The Duchess of Sussex spoke about strengthening her boundaries in the candid chat

Meghan Markle in Harper’s BAZAAR’s December 2025/January 2026 Art Issue.Credit : Malick Bodian

Meghan Markle developed her boundaries after coming more into the public eye.

On Nov. 19, the Duchess of Sussex, 44, opened up in a new interview with Harper’s BAZAAR for its December 2025/January 2026 Art Issue. There, she spoke about the scrutiny and criticism that come with fame.

“I think my boundaries became stronger once I came into the public eye in this very…” Meghan paused and laughed. “I could think of any adjective to fill the blank. And it would probably work. You find different ways to protect yourself, whether that’s self-preservation or it’s just growing up.”

The remark seemed to be a rare reference to how she catapulted to world spotlight when she began dating Prince Harry in 2016 and married him in 2018.

In January 2020, Prince Harry, 41, and Meghan announced the seismic news that they were stepping back from their working royal roles in the U.K. and have since forged a new life in the U.S. Today, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex pursue philanthropic work and commercial ventures while raising their children Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, in Montecito, California.

Meghan Markle on the cover of Harper’s BAZAAR’s December 2025/January 2026 Art Issue.Malick Bodian

Seven years since their royal wedding day, thousands of miles away from the U.K. and living an entirely different life, traces of that world appear in unexpected places.

The Duchess of Sussex sat down for interviews in Los Angeles and New York City with Harper’s BAZAAR, and the interviewer made particular note of how she was introduced.

“A golf cart pulls up, the gravel crunching beneath its tires. ‘The Duchess of Sussex,’ someone in the scrum announces,” journalist Kaitlyn Greenidge wrote about how Meghan was announced at La Brea Tar Pits in L.A. when they met there.

Elsewhere in the profile, the Duchess of Sussex was presented in a similar way in Manhattan.

Meghan Markle in Harper’s BAZAAR’s December 2025/January 2026 Art Issue.Malick Bodian

“We’re in a grand brownstone on the Upper East Side that belongs to one of Meghan’s friends. When I enter, the house manager announces, ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,’ even though we appear to be the only other two people in the house,” the reporter said.

When they stepped back in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex set an agreement with Queen Elizabeth about the use of their titles in the future.

At the time, a spokesperson for the couple said: “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain members of the Royal Family and remain named and titled as such. As explained in the January [2020] announcement, from Spring they will formally retain their titles of ‘His/Her Royal Highness’ but no longer actively use their ‘HRHs.”

Prince Harry inherited his royal title and HRH styling at birth, and Meghan was bestowed with similar styling when they wed, becoming the Duchess of Sussex with the HRH appellation.

Exclusively speaking to PEOPLE earlier this year, Meghan shared how the Sussex name “is part of our love story.”

“It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children,” Meghan told PEOPLE in March. “I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”

Prince Harry, Prince Archie, Meghan Markle and Princess Lilibet at Disneyland.Meghan Markle /Instagram

Years later, however, Meghan still has to remind her friends she’s a Sussex.

In season one of her Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, she told friend Mindy Kaling that she’s not Meghan Markle, instead explaining, “I’m Sussex now.”

“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children,’ ” she said on the series. “I didn’t know how meaningful that would be to me, but it just means so much to go; this is our family name, our little family name.”