Meghan Markle has hit a major milestone in less than a week after she made her triumphant return to social media.
The Duchess of Sussex made headlines worldwide after she debuted a new Instagram account on New Year’s Day under the username @meghan, with many rushing to hit the ‘Follow’ button to keep up to date on the her latest news.
Meghan’s account went viral and hit a major milestone after it managed to amass one million followers within 24 hours of its launch – currently sitting at 1.3million at the time of writing.
Under the profile’s “About this account” tab, it was confirmed that the account was created in June 2022 and verified in January 2025.
The duchess’s return to social media was accompanied by two videos posted on the account – a short video of Meghan at the beach and a trailer for her latest Netflix show With Love, Meghan – set to be released on January 15.
The short reel, which shows Meghan running around the beach and writing ‘2025’ in the sand, is thought to have been filmed by Prince Harry at a beach near their home in Montecito, California.
It marks the first time the duchess was personally active on social media since her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018 when she closed all her social media accounts.
In 2020, when the couple stepped down as senior working royals, they stopped using their original Sussex Royal account, which was launched in April 2019. This came after their split from Prince William and Princess Kate’s Kensington Palace household, which operates on social media as Kensington Royal.
Harry and Meghan used their account to announce the birth and name of their baby son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, to promote their own work and that of charities, and release their so-called Megxit statement.
Meghan, who had a popular Instagram account when she was best known for her role in Suits, had indicated she would return to social media.
In a 2022 interview with New York Magazine’s The Cut, she confided: “Do you want to know a secret? I’m getting back … on Instagram.”
At other times, she sounded reluctant to return, citing concerns about harassment.
In 2023, she and Harry urged social media platforms to strengthen content-moderation policies, saying that some apps could damage the mental health of young people.
