Meghan Markle will reportedly be making her long-awaited return to Instagram.
According to Page Six, the Duchess of Sussex reportedly has an unverified Instagram account with the Instagram handle @meghan and a picture of pink flowers as the profile picture. As of 4 August, the Instagram account has more than 40,000 followers, despite having no posts.
Before joining the royal family, Meghan was an active and prolific poster on Instagram, running a personal account and a lifestyle blog called The Tig. For the former Suits actress, Instagram served as an outlet of self-expression. In a highly-publicised interview with The Cut last August, she teased her return to the platform.
“Do you want to know a secret?” she revealed to writer Allison P Davis: “I’m getting back…on Instagram.”
Although she intended to make her comeback, Meghan changed her mind and delayed it in favour of focusing on her Archetypes podcast with Spotify. Hosted by Meghan herself, the Archetypes podcast boasted a star-studded guest list including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, Issa Rae, and Mindy Kaling. The series was cancelled after only one 12-episode season.
But as recent as June, the lucrative $20m multi-year deal between the Sussexes’s production company, Archewell, and Spotify fell apart, leading many to speculate. In a joint statement, Spotify and Archewell Audio said that they “mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together”.
Bill Simmons, the founder of the Ringer podcast network who went on to sell his company to Spotify for $196m in 2020 and within the deal gained a leadership role at the company, shared his two cents on the debacle.
He criticised the deal on his podcastThe Bill Simmons Podcast: “I wish I had been involved in the ‘Meghan and Harry leave Spotify’ negotiation. ‘The F***ing Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we should have launched with them. I have got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories … F*** them. The grifters.”
Although Simmons’ remarks proved controversial, they were in line with the podcast host’s ongoing distaste for the Sussexes. In January 2022, Simmons disparaged the couple: “You live in f***ing Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them”.
Amid rumours that the couple had hit a rocky patch in their relationship, fans of the duke and duchess recently defended the pair from breakup reports. With the couple set to step back into the spotlight at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf, Germany, and preparing for the upcoming release of their corresponding Netflix documentary Heart of Invictus, it seems as good a time as any for the former Suits actress to make a comeback.
The Independent has contacted a representative for the Sussexes for comment.
