Meghan Markle has revealed that her dog Guy has passed away in a heartbreaking tribute on Instagram.
The Duchess of Sussex has shared a montage of the ‘sweet’ pooch – who was set to appear on her Netflix show – on social media in a post on Tuesday.
She has admitted to shedding ‘too many tears to count’ as she expresses her gratitude to her beloved pet for showering her with ‘unconditional love’. The heartwarming photos capture Guy snuggling up with Meghan in bed, receiving affectionate cuddles from Harry, and providing companionship to the Duchess while she engages in making jam.
In a moving tribute labeled ‘In Memory of Guy,’ Meghan shares a collection of photos and videos featuring the dog, accompanied by a somber soundtrack, and advocates for pet adoption over purchasing from breeders.
Reflecting on the adoption of Guy in 2015, Meghan recounts how she rescued the beagle from a kill shelter in Kentucky, where he was only given a few days to live. Instantly forming a bond with the affectionate dog, she narrates how their love story began.
‘They referred to him as “the little guy” because he was so small and frail, so I named him “Guy”. And he was the best guy any girl could have asked for.’
The sweet tribute offers a rare glimpse into the Sussexes’ home life, featuring sweet moments with the family pet.
‘We’re jamming, Guy,’ Meghan can be heard telling the pooch in one video as she is seen boiling raspberries on the stove while the curious Beagle joins her at her side.
In other shots, little Archie can be heard speaking to Guy. In one sweet clip, the five-year-old can be heard saying ‘he might fall’ as the dog joins him and his mother in the backseat, as Harry is behind the wheel.
‘He’s not gonna fall, don’t you worry, Mama has him,’ Meghan replies. ‘Thank you for being such a good boy!’
Harry can also be heard cheering ‘come on Guy!’ in a clip while he strolls down the beach. ‘Good job!’
The closing of the video features a sweet singalong from Meghan and her children – seemingly led by little Archie – which goes: ‘We love you Guy! And we’ll be true, when you’re not near us, we’re blue!’
It is the third upload on her Instagram page after she last week launched her new Netflix series on her brand new Instagram account, called With Love, Meghan.
A sleepy but smiley Guy featured in the trailer for the highly anticipated show, dropping next week.
‘If you followed me on Instagram back in the day, you saw a lot of him – and on The Tig too. He was with me at Suits, when I got engaged, (and then married), when I became a mom….he was with me for everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort,’ she recounted.
‘He endured a terrible accident shortly before I moved to the UK which had him undergoing surgeries for several months and unable to leave the clinic. Doctors said he would never walk again, but Dr Noel Fitzpatrick said he could do it. H and I would drive late at night, after hours, to see Guy as he recovered in Surrey for months on end.’
Meghan expressed her gratitude to Dr Noel as well as ‘the team at Queen West Animal Hospital in TO, our vets now, and my friends and community’.
‘Thank you for loving him so,’ she said. ‘Because many of you will now see Guy in this new series, I hope you’ll come to understand why I am so devastated by his loss. I think you may fall a little bit in love too.
‘I have cried too many tears to count – the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they’re not there. But they are. And that’s okay too.
‘Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy. You filled my life in ways you’ll never know. As ever, Meghan.’
Last week, Meghan gave royal fans a glimpse of her beloved rescue dog in the trailer for her new Netflix series.
Called With Love, Meghan, the long-awaited show, which launches on 15 January, will follow Meghan as she reveals her top tips and tricks in the kitchen and garden.
With celebrity guests appearing at the Montecito home, including American actress and comedian Mindy Kaling, it was easy to gloss over Sussex’s furry friend on the floor.
Appearing in the trailer was Guy, a beagle that animal lover Meghan adopted when she was living in Toronto and working as an actress. She brought him to the UK when she married Prince Harry, 40.
In one scene of the trailer, Guy is seen peacefully on the floor in bed while chewing on a bone.
Meanwhile, eagle-eyed fans may have spotted a black Labrador in the short promotional clip for Meghan’s Netflix show – Pula, who was introduced to the family ahead of Archie’s birth in 2019.
The pooch’s unique name is the currency in Botswana, a country the couple visited in the early days of their relationship.
In 2021, Meghan revealed how her pets are a source of comfort for her during times of grief in a foreword for London-based animal welfare charity Mayhew, of which she was a patron.
Introducing Mayhew’s 2021 annual review, Meghan described her last 12 months as a ‘process of grief, growth and also of gratitude’, adding that people had been ‘forced apart’.
She wrote: ‘Over the last year, each of us has felt the profound effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
‘Be it the loss of a loved one, the health challenges far too many faced, or the disproportionate life changes everyone has experienced, it has been an overwhelming process of grief, growth and also of gratitude.
‘I have heard from so many of you about the impact of having a pet with you at home during the isolation of lockdown; you have mentioned the therapeutic effect of having your animal by your side and the solace and comfort you found in their company.’
She continued: ‘When I reflect on 2020, I always come back to the importance of community and connection.
‘We may have been forced apart, but we found new ways to be close and to support each other through this shared crisis. For many of us, this was made all the easier with our pets by our side…
‘As we collectively build to the future, my sincere hope is that we do so with ongoing support and appreciation for organizations like Mayhew, who continue their vital work in days of crisis and in days of calm.
‘Their commitment to the cause of animal welfare is steadfast and their effect on our community wellbeing is self-evident.’
Meghan, an advocate of adopting rescue dogs, chose animal welfare charity Mayhew as one of her first patronages in January 2019.
However, she was met with heartache in 2022 when she was forced to leave her elderly Labrador-shepherd mix Bogart in Toronto when she moved to the UK to live with Prince Harry in 2017.
In her engagement interview, Meghan revealed to the BBC’s Mishal Husain: ‘One [dog] is now staying with very close friends and my other, little Guy, he’s in the UK, he’s been here for a while.’
The former actress, who lived in Canada while filming Suits, made the heartbreaking decision to leave Bogart after moving to the UK to start her new life, because the pet was too old to fly overseas.
The Prince’s communication secretary Jason Knauf made a statement saying Bogart was living ‘with friends’.
She took Bogart’s ‘best friend’ Guy with her when she moved into Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace with Prince Harry.
Elsewhere, the couple have second beagle called Mia, who was rescued from an animal testing centre by the couple in 2022.
The Sussexes adopted the nine year-old pup two-years ago from a group of dogs rescued from the facility in the US. They named her Mamma Mia, or Mia for short.
The pup was one of 4,000 dogs bred for Envigo breeding and research facility in Virginia. Mia had arrived at the rescue centre having just given birth to eight puppies.
The dogs had been bred for pharmaceutical and biotech research – but inspections of the centre had found dozens of violations of federal law over a two year period.
Mia was one of 4,000 dogs who were at the test facility centre in the US. She was rescued in July, 2021, and taken in by organisations including the Beagle Freedom Project, who looked after 25 of the dogs.
She had been specially chosen by Meghan, who specifically requested she adopt one of the ‘older’ dogs.
At the time Mia was adopted, Meghan had called Shannon Keith, an animal rights attorney who runs the project, ‘personally’ to ask if she and Harry could have one of the ‘older’ rescue pups.
She told the LA Times: ‘The duchess called me personally. She calls on my cell with no Caller ID and says, ‘Hey Shannon, this is Meghan.’
At the time, Shannon had wondered whether she was speaking to Megan Fox, but it was indeed the Duchess of Sussex.
Meghan and Harry are said to have made an after-hours visit and played with Mia, who had been brought there with eight of her newborn puppies.
Shannon recalled: ‘The duchess is holding Mia and was like, ‘We’re adopting her.”
‘She was like, ‘No, we don’t want a Christmas puppy. We want ones we can help who are older.”
When officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture made an inspection of Envigo in 2021, they found a female beagle whose paw had been trapped in loose flooring for so long that she was suffering from dehydration, according to court documents.
Employees at the facility admitted to inspectors they did not know how long she had been stuck.
Another inspection found that nine injured beagles were euthanised instead of being provided with veterinary care.
On a later inspection it was found that many of the 196 beagles who had actually needed to be put down were not anaesthetised before having a deadly injection straight into their heart muscle.
Throughout the inspections which lasted for two years, officials found instances of neglect and mistreatment, from malnourished dogs to sick and injured ones.
Faeces and food waste was allowed to pile up in cages where the dogs were kept, according to court documents.
On May 18 2022, the USDA inspector general and other law enforcement agencies executed a federal search warrant of the facility and seized 145 dogs and puppies which vets deemed to be in ‘acute distress.’
The following day, authorities filed a complaint in a federal court in the Western District of Virginia.
The complaint stated that more than 300 puppies had died in the facility between January and July 2021.
The company website claimed that they breed ‘healthy, well-socialized animals’ and that it holds a license issued by the USDA to breed and sell the dogs.
Parent company Inotiv, which bought Envigo in November 2021, agreed to the plan to rescue the dogs and said it would shutter the Virginia facility as part of a restructuring effort.
In late July, a federal judge approved a plan to rescue the beagles.
They were transferred to the Humane Society of the United States, before being moved to shelters or groups such as the Beagle Freedom Project.
The organisation took in 25 of the beagles, one of those being Mia who was taken on by the Sussexes.
