Meghan Markle Wrote Simon Rex Thank You Letter for Turning Down Bribe To Say He Dated Her

Actor Simon Rex received a thank you letter from Meghan Markle after he refused offers of up to $70,000 from tabloids to say he had dated the royal when they co-starred in an episode of a sitcom, it has been revealed.

Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the release of his new film Red Rocket, Rex said that even though he was "broke" and "needed the money" at the time the cash offers were made to him, he'd "be on food stamps" before he'd do that.

Rex revealed to The Guardian that Meghan wrote him a thank you letter for his refusal to sell false stories about her and that he has framed it in his California home. He said the duchess wrote, "It's nice to know there are still good people."

Speaking on the Hollywood Raw podcast in 2020 Rex first broke the story that he had been hounded by the press to sell stories on Meghan. He said:

"She was just someone I had met on a TV show and we got lunch. That was the extent of it... When that story broke, a couple British tabloids offered to pay me a lot of money to say a lie that we actually hooked up... I said no to a lot of money because I didn't feel right lying".

Continuing, Rex said: "Nothing happened. We never even kissed…It was just, like, we hung out once in a very non-datey way."

Rex and Meghan appeared together in 2005 during filming for the television show Cuts. The role was minor for Meghan, whose star would rise in Hollywood after she secured the role of Rachel Zane in the hit series Suits.

Rex was first linked to Meghan in an article published by the U.K. tabloid The Sun which claimed he had "ruined his chances" of a second date with the star. The piece was just one in a slew of articles investigating Meghan's dating history around the time her relationship with Prince Harry became public.

The media scrutiny of Meghan and mass speculation continued and in 2019 Harry released a statement through Kensington Palace stating: "Unfortunately my wife has become one of the latest victims of a British tabloid press that wages campaigns against individuals with no thought to the consequences... There is a human cost to this relentless propaganda, specifically when it is knowingly false and malicious, and though we have continued to put on a brave face—as so many of you can relate to —I cannot begin to describe how painful it has been."

The statement ended by drawing a powerful and distressing parallel between the treatment that Harry saw Meghan receiving and that which he witnessed his mother endure. He said: "My deepest fear is history repeating itself. I've seen what happens when someone I love is commoditised to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces."

Harry and Meghan renewed their stance against press intrusion during their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. Speaking of his wish to protect Meghan from the British tabloids, Harry told Oprah, "The UK is my home, that is where I was brought up, so yes, I've got my own relationship that goes back a long way with the media. I asked for calm from the British tabloids—once as a boyfriend, once as a husband and once as a father." He credits media intrusion as one of the reasons the couple felt compelled to move to California.

Meghan's 2020 thank you letter to Rex is a telling signal of the intense media treatment she was experiencing during the early years of her relationship with Harry. A treatment that she said during the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey she was ill-prepared for.

"I don't think anybody could understand that, but in all fairness, I had no idea—which probably sounds difficult to understand here—but when I first met my now-husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy, but my British friends said to me, 'I'm sure he's great, but you shouldn't do it, because the British tabloids will destroy your life.'"