Meghan Markle has returned to Instagram for the first time since 2020 with a new account promoting her lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard.
The account appeared early Thursday afternoon and by mid-evening had already amassed nearly 225,000 followers, with the profile simply reading “From Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.” Established in 2024. ”
In a short, grainy promotional video shared to the account's Instagram Stories, the 42-year-old royal appears to be cooking something in the kitchen, while other shots show flowers and a rustic home.
A pending trademark for the brand name indicates the Duchess plans to sell a range of household and culinary products including tableware, cookbooks, textiles, jellies, jams, food spreads and retail services.
The nickname American Riviera probably comes from the nickname for Santa Barbara County, California. Markle and her husband live in the county with their two children, Prince Archie, 4, and Princess Lilibet, 2.
The Instagram upload also displays the company's logo, which includes the name of the family's Santa Barbara neighborhood, the city of Montecito.
Markle and her husband Prince Harry have not used social media at all since stepping down as active members of the British royal family.
The last post on the @SussexRoyal Instagram page was on March 30, 2020, in which they thanked their followers for their support and said: you were amazing! ”
“To protect myself, I haven't used social media for a long time,” Markle told Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women Next Generation Summit in October of the same year.
“I made a personal choice not to have an account, so I don't know what's out there, but it's helpful to me in many ways,” she added.
The launch of her new page comes days after the duchess won a defamation lawsuit brought by her half-sister Samantha Markle over comments she made during a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. .
Meghan, who changed her last name back to Markle after Samantha started dating Prince Harry, claimed in the interview that she too felt like she “grew up as an only child.”
“I wish I had a brother,” she said.
A Florida judge dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday, saying Meghan's comments were protected because they were genuine opinions or were substantially true.
