'She basically told me to f**k off': Inside Meghan Markle's friendship breakup with a reality TV star.

We seem to be hitting a point in pop culture history where the airing of 'receipts' to prove a celebrity connection, validate grimaces and grab a couple of headlines, has become a daily occurrence.

And no one must feel that salacious shift more than Meghan Markle.

While Meghan was famous before she became entangled with the royal family, it was only when her fairytale romance with Prince Harry went public that a lot of people came out of the woodwork with stories about the Duchess. 

The most memorable of these 'character references' came from two people remarkably close to Meghan: her father and her sister. 

But there's a new 'source' that's come forward – who precisely no one was expecting. A star of UK reality TV show, Made In Chelsea, Millie Mackintosh. 

Watch: Meghan Markle's style before and after becoming a royal. Post continues after video. 

Millie has never referenced her friendship with Meghan before, but on a recent episode of her podcast Mumlemmas & More with Millie & Charlie she shared a lot of details about how they became close and the awkward ending. 

“About eight years ago, I went to the opening of a hotel in Istanbul and I met Meghan Markle,” Millie told co-host Charlie Boud.

“I was a fan, I watched Suits, and we met at the bar and we were both ordering a drink at the same time I started chatting. We got on really well, we got on like a house on fire, and just stayed in touch."

Millie went on to explain that she became Meghan's unofficial tour guide when she arrived in the UK.

“She didn’t know London very well, she’d never been to Chelsea, so I took her to The Ivy on Kings Road. She didn’t know anyone, so I gave her the best places to get your nails done, basically my little black book. I gave her all my contacts.”

The two seemed to bond over the breakdown of their previous marriages. Meghan was famously in her 'single girl era' after divorcing Trevor Engelson, and Millie was going through a separation from her first husband, Professor Green. 

“When we first met, I was married, going through a bit of a turbulent time, and I got divorced, and she was divorced so we had quite a lot to talk about,” Millie said. “That was quite bonding, and we were both into our wellness, she had her blog, we were both just into the same things."

“We hung out a handful of times, we weren’t best friends, but whenever she was in town, she’d let me know and we would just hang out."

Millie then walked her podcast listeners through the beginning of the end of her friendship with Meghan Markle. 

“Then the last time I saw her was down at a hotel in the Cotswolds, she was staying there, what I thought was going to be a day of yoga ended up being rosé and margaritas in the pool. It was a really fun afternoon, there were pictures taken of us riding around on the bikes. That was the last time I saw her.”

Image: @milliemackintosh Instagram.

Millie explains that the demise of their friendship crossed timelines with the start of Meghan's relationship with Prince Harry.

“When I was there, we were chatting, and she told me about Harry and that they were messaging, and a friend had introduced them. I don’t know him – just to clarify, I’ve never met him. Me and Harry do not know each other I’ve never met him. I didn’t really ask too much about it.”

It was only when news of Harry and Meghan was making headlines that Millie decided to reach out to Meghan to see if she was okay, as the media coverage was pretty intense. 

“I messaged her and said, ‘Hey I hope you’re okay, thinking of you,’ and she sent me this really abrupt message, that was really unlike any of our communications before,” Millie said.

While Millie didn't share the exact wording she received from Meghan, she did say that she felt taken aback by the message.

“It’s not like I messaged her asking if it was true, that was none of my business," Millie said. "What I read from that message was that she needed a bit of space, to cool off."

So Millie gave her just that, and kept her distance.

“I didn’t message her again, but I did expect that we would stay in touch. I thought she’d message back and say, ‘Sorry everything is a bit stressful right now’.

“I never heard from her again. I felt like she’d basically told me to f**k off in that message. So I did. And we haven’t spoken since.”

Listen to Mamamia Out Loud hosts talk about King Charles' coronation. Post continues after podcast.

Now that years have passed since their last interaction, Millie is looking back at what she really thinks was going down at the time. And she has a particularly spicy theory.

“My take on it is that, this is my instinct why it happened at the time, she thought, 'Right I’m gonna be royal now, I don’t need Millie in my life,’” she told her co-host.

“I was on a reality show at the time, she thought, ‘I can’t be associated with Made In Chelsea, I’m gonna be royal.'”

Image: Getty + Mamamia.