Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have more than 10 million followers on their @sussexroyal Instagram account, despite it not being updated since March 2020, the month they formally ended their run as senior royals. Now new word is coming that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly not returning to social media in any capacity.
A source close to the couple told The Sunday Times that the duo, who have moved to California since their royal break, have “no plans” to use social media even as they launch their new endeavor, the Archewell Foundation. The source also said that the couple were “very unlikely” to use social media in any sort of personal capacity.
For those who take an interest in the couple, this should come as no surprise. Markle has previously commented on her decision not to have a social media account, saying in a virtual chat with Fortune in September that, “For my own self-preservation, I have not been on social media for a very long time.” She added, “I’ve made a personal choice to not have any account, so I don’t know what’s out there, and many ways that’s helpful for me.” Prior to her engagement to Prince Harry, Markle did have her own Instagram account as well as a now-shuttered blog called The Tig.
Markle has also been very frank about the hate she has received online and how damaging that has been. She most recently shared her experience as a guest — alongside her husband — on the podcast Teenager Therapy. “I’m told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female,” she said, mentioning the couple’s young son Archie. “Now, [for] eight months of that I wasn’t even visible — I was on maternity leave or with a baby. But what was able to be manufactured and churned out, it’s almost unsurvivable.”
Markle has also famously been trolled by her own family, most notably by her father, who sold images of himself preparing for her wedding to the paparazzi, and has been critical of her step down from royal duties. Now her half-sister, Samantha Markle, is releasing a tell-all book, The Diary Of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1, later this month. Thomas Markle, father to both Meghan and Samantha, recently voiced his support for the book, telling Us Weekly, “I’m just very pleased that she’s accomplished this book.”
Their social media silence does not mean that Meghan and Harry are slowing down their work. Markle wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in November shedding light on her recent miscarriage and offering support to millions of other women in the process. She and Prince Harry also recently signed multi-year deals with Spotify and Netflix, and are doing work with their Archewell Foundation — which does not have an official social media presence but, according to its website, is working to “unleash the power of compassion to drive systemic cultural change” through nonprofit work and production.
In their sign-off post last March from their Sussex Royal account the couple wrote, “While you may not see us here, the work continues.” They’ve stayed true to their word.