Meghan Markle's beach-perfect return

Updated Jan. 3, 2025, 12:54 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

Meghan Markle surprised the world with a beach-perfect Instagram video, marking the start of the new year and sparking some wild rumours.

Meghan Markle's beach-perfect return — Screenshot / Instagram

After a seven-year hiatus from social media, Meghan Markle has officially returned to Instagram. The Duchess of Sussex started the new year by sharing a heartfelt video on her newly-created account, @meghan.

The short clip features Meghan on a beach near their home in Montecito, California. She jogs along the beach and writes 2025 on the wet sand, flashes a sweet smile and a laugh at the camera, and gracefully exits the scene. Very demure, very cutesy.

The moment went viral, amassing more than 800,000 followers in less than 24 hours. What’s even cuter is that it was shot by Prince Harry. Ncaww... it’s giving couple goals.

Watch the princess-perfect moment below:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (@meghan)

The Duchess of Sussex announced her return to social media as a way to authentically share moments of joy and inspiration from her life, and she wasted no time in showing us exactly what that might look like. A day later after she posted her beach-perfect return, she shared a snippet of her newest upcoming Netflix reality show, 'With Love, Meghan'.

It's a wholesome Martha-like experience where we get to see her in her everyday life with her closest friends, doing and making extraordinary things – including some of the most delicious dishes and desserts you'll ever see. And we don't have to wait that long, because it's coming to Netflix on January 15, 2025.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (@meghan)

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Anyways, social media critics quickly scrutinised her beach-perfect moment, pointing out that it might not have been so spontaneous after noticing what appeared to be earlier, failed attempts at writing 2025 in the sand. Hmm… sketchy.

Let’s be honest though – nobody ever captures just one photo or video. We have to do it again. What if my eyes were closed? What if the writing isn’t cute? It has to be perfect.

Many others speculated that Meghan’s new Instagram profile might be signalling an impending divorce. And no, she didn’t do something weird or say something scandalous in the video.

Rather, it's in her use of ‘Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’ instead of ‘Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex’ on her profile. Yep. How ‘unroyal’ of her, diminishing the vital grammatical laws of English?

An article in The Irish Mirror shed light on this "blunder", comparing it to the failed marriage of Sarah Ferguson to Prince Andrew. She still carries her royal title but as Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.

Despite the months of floating rumours, it seems Meg and Harry are doing just fine. The couple still lives together in California, and they’re waking up to shoot social media content together. It's seeming like a typical influencer-couple vibe now.

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Could it just be that people are salty about Harry choosing to leave the royal gardens for a permanent beach vacation with his Hollywood-superstar wife?

It’s literally a modern-day Cinderella story. How can she have it all and be a princess, living in an LA beach mansion with her Prince Charming? It’s unfair!

Regardless of all the drama around Meg’s return, this post simply marked a new chapter in her journey that we should celebrate and look forward to.

Meghan has finally decided to connect with her followers again, and share glimpses into her fairytale ending with the world – because it’s twenty-twenty-vibes, baby. Everyone’s moving differently.