A royal expert is speaking out this week to say that Meghan Markle is an ambitious person who always “planned” to marry Prince Harry in order to boost her “reputation and international exposure.”

“She grew up with, with high ambitions and started to reach them as an actress – putting in the work, obviously not a terribly successful actress in terms of being well known internationally,” said royal expert Jonathan Sacerdoti, according to The Express.

“She then married Prince Harry and then she has become probably one of the most known or recognizable names in the world just by marrying somebody,” he added. “I think that shows an enormous amount of planning and ambition.”

“I don’t mean to be totally unromantic – maybe she did fall in love with Harry, maybe their relationship is also one of partnership and love in that respect,” Sacerdoti clarified. “But you don’t marry into the Royal Family, I think, without knowing what it’s going to do to your reputation and your exposure internationally. And then I think they’ve used that to their advantage, many would say is there is their right.”

Despite this, Meghan has claimed that she did not know much about the royal family when she was growing up in the United States.

“I didn’t grow up knowing much about the Royal Family,” she told Oprah Winfrey earlier this year. “It wasn’t something that was part of conversation at home. It wasn’t something we followed.”

Meghan was an actress before she met Harry, getting her start as a briefcase girl on the game show “Deal Or No Deal” before being cast on the television show “Suits.” She retired from acting after her engagement to Harry was announced in November of 2017.

Meghan and Harry stepped down as senior royals last year and moved to the ritzy area of Montecito, California. They have since signed multi-million dollar deals to create content for Netflix and Spotify, effectively making Meghan way more successful in the world of entertainment now than she ever was in her acting days prior to her marriage.

Meghan and Harry have also spoken out against the royal family in various interviews, accusing them of being insensitive to mental health struggles and even of racism.