The Duchess of Sussex has welcomed the New Year by making her return to Instagram with her first account since 2020. On January 1, she posted under the username @meghan, sharing a video of herself running barefoot toward the waves on a cloudy beach while writing "2025" in the sand.
The Duchess, wearing white, then runs past the camera with a broad smile. In under 20 hours of the video being posted, the new account gained almost 781,000 followers.
A representative for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared with NBC News that Prince Harry filmed the video at a beach near their Montecito, California home, where the couple relocated after stepping down as senior royals in 2020, and ceasing the use of their official Sussex Royal account.
The Instagram video marks Meghan's return to the platform after a five-year break. However, the Duchess of Sussex is no stranger to social media. Before marrying Prince Harry in 2018, Meghan had an Instagram account with 3 million followers and ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig.
She deactivated both her Instagram account and blog just weeks before her wedding to Prince Harry, one of the most-watched and widely covered weddings in history.
"It was a big adjustment - a huge adjustment to go from that kind of autonomy to a different life," Meghan shared with The Cut, reflecting on the decision to step away from social media.
"There's literally a structure by which, if you want to release photos of your child, as a member of the family, you first have to give them to the Royal Rota," she explained to The Cut in 2022.
Meghan and Harry have two children: 5-year-old son Prince Archie and 3-year-old daughter Princess Lilibet.
As is often the case with the Duchess of Sussex, the Instagram video attracted a wave of hateful comments. While Meghan disabled comments on her first post since returning to Instagram, critics voiced their opinions on other platforms like X and Reddit.
A user wrote on X, "Another reason I'm glad that I'm not using Instagram. Please stay off X, Duchess!"
"I don't know of anyone who missed her!" another X user wrote.
"I was hoping a tsunami might blow through," the third user commented, while another wrote: "She can keep running."
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