Tyler Perry is revealing a very important title for the first time: godfather to Lilibet Diana.
The filmmaker, 53, recalled in the final episode of the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asked him to accept the role in 2021, after Lili, their second child, was born.
Perry said Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, “were pretty serious on the phone” when they called to ask, when usually their chats are more lighthearted.
“I go, ‘Okay, what’s going on?’ They said, ‘Well, we’d like for you to be Lili’s godfather.’ I go, ‘Whoa,'” Perry continued. “I had to take a minute to take that in.”
After getting off the phone with the couple and thinking about what they had asked, Perry realized his agreement came with a bit of a condition.
“I called them back and went, ‘Uh, hold on a second — does this mean we gotta go over [to the U.K.] and do all of that in church with [the royal family] and figure all that out? ‘Cause I don’t wanna do that,'” he said. ” ‘Maybe we can do a little private ceremony here [in the U.S.] and let that be that, and if you have to do it there, then that’s okay.’ ”
Earlier in the episode, Perry said he first got acquainted with Meghan after he sent her a letter ahead of her wedding saying he was praying for her, amid the “hurtful” controversy surrounding her and her strained relationship with her father, Thomas Markle.
“I couldn’t even imagine this woman finding the man that she loved, the man of her dreams, and him being a prince, and then to walk into all of that madness and need the security of family and then have your father do some horrible things,” Perry said.
“When my life changed and success started to come, family members became different people, and I know how hurtful and horrible it can be,” he said, adding that he “immediately empathized” with Meghan.
