Meghan Markle secures new Instagram handle ahead of comeback

royal family

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by sarah nathan

Meghan has been secretly preparing for her online comeback and is getting ready to roll out her Instagram page, a source told Page Six.

The Duchess of Sussex, who celebrates her 42nd birthday on Friday, goes by the handle @meghan and already has 2,420 followers, despite not actually posting anything.

Markle, a mother of two, reportedly got her own Instagram account featuring a placeholder image of a pink flower just before launching her now-defunct Spotify podcast in August 2022. There is.

After signing with Hollywood agency WME, Markle is looking to the future and is in talks to partner with a number of brands, and is particularly keen on signing a deal with luxury jeweler Cartier, adding that any deal would involve the royal family. It is reported that it can cause trouble. .

A source told Page Six: “Meghan was planning to go live on Instagram, but she changed her mind right before she started the Archetype podcast, so she's leaving it alone for now.''

Markle revealed in a highly publicized interview with The Cut last August that she was considering the idea of ​​returning to social media.

“Do you want to know the secret?” she told author Alison P. Davis, “I'm going back to Instagram.”

The Suits actress was a prolific Instagram user and ran a travel and lifestyle blog called The Tig, which she abandoned after marrying Prince Harry. did. She even teased their romance on her site after their first meeting.

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

When she joined the royal family, she joined Prince Harry, Prince William, and Duchess Kate on their shared Instagram @KensingtonRoyal.

She and Harry then launched their own Instagram handle @sussexroyal in April 2019, a month before the birth of their son Archie.

The number of followers reached 1 million within 6 hours.

However, the couple closed the facility shortly after leaving the royal family in March 2020.

Another source familiar with the Sussexes admitted: “Meghan really wanted to get back on Instagram.”

She has been silent in recent months since she and Prince Harry were widely ridiculed for claiming they were the victims of a two-hour high-speed chase by paparazzi through the streets of Manhattan.

Markle is preparing to return to the spotlight next month when she competes in the Invictus Games with Prince Harry in Düsseldorf, Germany.

She's also set to star in the Netflix doc Heart of Invictus, which will be released in just a few weeks, the only standout project in her 2021 streaming and podcasting deal.

Despite claims that she is under contract with the French fashion house, which Dior denies, some sources told Page Six that she is definitely in talks with multiple brands. .

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

After appearing in the film Suits in 2012, she bought herself a watch from the fashion house Tank Française and had the words “To MM From MM” engraved on the back of the watch.

“I plan to give it to my daughter someday,” she said in a past interview. “That’s what makes it special, that connection to it.”

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

But a source with knowledge of the Sussexes said: 'I think Cartier's concern is that they have a long-standing relationship with the royal family.

“And when you think about it, Meghan is already wearing their stuff for free, so there's no real value in paying for it.”

Another source said Markle, who counts makeup billionaire Victoria Jackson among her closest friends in Montecito, had been in talks to launch a makeup line.

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

However, a source claimed there were no talks of reconciliation between Jackson and Markle. Another source said: “There was a lot of conversation about brands, but I don't remember her business plan which included Meghan launching her own makeup line.”

Representatives for Mr. Markle could not be reached for comment.