Wendell Pierce backtracks from criticism of Meghan Markle interview after slamming it
The 'Suits' actor who once played Markle's on-screen dad, took issue with her airing her 'personal grievances'
Following this weekend’s headline-making interview, on Monday, Meghan Markle’s former Suits co-star Wendell Pierce criticized the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for clogging up the news cycle while the world is still in the “throes of death.”
The 57-year-old Hollywood veteran reportedly made the comments during an interview with radio station LBC, noting, “Today 3,000 people are going to die in America from Covid. A couple of hundred people are going to die, even this hour, in the UK.”
READ MORE: Meghan Markle explains why she deserves a ‘basic right to privacy’
Pierce – who played Markle’s onscreen dad on the show for four years – then opined that the royal couple’s interview evoked Shakespeare’s phrase “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
‘It was quite insensitive and offensive that we are all complicit in this sort of palace… gossip in the midst of so much death. I think it is insignificant,” he continued, adding that “everyone” seemingly including Winfrey, CBS, and the royals were foolish for taking part in this public scandal.
The actor admits he hasn’t spoken to his costar since 2019, but he did reveal that he and Markle never spoke much about race when they filmed Suits, despite it being a part of their storyline.
“We didn’t have long discussions about it, besides what was in the script and what was happening in our personal lives,” he recalled.
Despite the current critique, Pierce has always spoken highly of the actress, revealing back in October of 2019 how he and the cast of Suits protected her from the paparazzi while she was dating Prince Harry.
While appearing on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs the actor praised Markle for being a “really good actress” who was “always sweet and always kind.”
Pierce admitted he initially didn’t believe rumors that Markle was dating Prince Harry until an “MI5 sort of security guard with his British accent” turned up on set one day.
He then shared an anecdote about an incident that took place during filming, right after it was confirmed to the world that she was romantically involved with a member of the royal family.
“We were shooting one day, and it was before her engagement, but in the show she was engaged and had a ring on,” he explained to radio host Lauren Laverne. “We were about to get out the car and we said, “Don’t get out! Give us the ring. There’s a paparazzi down the street and if a photograph got out of you with a ring on, it would explode all over the world.”
Right before their working relationship ended, the Louisiana native says he let life imitate art by giving the actress some fatherly advice about what life after becoming a part of the monarchy.
‘I said: “Listen, your world is going to be forever changed and no matter where you are, you can always know you have a friend in me,'” he recalled.
READ MORE: Prince Charles pictured with Black healthcare workers following interview
Coincidentally, shortly thereafter, Pierce headed to London to take part in a West End adaptation of The Death Of A Salesman.
Pierce responded to the backlash his comments generated in a Twitter thread Tuesday. He denied ever speaking to Daily Mail and reiterated his support for his former co-star.
“I just discovered my words are being used as an attack. Well done British Press. Clarity: The British monarchy is archaic in my American eyes. If slavery, colonialism and apartheid didn’t educate you that they are racist, you failed history,” he tweeted.
He continued by declaring that he reached out to Markle to wish her only the best.
“I was fortunate to tell Meghan personally I wish her all the best. Predicting this hellacious maelstrom I also told her she would always have a friend in me. Because I had no interest in the interview doesn’t change that,” he wrote.
“In no way am I insensitive to suicide. Unfortunately my family has suffered the pain of losing someone to suicide. I never was interviewed by the Daily Mail and their story manipulated my words in a radio interview. As I told Meghan, I support her and wish her all the best.”
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