The sun was beaming at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge in Palm Beach earlier this month as the Duchess of Sussex threw her arms around Delfina Blaquier, the woman dubbed polo’s First Lady. As Prince Harry filmed scenes for his upcoming Netflix show about the high-octane world of the elite sport, Meghan and Delfina took a stroll with Delfina’s eight-year-old daughter Alba, who held on tightly to Meghan’s hand.

The message was clear: Delfina is now firmly ensconced inMeghan’s inner circle. The wife of Ignatio ‘Nacho’ Figueras, the most famous polo player in the world (and the face of Ralph Lauren Black Label), she first bonded with the Duchess over their shared life as ‘P Wives’, Meghan’s name for the women cheering on their polo-obsessed husbands during matches.

Harry has played the Sport of Kings, as it’s known, from his earliest years, and since he and Meghan moved to Southern California in 2020, the couple have immersed themselves in the Santa Barbara polo scene. Harry plays in the team Los Padres alongside Nacho, his close friend for 15 years, and trains at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, close to the home he and Meghan share in Montecito.

The US’s pre-eminent club, located in the ‘American Riviera’ (to which Meghan’s lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard gives a nod), it is described by its general manager David Sigman as ‘the mecca of polo’ in July and August, when enthusiasts flock there from all over the world. Celebrities including Sylvester Stallone and Rob Lowe are regulars, and Harry’s involvement has only increased its cache.

‘It did wonders for the Polo Club because spectator numbers soared – merely to see His Royal Highness going through the paces with Nacho,’ according to Richard Mineards, who is a society columnist for the Montecito Journal and mischievously claims that Harry is ‘far better than William’ at the sport. ‘The club is an extraordinary mix of millionaires, billionaires, celebrities and now the Royal family,’ he adds.

Harry also plays alongside Nacho in charity matches including the annual Sentebale ISPS Handa Polo Cup, which fundraises for his Lesotho-based organisation. As a result, over the past four years, Meghan’s spent plenty of time standing on the sidelines with the other P Wives. It’s unsurprising, then, that she has become a key power player in her own right in the rarefied world of polo, the sport which Jilly Cooper’s racy 1991 bestseller of the same name made synonymous with high society glamour.

Delfina is its undisputed queen. Beautiful, elegant and the daughter of formidable female Argentine racing driver Delfina Frers and Eduardo Blaquier, scion of one of Argentina’s wealthiest families, the 43-year-old once competed internationally as a high jumper before becoming a model and marrying Nacho in 2005. The couple have four children (their eldest, Hilario, is also a professional polo player), a joint fragrance line – one is called Windsor, a reference to Nacho’s ‘brotherhood of kindred spirits’ with Harry – and a series of very Cooper-esque bonkbusters entitled The Polo Season.

Delfina is exactly the type of friend Meghan will have hoped for when she fled Britain, where she was deeply unhappy: glamorous, impeccably-connected and, above all, supportive.

The pair share much in common, with Delfina describing heron social media as a ‘sister’. A talented photographer, her Instagram is full of perfectly-curated images of her homes’ stunning, light-filled interiors and tips about organic eating and intermittent fasting. She’s passionate about growing her own vegetables and herbs and, just like Meghan, has chickens wandering free range around her garden. She has a fashion and lifestyle blog about her family’s travels, called We Are Figueras, with echoes of Meghan’s blog The Tig. A keen polo player herself, Delfina is also the co-founder of a clothing line, Acheval Pampa, described as ‘equestrian chic’.

She and Nacho were guests at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, and the following year, he appeared on Ellen’s show to defend Meghan, describing her as ‘incredible’ and revealing how she ‘gave up everything for the man she loves’. In Meghan and Harry’s Netflix documentary, he describes how Harry confided in him after his first date with Meghan, saying, ‘He looked at us and said, “Guys, I met a girl, we’ve just met but I think this might be the one.”’ Early on in Harry and Meghan’s relationship, the two couples shared a double date together.

Delfina’s friendship with the Duchess has gone from strength to strength since, with Delfina posting a tribute to her friend on Instagram following the 2022 polo season in which she rhapsodised about her ‘big’, ‘beautiful’ heart and stated, ‘I love you my darling’. She was one of the first recipients of the first product made by American Riviera Orchard, a jar of strawberry jam, and took to social media to announce she loved it.

The Figueras family split their time between Buenos Aires and the US, and have a home in Wellington, Florida, where the US Open Polo Championships takes place – and where Harry’s documentary is set. Since it was announced, there has been speculation over exactly what its promise to ‘pull the curtain back’ on polo will reveal, given that since Cooper’s novels, the sport has been more famous for the racy antics of its players than for anything that happens on the pitch.

Journalist Caroline Graham wrote of visiting the Wellington Club a few years ago, only to witness a ‘Bacchanalian’ scene in which the bodies of players and their female fans ‘intertwined everywhere’.

Montecito socialite Kiki Astor, who spends Sundays during polo season at the Santa Barbara club – Harry’s “home” one – says: ‘Polo oozes sex. All that leather and sweat. It’s like catnip to women, particularly bored married ones. In Santa Barbara we joke about polo players being “entertainment for the wives”.’

Harry’s documentary is highly unlikely to delve into this side of the sport, promising instead to focus on the ‘grit and passion’ of its players. What’s guaranteed is that it will offer an insight into a privileged world in which both Harry and Meghan feel very comfortable.