In August 2023, Page Six reported that Meghan Markle was preparing to make her return to Instagram, as a page with the handle @meghan had popped up. On Jan. 1, 2025, the Duchess of Sussex made her first post on the account. She shared a video of herself writing the new year in the sand. The Instagram was captionless.
In January 2018, Kensington Palace confirmed that Meghan, who was then Prince Harry’s fiancée, had given up all her social media accounts. She and Harry later had a joint Instagram, @SussexRoyal, where they posted about their royal work. That account was active until the couple stepped back from their senior working royal family roles. Their final Instagram was shared on March 30, 2020.
In August 2022, Meghan told The Cut that she and Harry had no control over that account.
“There’s literally a structure by which if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota [the U.K. media pool],” she said. Those outlets published the photos before the family sometimes. Meghan took particular issue with this as some of the British tabloids that received those photos also regularly ran stories that attacked her and her husband.
“Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” Meghan said. “You tell me how that makes sense and then I’ll play that game.”
She told the outlet that she was planning to get back on Instagram. She then amended herself, saying maybe not yet. Giving up her personal social media in 2018, “it was a big adjustment—a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life,” Meghan said.
The Duchess of Sussex appears to have a big year ahead of her. In addition to rejoining Instagram, Meghan is expected to launch her lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, and a show with Netflix where she will celebrate “the joys of cooking, gardening, entertaining, and friendship,” according to Deadline.