Meghan Markle’s track record for making and keeping friends as an adult appears to be better than average. But some are questioning her relationship with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the ex-wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after she appeared to distance herself from the duchess in a new interview.
In a profile published in British publication The Times on April 27, writer Louise Callaghan asks Grégoire Trudeau about her friendships with the world leaders she’d come across during her nine years as the wife of Canada’s PM. Grégoire Trudeau spoke highly of Michelle Obama, with whom she’d become close during Barack Obama’s presidency. “She’s funny,” Grégoire Trudeau said candidly. “She has a great sense of humor and also very deep values that I respect.”
However, when Callaghan brought up Markle, who once gushed about her “dear friend” Grégoire Trudeau when she appeared on her Archetypes podcast, the former first lady seemed to clam up. Writes Callaghan, “she does not gush back.”
Of the Duchess of Sussex, Grégoire Trudeau says simply, “I know her,” adding that the two haven’t spent much time together. She then pivoted the subject to Kate Middleton, whom she feels terrible for following her cancer diagnosis. “My heart just sunk when I saw what was happening,” she said.
Grégoire Trudeau was a guest on a November 22 episode of Markle’s Archetypes podcast, where the two discussed the “good wife/bad wife” and “good mom/bad mom” stereotypes in pop culture. In the episode, Markle recalled an afternoon in 2021 where the two relaxed by the pool with their kids. She described an intimate scene where they got “giddy like absolute schoolgirls.”
“Sophie has become a dear friend,” Markle says in the episode, “someone who I think is so emblematic of strength that comes from embracing your humanity even in the face of all these family and home and public pressures.”
The two met in 2015 when Markle was living in Toronto, the duchess explains, and they were close enough that she would go to Grégoire Trudeau for advice about being a “mom and a partner in the public eye.” During her pregnancy, she adds, Grégoire Trudeau would send her little meditations, voice notes, and other encouragements.
There may be an understandable reason for their distance, however, as it’s been a big year for Grégoire Trudeau. In August of 2023, she and Justin Trudeau announced that they were separating after 18 years of marriage. Earlier this month, she released a book that is part memoir, part self-help book. Markle, likewise, has been busy pioneering her own venture in the lifestyle and wellness space, her just-announced American Riviera Orchard brand.
From the looks of the gifting list for American Riviera Orchard’s first product—a homemade jam—Meghan Markle is not in need of more friends. But maybe Grégoire Trudeau’s distant response will inspire her to reach out. Instead of an olive branch, perhaps a jar of jam might suffice?
