Meghan's World

As the soon-to-be royal inhabits her new life as a Windsor, she’ll have to navigate an increasingly complex orbit of real friends, fake friends, climbers, and clingers-on.

- Josh Duboff

For as much as one gains, in material terms, by marrying into the royal family—jewels, palace apartments, Hamilton tickets—there is just as much to lose. If you were not a member of British, royal-adjacent high society from birth, you would suddenly find yourself in an unfamiliar world, with a complete lack of privacy and anonymity, a calendar of public events, and a crush of critics.

Meghan Markle reportedly met Prince Harry when she was 34 years old. She had been married before, and was starring on a successful basic-cable television series, Suits. She had a lifestyle Web site and more than a million Instagram followers. She also had a close-knit circle of friends, many of whom appeared in that social-media feed, dining, laughing, and traveling around the world.

Now that she is marrying the man who is fifth (soon to be sixth) in line to the British throne, though, Markle is leaving that role behind. She’ll become a citizen of the U.K. She has shut down her site, The Tig, as well as her social-media accounts. But the question remains whether she will have to give up her friends and confidantes as well.