Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new family in California: The royals’ fiercely guarded inner circle of friends

Leaving your country is always difficult. Even if it’s a happy and deliberate decision, putting miles between yourself and the place you grew up to start a new life somewhere else is complicated. In 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle decided to leave the United Kingdom, where the former had lived practically his entire life. Four years ago, the couple settled in California, where they are now reportedly enjoying exactly what they were seeking when they left the British royal family: a private, quiet life, with business projects of their choosing, raising their two children without the impositions that come with being a member of the British royal family. But they have also had to forge a new inner circle of trusted friends. Prince Harry’s family and friends (from Eton College and his time in the military) were in the United Kingdom. Markle barely has a relationship with her family: she studied in Chicago and lived for a few years in Toronto, although she was born in Los Angeles. That’s why, on her return so close to her home city, Markle has pulled out all the stops to make their Montecito house a home.

Given the lifestyle of the U.S., which is orientated around work and childhood friendships, making friends in the country is no easy feat, especially if you are a couple as famous as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Prince Harry and Markle have to carefully distinguish between those who genuinely want to lend a hand and those who are just interested in their fame and fortune. To avoid the latter, the royal couple have turned to old friends and trusted confidants to build their network.

It is true that Markle is able to count on her mother. Doria Ragland continues to play a key role in the couple’s lives and routines. Although the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have specialized babysitters, Ragland often looks after the couple’s children: Archie, who turns five on May 6, and Lilibet, who will be three in June. Until the royal couple returned from London, Ragland lived in her home in View Park-Windsor Hills, a quiet area south of Los Angeles, but now she spends long periods in Montecito, 31 miles north, next to the picturesque (and very expensive) Santa Barbara.

The fact that the city of cinema is just a two hours’ drive from the Sussex residence has allowed Markle to reconnect with some of her former friends in that industry. One of her closest friends is Abigail Spencer, a TV actress who Markle met while filming the series Suits, which the two of them starred in. She was at Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018, and also at the party to celebrate Archie’s birth in New York in February the following year. And now, with Markle back in the United States, she has become one of her biggest supporters, especially one of the most visible ones: the royal couple closely guards their circle of friends in a bid to protect them from being hounded by the media.

Spencer, as a public figure, has spoken about Harry and Meghan, but cautiously. In an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, she explained that she had met her friend almost 17 years ago. “It was 2007, I was doing a pilot for NBC, and I went to read with the people who were supposed to play my best friend,” she told the talk show host. “They were testing other actresses. I walk in, I see this beautiful, gorgeous creature at the end of the table and I’m like, ‘Who is that?’” She added: “It was just something between us. Our friendship really developed during that time, and deepened. She’s an incredible person.” Coincidentally, Spencer and Markle were also born on the exact same day.

Spencer is one of the 50 people who received a jar of jam from Markle, who has launched a new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard. To promote the new venture, the duchess sent 50 jars to a handful of friends and acquaintances, including Kris Jenner, Mindy Kaling, Chrissy Teigen and Tracee Ellis Ross, who have been posting the now famous jam on social media.

These celebrities know the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but they are not within their inner circle. Kelly McKee Zajfen, who received the jam along with a personalized, handwritten card from the Duchess (Markle studied and worked as a calligrapher years ago), is however, part of the royals’ close-knit group. McKee Zajfen, along with Spencer, is one of Markle’s closet friends. The 44-year-old is a businesswoman and founder of Alliance of Moms, a charity that supports pregnant young women and teenagers living in foster care homes. Last year, Markle posed a photo of herself wearing an Alliance of Moms T-shirt, and on Mother’s Day, both Spencer and Markle were photographed with McKee Zajfen wearing another T-shirt from the organization.

The three women are very close, especially now that they live nearby. McKee Zajfen has described Markle and Spencer as “inspiring.” The two actresses actively collaborate with the philanthropist and were a great support to her when her nine-year-old son George died of meningitis and Covid in July 2022. Prince Harry and Markle made a $5,000 donation to a fund set up in the little boy’s name after his death.

Photographer Misan Harriman is another friend from Markle’s time as an actress, who the duchess has reconnected with upon returning to the U.S. Harriman’s photograph of the couple was used to announce Markle’s second pregnancy in February 2022. He also snapped the duchess for the launch of her new podcast, and had no qualms about describing her as like “a sister” to People magazine. Harriman made his directorial debut last year with a short film called The After, released on Netflix, which was nominated for an Oscar.

Markle wanted to support Harriman’s movie with a private screening and a subsequent chat with the director and star, David Oyelowo, who is of Nigerian origin. A few years ago, Markle found out that she has Nigerian ancestry in a genetic test; and this week, it was revealed that the couple will visit the African country in May, according to a press release. While in Africa, they may have the opportunity to see Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. The younger brother of the king of the small South African country was the only member of a foreign royal family to attend Prince Harry’s wedding. In 2006, Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho founded Sentebale, a charity that helps children in southern Africa. Prince Harry said that traveling to Lesotho when he was 18 years old and meeting Seeiso, who had also just lost his mother, changed his life.

Prince Harry has also helped create their inner network of friends. His friendship with polo player Nacho Figueras is as old as Markle’s with Abigail Spencer. The two met in 2007 and since then, their mutual love of polo has led them to be spotted together in places all over the globe. Just a few days ago, the two were together in Florida, where Prince Harry was taking part in a polo game as he prepares a Netflix docuseries on the world of polo, which will be released in the coming months. Figueras and his wife of almost a quarter of a century, Delfina Blaquier, are as famous as they are discreet, and that has made them a benchmark for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Figueras appears in the controversial Netflix documentary series Harry & Meghan, which was released in 2022. Another friend who makes an appearance in the show is Serena Williams, who over time has become one of Markle’s closest confidants: she attended her wedding and was the first guest on her 2022 podcast Archetypes. Williams also attended the polo charity match in April, where she and Markle were seen walking on the lawn of the Grand Champions Polo Club, and laughing and drinking champagne together.

Other friends have played an important role in specific stages of the couple’s life, but are no longer quite as close with them. This is true of Oprah Winfrey, who helped the Duke and Duchess of Sussex choose Montecito as their new home and interviewed them at their mansion in March 2021. The relationship between them is now more professional than personal. They are also no longer on close terms with other acquaintances, such as English comedian James Corden or musician and producer David Foster. His wife, actress and singer Katharine McPhee, went so far as to say that Foster has “a beautiful relationship, with Harry, like father and son.” Foster helped Prince Harry and Markle find a home in Canada before they moved to California, but they haven’t been seen together for years.

On May 8, Prince Harry will be in the United Kingdom for a ceremony for the Invictus Games (the sports competition he created for soldiers injured in combat), but his wife will not accompany him on the trip. In the U.K., he is likely to meet up with old friends and, perhaps, some of his relatives. Prince Harry has invited them to the event at St. Paul’s Cathedral, but they are not expected to attend. King Charles III is recovering from cancer, and his sister-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, is also undergoing treatment for the disease.

For now, it has not been confirmed whether he will see his father (whom he visited in February after his diagnosis) or Catherine (with whom he once had a close relationship, which is now in tatters). But there is another member of the family who he will definitely meet: his cousin Princess Eugenie, 34, the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. The two have been very close, almost inseparable, since childhood. They write to each other frequently, and are like best friends. Princess Eugenie has visited Prince Harry in California. And, after leaving the United Kingdom, Prince Harry and Meghan left Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, the house they had lived in and restored: Frogmore Cottage. Princess Eugenie now lives there with her family, and Prince Harry continues to say at the estate when he goes to London. In the U.S., friends are family. At home in the U.K., family remains family, albeit with strained relations.

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