Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle are set to celebrate their daughter godfather Tyler Perry later this year, when the Hollywood star picks up a coveted honour in Los Angeles.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are set to celebrate a huge achievement with Princess Lilibet’s godfather Tyler Perry, as the Hollywood star is due to be awarded a coveted honour in December this year.
The renowned actor and filmmaker is due to be honoured at the Paley Honors gala in Beverly Hills on Dec. 4, when he will receive the organisation’s highest honour for his services to media. Among the chairs of the Paley Centre, are The Duke and Duchess of Sussex themselves along with Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Taraji P. Henson, George Lucas, Kerry Washington and more.
Reflecting on the honour, Tyler told The Hollywood Reporter: “Throughout my career, I have strived to bring people together and to give a voice to those often underrepresented in media.”
”Media has served as a vital platform for this mission, and I’m honoured to receive this award from The Paley Center for Media, an organisation that has dedicated itself to spotlighting the power and importance of media.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be on hand to cheer on close friend Tyler Perry when he picks up his rare honour later this year
Tyler Perry, who is Princess Lilibet’s godfather, is set to pick up an award from the Paley Centre in December 2024
The Sussexes connection with Tyler goes back several years, with Meghan, 42, and Prince Harry, 39, first having connected with the filmmaker back in 2018 in the run up to the royal wedding. In a particularly sweet moment, the filmmaker told Meghan she could always contact him for support or advice if she needed it., reports PEOPLE.
“He understood what this meant, and that he could only imagine what it was like,” Meghan told The Cut in a 2022 interview.
Two years after the offer was extended, Meghan accepted and reached out to Tyler around the time that she and Prince Harry stepped back from royal life. Despite never having met the couple in person, the Hollywood icon cemented his place in their hearts when he offered the Sussexes his LA home to stay in, during their early transition to life in the United States.
Reflecting on how peaceful it was to simply have a place to stay out of the spotlight, Tyler told an episode of Let’s Talk Off-Camera with Kelly Ripa : ”Every day that they were there, I looked to see if anything’s happening online. Nothing. They don’t even know. So weeks and weeks they were there. They were so happy. It was such a beautiful moment.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back from their roles in 2020, but during their move Tyler Perry offered his home to the couple
Eventually the couple later moved on to find a place of their own in Montecito, and Tyler was more than happy to wish them well, as he even gifted them a grand piano as a housewarming gift alongside the immortal words: “Write the soundtrack to your life.”
With their friendship now ironclad and Tyler having proven himself to be a huge source of support for the couple, Harry and Meghan decided to bestow upon him a very special honour, when they asked him to be Princess Lilibet’s godfather shortly after her birth in 2021.
Initially reluctant to accept as he feared it may mean a very public trip and church ceremony in the UK, the couple later allayed his fears by revealing that the ceremony would take place in a small and intimate gathering at the couple’s home in 2023.
Around 20 to 30 guests were present in total, including Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, however no members of the royal family aside from Harry and Megan were believed to have been in attendance.
