Meghan Markle and Ellen DeGeneres' Chance Meeting at a Dog Shelter Led to Their Friendship

Meghan Markle and Ellen DeGeneres‘ friendship began with a chance encounter.

While announcing Meghan and Prince Harry‘s engagement on her talk show back in Nov, 2017, the TV host revealed she crossed paths with the former Suits star when she was debating whether to adopt her first pet, Bogart.

The Duchess of Sussex once corroborated the story in Best Health, sharing that she was in a dog shelter when DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, came in.

“Now, I don’t now her, but Ellen goes ‘Is that your dog?’ And I said, ‘No,’ and she’s like, ‘You have to take that dog.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m deciding.’ And she’s like, ‘Rescue the dog!’” Meghan recalled. “It’s sort of like if Oprah tells you to do something. I’m sitting there holding him and she’s like ‘Have you thought of a name for him yet?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think I’d name him Bogart,’ and she’s like ‘You’re taking the dog home.’ ”

Meghan continued, “And she walks outside to get into her car but instead of getting in she turns around and comes and taps on the window glass and she yells ‘Take the dog!’ And so I brought him home. Because Ellen told me to.”

DeGeneres admitted that even though she doesn’t quite remember the chance encounter, she’d use the opportunity to give Meghan some more advice since “she does whatever I tell her to do.”

“Meghan, if you’re watching, I have something else to tell you: invite me to that wedding,” DeGeneres said. “I want to go.”

Although the TV star didn’t score an invite to Meghan and Harry’s May 2018 nuptials, she has became close with the royal couple. In a promo for her show’s new season, DeGeneres revealed she got to cradle baby Archie during a summer visit to the U.K.

Jokes DeGeneres of the four-month-old, “He weighs 15 lbs., which is, the exchange rate, is 17 dollars here!”

DeGeneres also shared of Archie, “He looks like Harry — and he had more hair than I did at the time.”

Also during the preview, the talk show host reveals that she and her wife hope to partner with the royal couple on some conservation work.

“Portia and I talked to them about all the conservation they are doing for wildlife. They are doing all this work in Botswana for elephants and I love that, and they like what I’m doing for the gorillas in Rwanda so we’re gonna all do something together,” she explained.

DeGeneres, 61, also doubled down on her defense of the couple after they were criticized for taking private jets for their vacations around Europe.

Back on August 20, DeGeneres tweeted, “Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you’re trying to do is make the world better.”

In the new clip, DeGeneres said of Meghan, 38, and Harry, 34, “They are amazing. They are the cutest couple and so down-to-earth.”

“I see them get attacked and it’s not fair,” she continued. “They are just two of the most down-to-earth compassionate people, they’re doing so much good for the world.”