Meghan Markle secures new Instagram handle ahead of comeback

Jul 31, 2023

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Meghan Markle has her Instagram page ready to roll out after quietly getting ready to make a comeback online, sources tell Page Six.

The Duchess of Sussex, who will celebrate her 42nd birthday Friday, has a handle called @meghan which already has 2,420 followers — despite the fact she has never actually posted anything.

Mom-of-two Markle got her own Instagram account — which features a placeholder image of pink flowers — just before she launched her now defunct Spotify podcast in August 2022, we’re told.

Markle has been in talks with a number of brands to work with — and is especially keen to sign with luxe jewelers Cartier whom we’re told fear any deal could annoy the royal family — as she works towards the future after signing with Hollywood agency WME.

A source told Page Six: “Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind shortly before she launched her “Archetypes” podcast, so it’s just sitting there now.”

Markle revealed that she was toying with the idea of returning to social media in her much-publicized interview with ‘The Cut’ last August:

“Do you want to know a secret?” she told writer Allison P. Davis: “I’m getting back…on Instagram.”

As an actress on “Suits”, she was a prolific poster on Instagram and had a travel and lifestyle blog called The Tig — but gave that up when she married Prince Harry. She even teased their romance on the site after they first met.

“It was a big adjustment — a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life,” she told The Cut.

She joined Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton on their shared Instagram, @KensingtonRoyal, when she joined the royal family.

Then she and Harry launched their own Instagram handle @sussexroyal in April 2019, one month before their son Archie was born.

It reached 1 million followers within six hours.

But the couple shut it down shortly after they left the royal family in March 2020.

Another source who knows the Sussexes confirmed: “Meghan really did want to get back on Insta.”

Having been quiet for the past few months, ever since she and Harry were widely ridiculed for their claims of being the victims of a two-hour high-speed chase by paparazzi through the streets of Manhattan.

Markle is preparing to come back into the spotlight as she joins Harry in Dusseldorf, Germany, next month for the Invictus Games.

She will also be featured on the Netflix doc, “Heart of Invictus”, which drops in just weeks, and is their only outstanding project from the streaming and podcasting deals they struck in 2021.

Despite the claim, denied by Dior, that she was signing up with the French fashion house, some insiders told Page Six that she has definitely been in talks with more than one brand.

As we revealed, Markle was keen to work with Cartier.

She bought herself a Tank Francaise watch by the fashion house after she got her acting role on “Suits” in 2012, which she engraved with “To M.M. From M.M.” on the back.

“I plan to give it to my daughter one day,” she said in a past interview. “That’s what makes pieces special, the connection you have to them.”

She also wears her late mother-in-law Princess Diana’s Cartier watch, alongside Diana’s tennis bracelet and has a Cartier Love bracelet.

However, the source who knows the Sussexes: “I think Cartier’s concern was that they have a long-standing relationship with the royal family.

“Also, if you think about it, there’s no real value in paying Meghan as she already wears their stuff for free.”

Another source said that Markle, who counts make-up millionaire Victoria Jackson as one of her Montecito BFFs, had been talking about launching a make-up range.

In 2021, Jackson launched Kind Science, an age-positive skin care line, with Ellen DeGeneres, another Markle pal.

However, one source insisted there were no make-up range talks between Jackson and Markle. A second source said: “There have been a lot of brand conversations, but I don’t recall a business plan that included Meghan starting her own makeup line.”

Reps for Markle were unavailable for comment.