Inside Meghan Markle’s rise to royalty

As a member of Britain’s royal family, Meghan Markle is one of the most well-known women in the world, an accomplishment the Duchess of Sussex has longed to achieve, according to a Hollywood insider.

“Meghan’s goal was always becoming a household name,” a source, said to be a television acquaintance, told Vanity Fair. “She’s insanely smart and poised, but very, very guarded.”

The piece, titled “Inside the Markle Family Breakdown,” which was published in late December, detailed Markle’s rise to notoriety, which allegedly included a “Sayonara Zara” party at her home, where she gave away inexpensive items to guests, one insider claimed.

“She’s not a person you can actually be friends with. She’s the type of person who is best friends with her stylist,” the source said of the former “Suits” star, 37.

Markle’s inner circle includes celebrity stylist Jessica Mulroney, as well as designer Misha Nonoo, who split from British businessman Alexander Gilkes, a friend of Prince Harry’s, in 2016.

“Meghan was socializing with foreign heiresses — upper-crust, smart, ambitious,” a friend of Nonoo’s told the publication. “They have everything and they want everything.”

Markle had also become acquainted with UK-based Ralph Lauren public relations director Violet von Westenholz, who reportedly played matchmaker to the former actress and Harry, 34.

“It was definitely a set-up. It was a blind date,” Markle disclosed in her 2017 engagement interview with BBC. “I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was, I had one question, I said, ‘Was he nice?'”

Markle and Harry’s whirlwind fairy tale later included a royal wedding at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May. And while the couple is forging their own path on the road to parenthood, it hasn’t been without a few bumps along the way. Ahead of the nuptials, Prince William reportedly voiced concerns about his brother’s significant other. Markle’s alleged rifts with William’s wife, Kate Middleton, as well as her estranged family, have also been publicized.

“They try their best to get along but they are two people from wildly different places, so it is perhaps inevitable that they will rub each other up the wrong way,” a source said of Markle and Middleton, according to The Sun.

Though Markle and Middleton appeared friendly during the royal family’s Christmas celebrations at Sandringham, the pair will no longer be neighbors at Kensington Palace, as the mom-to-be and Harry are expected to move this year.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will move to Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate early next year as they prepare for the arrival of their first child,” the palace confirmed.

Markle is due this spring.