Meghan Markle’s boyfriend was spotted laughing at Chris Rock’s show amid digs

Royal family

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By Sarah Nathan

March 5, 2023 | 1:26 p.m.

Janina Gavankar, one of Meghan Markle’s longtime best friends, was at the live taping of Chris Rock’s hit Netflix show on Saturday night – and watched the comedian skewer the Duchess of Sussex, Page can reveal Six.

The ‘Vampire Diaries’ actress, who has been a strong supporter of Prince Harry’s wife and a close friend of his for more than 20 years, was at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater to see Rock make history for the first event global live streaming service.

Sources told Page Six that Gavankar, 42, joined his good friend Dave Chapelle backstage to watch the show in the VIP Green Room.

“Janina seemed to be enjoying the show a lot, standing by the TV screens and laughing,” an eyewitness told us.

During his set, Rock, 58, mocked the Sussexes’ Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021, where they sadly claimed an unknown royal had raised ‘concerns’ about ‘the blackness’ of their baby before the birth of their son, Archie. The comedian joked that Markle was just taking care of some “in-law stuff.”

“Like, who is this Meghan Markle girl? Seems like a nice lady – just complaining. Like, didn’t she enter the fair skin lottery? Rock said he launched into his rant, before calling the royal family the “OGs of racism.”

Rock had honed his routine over the past few months at several gigs across the country, including at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in October, where he made the same comments about Markle and the royal family. We’re told Gavankar had been to previous shows, so she knew what to expect.

Gavankar joined a host of big names on Saturday’s show, including director Spike Lee and his wife Tonya Lewis Lee, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, author Nelson George, tapes drawn Darnell Rollins, Sam Jay and actor Stephen Hill, alongside Arsenio Hall, David Spade and former “Saturday Night Live” stars Leslie Jones and Dana Carvey.

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While talking about Markle, Rock put on a high pitched voice to mock the Duke and Duchess.

“She’s complaining, I’m like, ‘What the hell is she talking about? They’re so racist they wanted to know how brown the baby was going to be,” he said.

“I’m like, ‘That’s not racist,’ because ‘even black people want to know how brown the baby is going to be. St. We’re checking behind their ears.’

Rock also joked that Markle was “acting like an idiot” like she didn’t know anything.

“(She was) going on Oprah (and) saying, ‘I had no idea how racist they were.’ It’s the royal family, didn’t you google these motherfuckers? They’re the original racists. They invented colonialism,” he said on stage, adding, “They invested in the slavery as if it were ‘Shark Tank'”.

Rock then claimed to know what Markle was “going through”, stating, “I know her dilemma: a black girl trying to be accepted by her white in-laws.”

He continued, “Oh, that’s hard. It’s so hard, it’s very hard – but it’s not as hard as a white girl trying to be accepted by her black in-laws. Now it’s really hard! »

Gavankar was a guest at the Sussexes’ wedding in May 2018. She also went on British TV after the royals responded to Oprah’s interview saying ‘memories may vary’ depending on the couple’s claims about their stay hellish behind the palace walls.

Speaking on ‘This Morning’, Gavankar hit back at family claims that they were unaware of the full extent of Meghan’s struggles while a senior royal.

“While their ‘memories may vary,’ ours are not because we experienced it with them,” Gavankar said, directly quoting the Palace statement. “And there are plenty of emails and text messages to back that up.”