a flurry of announcements from the Sussexes with the Duchess signing a deal with Lemonada Media to record new podcast shows, with the company also distributing her previous series. Meghan's Archetypes podcast about female stereotypes ran for just one series before her lucrative deal with Spotify ended in 2023. The couple also relaunched their Archewell website, the name of their foundation, rebranding it as "The Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex".

The launch of the site comes as the King's slimmed-down monarchy has been put under pressure, with Charles postponing all public-facing duties due to his cancer diagnosis and the Princess of Wales out of action for the immediate future following abdominal surgery. Harry, who lives in California with his wife and their two children - Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet - flew to the UK last week to meet with the King following his diagnosis.

He made the visit without Meghan and their children less than 24 hours after the announcement about Charles' health was made to the nation by Buckingham Palace. But there was no meeting with his brother, the Prince of Wales after Harry spent around 30 minutes at Clarence House seeing their father.