Ninaki Priddy, the former best friend of Meghan Markle, is speaking out this week to reveal how the now-royal “strategically shut down” her first marriage to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson.

The U.K. Express reported that Priddy vividly remembers attending Meghan’s first wedding.

“Meg literally shone with happiness,” Priddy said. “We’d been like sisters since we were two years old, so I knew she’d always wanted to get married. To see her finally doing that was…well, it was a big deal. It was such a moving wedding. I started crying the moment I saw her in her dress. We had the ceremony on the beach. It was so beautiful to watch, beautiful to be a part of. They each wrote their own vows. They loved each other so much.”

“Meg had just finished the first series of Suits [in which she played the bewitching paralegal Rachel Zane]. It was a big part for her — her first full-time role,” she added. “She’d hustled for years to get there, so that was huge. Trevor was so supportive. He travelled back and forth [from Los Angeles to Toronto, where Suits is filmed] and there was a lot of Skyping and FaceTiming going on. It was an exciting time. This was the man she wanted to have children with.”

Priddy explained that Meghan cut her out of her life after she disapproved of the way she ended her marriage to Engelson in 2013.

“The person I knew is not there anymore,” she said. “Meg used to tell me she couldn’t imagine a life without Trevor. She said if anything were to happen to him she wouldn’t be able to go on. He cherished her, too. You should have seen the way he used to hold her face in his hands. We all felt he was her eternal love.”

“It was such a shock when she told me they were getting divorced,” Priddy added. “After about three seasons of Suits, she called me and said she wanted me to know because it was going to come out in the papers. I knew they fought sometimes, but it wasn’t anything huge. The only obstacle was the distance because she was living in Toronto and Trevor was based in LA.”

She went on to add that she could not help but feel bad for Engelson.

“A month after the divorce, I wanted to see how Trevor was doing,” Priddy said. “We met and talked. It’s not up to me to speak for Trevor, but I know he was traveling to Toronto every few weeks and would have walked the Earth to make their marriage work. I don’t believe she gave him enough of an opportunity. I think there was an element of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for Meghan. The way she handled it, Trevor definitely had the rug pulled out from under him. He was hurt.”

After her years of experiences with Meghan, Priddy has a warning about her for others who come into contact with her.

“All I can say now is that I think Meghan was calculated — very calculated — in the way she handled people and relationships,” Priddy advised. “She is very strategic in the way she cultivates circles of friends. Once she decides you’re not part of her life, she can be very cold. It’s this shutdown mechanism she has. There’s nothing to negotiate. She’s made her decision and that’s it.”