On May 19 the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, will take place.
Like Kate Middleton before her, Markle's entrée into the royal family is expected to bring a huge boost to the British economy, this time to the tune of $1.4 billion (£1 billion).
That's according to a new estimation by Brand Finance, which calculated the expected profits from a surge in tourism, travel, restaurants, hotels, parties and celebrations, and the sales of T-shirts, hats, banners, and other commemorative merchandise related to the royal wedding.
Brand Finance previously estimated in January that Markle's impact on the British economy would be worth about $677 million (£500 million), as reported by Forbes, but "excitement in the last couple of months" has increased doubled the value, said Richard Haigh, managing director Brand Finance.
Around the time of the last royal wedding, in 2011, the phenomenon was deemed the "Duchess Effect" or the "Kate Effect": Anything worn by Middleton, and now her children, flies off the shelves. Middleton effectively became a trendsetter overnight.
But the royal reverberations continue far beyond the months surrounding the nuptials.
In 2015, the Kate Effect brought more than $205 million (£152 million) to the British economy, while the "Charlotte Effect" and the "George Effect" translated to over $239 million (£177 million) combined, Brand Finance estimates.
But Markle, a fixture on red carpets in the US and recently described as "a singular mover of product" by The New York Times, could have even wider influence and fiscal effect than her future sister-in-law.
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