Meghan Markle returns to Instagram after five years

Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle started 2025 with a bang – sharing her first Instagram post in five years.

The 43-year-old, who is married to Britain’s Prince Harry, 40, posted a video of herself running on the beach on an overcast day and writing 2025 in the sand. The post was under the Instagram handle @meghan, which royal watchers have long suspected belonged to her.

The post, made on Jan 2 (Singapore time), is the only one under the handle. The profile picture of the account, which has since garnered more than 600,000 followers, is a black-and-white photo of Markle laughing.

According to American media outlet People, the short clip was filmed by her husband, the Duke of Sussex, at a public beach near their home in Montecito, California. The couple relocated there from Los Angeles in 2020, shortly after they announced their exit from royal life and the duties expected of senior members of the British monarchy.

Prior to her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018, Markle was a successful television actress who starred in the popular legal series Suits (2011 to 2019). She had more than three million followers on her Instagram account and a lifestyle blog called The Tig. But she shut down her blog and withdrew her social media presence before marrying Prince Harry.

After their wedding, the couple were featured on the @KensingtonRoyal Instagram account, which also posted updates about Prince Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton.

Eventually, Markle and Prince Harry launched a separate Instagram page @SussexRoyal in 2019. But that account has not been updated since 2020, after the couple announced their break from royal life. The account is still publicly available and has nine million followers.

In an interview with New York Magazine’s The Cut in 2022, Markle said she would be getting back on Instagram, though she indicated to the publication later that she was not so sure about her return.