I was ghosted by Meghan Markle.

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘ghosting’, it’s when someone you thought was a friend suddenly cuts off all communication with you, with zero warning, and then you never hear another word from that person again.

I remember it very clearly because it’s never happened to me before.

So I found it very weird.

The saga began one afternoon in the fall of 2015 when I decided to follow on Twitter four stars of the US legal drama Suits - including Ms Markle.

I met Meghan online in 2015 when I became a fan of 'Suits', on which she costarred with, among others, Rick Hoffman, seen just to her left in this cast photo

Within minutes of me following her on Twitter, she sent me this Direct Message - and we started corresponding on a regular basis for the next year

Within minutes, she sent me a private Direct Message: ‘Well hello there – thanks for the follow. Big fan of yours!’

I replied, and for the next few months, we corresponded on a regular basis.

We’d chat about everything from US gun violence (she shares my horror of it) to a charity trip she made for the United Nations to Rwanda, spinning classes, calligraphy, and our joint hatred of 4am filming call-times - hers for Suits and mine for Good Morning Britain in the UK.

She even started sending me early preview episodes of her show so we could debate juicy storylines yet to air – which we did, at length.

Meghan introduced me via cyberspace to another Suits cast member, Rick Hoffman - who played Louis Litt – and he and I also began to regularly correspond. He described their relationship to me as so close it felt like ‘brother and sister’.

In February 2016, Rick came to London and at my invitation, he appeared on Good Morning Britain.

Nobody really knew who he was here, nor Meghan for that matter, but we had a fun interview and I sent the photos to Meghan afterwards - who was thrilled by them.

When her co-star Hoffman was in London in early 2016, I had him on my show - even though no one knew who he was in the UK. They didn't know who Meghan was either then

In early June, 2016, she messaged me to say: ‘I’m in London for a week of meetings and Wimbledon. Would love to say hi!’

I suggested my local pub, the Scarsdale Tavern in Kensington – ironically just a few hundred yards from where she now lives at Kensington Palace.

‘Serena Williams sends her love,’ she texted on the day from Wimbledon, where she was watching her friend play in the annual tennis tournament. ‘You’re very popular as it turns out. Get you!’

I don’t hear those words very often, so they made an impression…

Then she turned up at the pub and we had a very enjoyable time for 90 minutes or so before I put her in a taxi to a dinner she was having with friends at 5 Hertford Street, a fashionable club in London’s Mayfair.

She spoke very candidly about her family - there were some private, sensitive things she told me I would never repeat because they were said in confidence - Donald Trump (she’s not a fan), and of course, Suits.

She asked me for advice on her career and the media, and if she could come on Good Morning Britain next time she was over, which I said I would arrange.

From the cab, Meghan sent me a series of texts thanking me and saying she was looking forward to meeting up again next time we were in the same city.

She even publicly tweeted about how nice it was to see her ‘friend’ – me – in London.

So at this point, I was indeed labouring under the massive misapprehension that we were friends.

I was wrong.

She met Prince Harry at the dinner that night, went on a solo date with him the next night, and I never heard from her again.

Not a word.

I’d been ghosted.

She met Prince Harry at a dinner the night we met in person, went on a solo date with him the next night, and I never heard from her again. Or her costar. I'd been used. They were just rude

And not just by her.

At Meghan’s behest, Rick Hoffman ghosted me too.

I didn’t hear from him again for 18 months, then he eventually crawled out of the woodwork after attending the big royal wedding last May.

‘Piers! I am very sorry for not responding,’ he wrote in a lengthy message. ‘You must understand, once I heard the news, out of respect for Meghan, I couldn’t share a thing. Now I can share fun stuff! I would love to catch up at that favorite pub of yours. Hope to hear from you pal. Love you pal. Rick.’

I didn’t reply, because no, I didn’t ‘understand’.

A real ‘pal’ doesn’t ghost a friend for 18 months, right?

That’s just rude.

In fact, I found the behaviour of the pair of them damn rude.

I’d been ‘played’ by a couple of B-list actors, who were clearly just using me to advance their careers.

From the moment I read that Harry barked ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets! at staff in the run-up to the wedding, my heart sank

But when someone more important and influential came along, in the shape of Prince Harry, I was instantly dumped like a sack of spuds (that’s what we call potatoes in the UK).

Now, on a certain level, I grudgingly admire the work.

And frankly, who am I, a former tabloid newspaper editor, to take a dim view of such ruthless antics?

But on another level, the whole experience left me feeling suspicious and cynical about Ms Markle.

And nothing in her behaviour since marrying Prince Harry has alleviated those concerns.

From the moment I read that he barked ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets! at palace courtiers in the run-up to the wedding, my heart sank.

Because I fear that’s exactly what she’s used to getting.

And anyone or anything that may not give her what she wants or gets in the way of her social climbing self-advancement gets discarded.

Her first husband? Ditched as her Suits career took off.

Her dysfunctional family? Banned from the wedding – all of them.

Her poor old ailing Dad? Cut off and disowned for struggling to cope with media attention about his daughter.

Meghan’s swapped her dreary, problematic old real world for a thrilling new fantasy world of the Queen, Michelle Obama and the Clooneys.

Only her mother Doria made the cut to Princess Meghan’s AAA-list new life.

Her first husband Trevor was ditched as her Suits career took off

She ditched her family, cut off her ailing father and and only mom Doria made the list to Princess Meghan’s AAA-list new life

But pieces of work never change their spots.

Now, there is a steady flow of negative stories streaming from Palace ‘insiders’ about Meghan’s alleged diva antics.

She was said to have ‘displeased’ the Queen by demanding an emerald tiara for the wedding.

There are rumours of a growing rift with the Duchess of Cambridge, who was reported to have burst into tears over Meghan’s hostile behaviour during a bridesmaid dress fitting for her daughter Princess Charlotte.

Kate was also reported to have complained about Meghan being needlessly unpleasant to a royal member of staff.

Now, there is a steady flow of negative stories streaming from Palace ‘insiders’ about Meghan’s antics and rumors of a rift with the Duchess of Cambridge, who she reportedly made cry. Kate has also reportedly complained that Meghan is unpleasant to a member of staff

Meghan’s personal assistant Melissa Toubati recently quit after just six months in the job after also being left in tears.

Royal courtiers are said to be already ‘fed up’ with her domineering and dictatorial attitude that involves daily 5am email demands and even led to her apparently insisting on air fresheners to hide the ‘musty odour’ of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

It was an absurd request that was very firmly denied.

When Palace ‘insiders’ start leaking this amount of damaging mud, you can be certain that much of it is true.

And given my unfortunate experience with her, I’m afraid I’m not remotely surprised.

It’s got nothing to do with sexism or racism, as some ridiculous commentators have suggested.

No, I think it’s far simpler than that: Meghan Markle is a self-obsessed professional actress who has landed the role of her life and is determined to milk it for all she’s worth.

When Palace ‘insiders’ start leaking this amount of damaging mud, you can be certain that much of it is true. It’s got nothing to do with sexism or racism. It’s far simpler than that: Meghan Markle is a self-obsessed professional actress who has landed the role of her life

She’s spent most of the past 20 years cosying up to people until they serve no more use to her, then airbrushing them out of her life without so much as ‘goodbye, Loser!’

I know because I was one of them.

But she’s now finding out the hard way that if you try to ‘play’ the Royals and the Royal Household like she played people like me, you’ll come up against a system you can never beat.

Just ask the late Princess Diana or Sarah, Duchess of York.

For the first time in her life, Meghan Markle has discovered she can’t always get what she wants.