Years after saying goodbye to social media, Meghan Markle is returning to Instagram.
The Duchess of Sussex reintroduced herself to the platform on Wednesday with a new, simple social media handle: @meghan.
The royal’s first post was filmed by Prince Harry near the couple’s home in Montecito, California. The short clip shows Meghan running on the beach and neatly writing “2025” in the sand.
The Duchess of Sussex originally shut down all of her social media accounts in January 2018, just after getting engaged to Prince Harry.
“Ms. Markle is grateful to everyone who has followed her social media accounts over the years, however as she has not used them for some time she has taken the decision to close them,” a Kensington Palace source told HuffPost at the time.
Meghan originally teased her return to Instagram in a profile published with The Cut back in August 2022.
“Do you want to know a secret?” Meghan said at the time. “I’m getting back … on Instagram.”
And still, her return to the platform may come as a surprise to some, especially as the duke and duchess have long decried the misinformation and negativity that can spread so rapidly on social media.
During a Time100 talk in 2020, Meghan and Harry spoke of a “global crisis of hate” happening online.
“This isn’t solely a mental health or emotional well-being problem. This is a human problem,” Meghan said during her talk. “And what’s happening to all of us online is affecting us deeply offline.”
She has also spoken about pushing through the “almost unsurvivable” amount of hate she faced online in 2019.
“I’m told that in 2019, I was the most trolled person in the entire world ― male or female,” the American Riviera Orchard founder said in a joint interview with her husband on an episode of the podcast “Teenager Therapy.”
This go-around with social media, the royal is said to be looking to use it as a way to remain connected with people around the world and offer updates on the projects she is working on. And above all, keeping things positive.