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Simon Rex received a royal thank-you for turning down an alleged bribe.
The actor claimed several UK tabloids offered him $70,000 to say he slept with Meghan Markle, who appeared alongside him in a 2005 episode of the sitcom “Cuts.”
The 47-year-old insisted that their off-screen interactions never went beyond a platonic lunch.
“I was broke as f—!” Rex recently told The Guardian. “I really needed the money. But I’ll be on food stamps before I do that.”
MEGHAN MARKLE SUED BY HALF-SISTER OVER OPRAH WINFREY TELL-ALL INTERVIEW
Meghan Markle and Simon Rex worked together in a 2005 episode of ‘Cuts’.
(Getty Images)
Rex said that after he turned down the bribes, the Duchess of Sussex wrote him a thank-you letter.
“She said, ‘It’s nice to know there are still good people,’” said Rex, adding he has the note framed in his California home.
Back in March 2020, Rex told the “Hollywood Raw” podcast about the offers he received to share false stories about the 40-year-old solely because they worked together on a show.
“Nothing happened,” he stressed to the outlet. “We never even kissed. It was just, like, we hung out once in a very non-datey way. She was just someone I had met on a TV show and we got lunch. That was the extent of it.”
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Meghan Markle, circa 2005.
(Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage for Kari Feinstein PR)
Rex said he turned down the $70,000 offer because it “didn’t feel right lying.”
Markle, a former American actress, became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Britain’s Prince Harry in May 2018 at Windsor Castle. A year before the royal wedding, Markle confirmed during the couple’s first joint interview that she decided to quit acting.
“What’s been really exciting, as we talk about this as the transition out of my career… is that the causes that have been very important to me, I can focus even more energy on,” she explained. “You realize that as you have access or a voice that people are willing to listen to, [it comes with] a lot of responsibility, which I take seriously.”
The couple welcomed a son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor in 2019.
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reside in California with their two children.
(AP)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s departures from royal duties began in 2020 over what they described as the British media’s intrusions and racist attitudes towards the former “Suits” star. The family now resides in the coastal city of Montecito, California.
In the wake of quitting royal duties, they gave an explosive TV interview to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, in which the couple described painful comments about how dark Archie’s skin might be before his birth. The duchess talked about the intense isolation she felt inside the royal family that led her to contemplate suicide.
Buckingham Palace said the allegations of racism made by the couple were “concerning” and would be addressed privately.
On June 4, the couple welcomed their second child, a daughter named Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. The name pays tribute to both Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, whose family nickname is Lilibet, and his late mother, Princess Diana.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
