Meghan Markle Instagram: Does the Duchess of Sussex’s video filmed by Prince Harry mark a new direction?

It looks like it is a New Year and new direction for Meghan Markle as she returns to Instagram with an account, simply titled Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. She already has 800K followers at the time of writing, the likes of Carrie Johnson, and Queer Eye’s Tan France are among those avidly following her.

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex returned to Instagram on January 1. 2025 and shared a video of herself, filmed by Prince Harry on a beach near their home in Montecito in California. Meghan Markle is seen running barefoot in an all-white outfit towards the waves. She stops on the beach to trace 2025 in the sand, after the video pans in on 2025, it then switches to Meghan Markle smiling and laughing before gently jogging away.

Although Meghan Markle currently is on her way to 1 million followers, she so far doesn’t follow anyone back. Comments have been switched off, but she has received many likes, including those from her good friend, tennis superstar Serena Williams and Chrissy Teigen.

So why has Meghan Markle decided to launch her new account at the start of 2025? According to People magazine, it “understands Meghan is excited to return to social media as a way to reconnect with communities around the world and share updates about the projects she's working on, looking to lead by example in demonstrating the potential for social media to bring joy and positive connection.”

It is interesting to note that although Prince Harry took the video, the Instagram handle is all about Meghan. Towards the end of last year, everyone was talking about a professional separation between the couple as the Duchess attended a Thanksgiving event alone.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told GB News at the time that "This is obviously a new tactic. As in every brand the Sussexes want to promote their brand as best as they can.

"They have tried something that has worked with the so-called royal tours of Nigeria and Colombia.

"Then we have got the solo engagements, so they are experimenting.

"The Sussexes need to keep their profile as they can't attack the Royal Family at the moment, so now they have to think up new devices."