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Actor and British royal Meghan Markle's former Cuts costar Simon Rex confirmed that the UK media had approached him, willing to pay as much as $70,000 for fabricated stories about his 'relationship' with Markle.

Before Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from from their royal positions as Duchess and Duke of Sussex in early 2020, they faced a difficult time where the British media was concerned. Markle was the target of racism and disparaging comments that harmed her mental health. She even took legal action and won a privacy claim against UK tabloids for printing extracts of a letter she wrote to her father. The defamatory nature of the British media was exposed further after Rex shared his experience.

Markle and Rex appeared on a TV show called Cuts in 2005. Rex said on the Hollywood Raw podcast that “Nothing happened. We never even kissed. 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."

He said he was offered money to exaggerate their platonic interaction. "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 and f*****g up the royal f*****g family."

Rex didn't name the tabloids in question, but said, "It was a lot of money man, I think they offered me like $70,000."

He retweeted the news, confirming the story. "This is true. And I framed the thank you letter she wrote me. She has very nice penmanship btw," he wrote.

Markle and Harry revealed the racist undertones with which the royal family operates in 2021. The Suits star confessed to being driven to the brink of suicide because of the way she was treated. The racist behaviour has not been restricted to Markle — there were also claims that Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, had questioned what the skin tone of Prince Harry and Markle's child would be. He has denied the claim.

The couple welcomed their daughter Lilibet in June 2021 and are leading private lives in North America, having deleted their social media accounts due to the "sexism and racism" of trolls.