Priyanka Chopra Talks About What It Was Like Being Friends With Meghan Markle Before and After She Became a Royal

• Priyanka Chopra talked about her friendship with Meghan Markle in a new interview.
• She also calls out the tabloids' racist treatment of Meghan, but says that "if there's anyone who can handle it, it's her."

Even though Priyanka Chopra wanted to make it abundantly clear that she did NOT visit baby Archie Harrison last weekend to give the new royal a ton of bougie gifts from Tiffany's, she would like to clarify that yes, she is still friends with Duchess Meghan Markle. As a reminder, there were rumours that there was some sort of feud between the women a couple of months ago when Priyanka didn't attend Meghan's baby shower, and Meghan didn't attend Priyanka's wedding to Nick Jonas, but Priyanka denied that anything was up between them, and here we are.

Priyanka did an interview with The Sunday Times, and she opens about her friendship with Meghan. She says that they initially connected "on how we see the world and as girls,” and bonded while they were both filming TV shows in Canada. Priyanka says, “Meghan is such a progressive, modern girl. She’s what the world is today—a self-made woman who looks like each one of us. I mean, she’s stunning, but she is so completely herself.”

Priyanka also calls the tabloid treatment of Meghan "really unfortunate" but adds, "if there’s anyone who can handle it, it’s her.” She also isn't shy to say that it's racism against Meghan that's responsible for the negative press: “Of course it has to do with racism, it’s an obvious reason."

As for how Meghan has changed since marrying into the British royal family, Priyanka doesn't think it's been much at all. She says, "the beauty of Meg is that she’s been herself through all of this. A lot of people got to know her after everything [once she started dating Harry], but I knew her before and she’s the same chick. Now that she’s got a real platform, she talks about the same things she always did. We spent hours speaking about the difference that influence and dialogue can make to the world before this whole thing happened, so what you see now is authentically her. She’s always been the girl wanting to move the needle.”

Aw, that's sweet! Love to see strong, feminist BFFs supporting each other. ❤️