Meghan Markle is celebrating the new year by returning to Instagram after a five-year hiatus. The Duchess of Sussex, who along with her husband Prince Harry stepped down from royal duties in January 2020, posted a video on the new account @meghan on Wednesday. The caption-less clip shows Markle, clad in all-white, frolicking on the beach and writing “2025” in the sand.
Comments were not available on the post, though the account already has nearly 700,000 followers. The Associated Press confirmed on Wednesday that the Instagram handle belongs to Markle, and ABC News reported that the video was filmed by Prince Harry on a public beach near their home in Montecito, Calif., where the couple has lived since leaving royal life.
Though Markle launched an Instagram for her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, earlier this year, the most recent profile to bear her name was the @SussexRoyal account that she shared with Harry until it was closed in 2020. When that profile launched in 2019, it broke a world record as the fastest to achieve 1 million followers on the platform. Prior to her marriage to Harry, Markle had a personal account with 3 million followers that she closed a few months before their May 2018 wedding.
During her time as a royal and after, Markle was a target for relentless harassment on social media, leading the couple to speak out publicly about the dangers of online bullying and misinformation. However, Harry said in a 2021 interview with Fast Company t.
