Taking credit where credit is due! Ellen DeGeneres let it be known that she inspired Meghan Markle’s decision to adopt her first dog, Bogart.
While discussing Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry on the Tuesday, November 28, episode of The Ellen Show, DeGeneres reminded her audience that she is responsible for the Suits star’s fluffy family members. Markle told Best Health in May 2016 that she was in a dog shelter when DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi came in and told her to rescue the Labrador-Shepherd.
“I’m sitting there holding him and she’s like, ‘Have you thought of a name for him yet?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think I’d name him Bogart,’ and she’s like, ‘You’re taking the dog home,'” Markle, 36, recalled to the magazine. “And she walks outside to get into her car but instead of getting in she turns around and comes and taps on the window glass and she yells, ‘Take the dog!’ And so I brought him home. Because Ellen told me to.’”
Although DeGeneres, 59, admitted she didn’t quite remember the sweet encounter, she teased that Markle “does whatever I tell her to do.”
“Meghan, if you’re watching, I have something else to tell you. Invite me to that wedding,” the host said. “I want to go.”
As previously reported, Markle and Prince Harry will wed at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in England in May 2018. Kensington Palace revealed the news in a statement one day after confirming that the royal, 33, and the actress are engaged.
Us Weekly exclusively reported on Wednesday, November 22, that Bogart and Markle’s beagle, Guy, will have to undergo a very specific process in order to reside in the U.K. “They will both have to be microchipped, given a rabies vaccination, plus a blood test 30 days after the rabies vaccination to show it has worked,” a U.K. government spokesperson told Us Weekly. “The dogs will also have to be treated against tapeworm and provide paperwork for all of these vaccinations.”
A source previously told Us Weekly that Markle’s pooches will go “with her mom in L.A. temporarily while she settles in the U.K., and then they’ll make a permanent move with her.”
The government official added to Us. “The pets must arrive in the U.K. no more than five days before or after their owner. The owner will also have to declare they will not be giving their dogs to another owner. If all of those requirements are met, then the dogs will not have to stay in quarantine.”
An insider close to Markle told Us that the Horrible Bosses actress “has been really concerned with getting her dogs over to London. The U.K. is extremely strict with animals and laws are very harsh. It’s been something she’s been worrying about since a London move was decided.”
Although Guy is now residing in the U.K., but Bogart will stay behind. “Meghan’s Beagle Guy is now in the U.K., but Bogart will not be joining him,” a source exclusively revealed to Us. “He is staying in the U.S. with friends.”
Palace officials have also confirmed to Us that Bogart will remain in the U.S.
