How Serena Williams Is Helping Meghan Markle

Meghan Markle is getting a little help from an American friend. Tennis player Serena Williams has supposedly offered the Duchess of Sussex her PR team to help deal with negative press reports and online bullying.

“She and Serena are extremely close, and Serena effectively offered to lend Meghan her team,” a source told The Sun. “Her publicist Kelly [Bush Novak] put a small team together to create a pitch, and have been in touch with the Palace under an official capacity with a few ideas.”

The team has a lot to handle. There are rumors Markle is difficult and demanding, and there are claims that she is trying to break too many royal rules. However, it seems like online bullying (some trolls have even accused Markle of lying about her pregnancy) and reports that she and Kate Middleton don’t get along are what made Williams offer a helping hand.

“Meghan’s obviously had some horrible trolling, plus people keep speculating about her relationship with Kate, so Serena feels she needs the ‘big guns’ behind her to set the record straight, and shut everything down,” the anonymous insider claims.

Markle and Williams met at a football event in 2010, but it wasn’t until they teamed up at DirecTV’s Beach Bowl flag football event during the 2014 Super Bowl weekend that they got close. After five years of being close, the former “Suits” actress trusts the athlete, but she is making sure not to step on toes at Kensington Palace.

“Meghan has a great relationship with her current Royal PR team, and certainly doesn’t want to rock the boat or upset anyone. But obviously she’s very grateful for Serena’s ongoing support,” the source added.

In December, it was reported that Markle actually wanted a team of Hollywood publicists because she felt the negative publicity was getting out of hand.