Meghan Markle’s huge Instagram mistake exposed
Clue’s are mounting daily about Meghan Markle’s next move but there’s one big downfall with her big plan.
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It was in the final weeks of 2017 when the music died; when the peony shots and the perfectly tilted Panama hat pics and the Italian sunsets ended, for good.
Actress and mid-tier Canadian fashion chain face Meghan Markle was set to marry into the royal family, and thus, with history beckoning and tiaras just waiting to be worn, came the official parting of the ways between the Suits star and her oversaturated personal Instagram account.
Money. Fame. Clout. Never again would she need to try and climb the greasy pole of social media.
Hello there, irony!
Now, here we are, five years later with near daily reports suggesting that the Duchess of Sussex is poised to make her return to Instagram any hot minute now, news that should strike fear into the hearts of peony bushes everywhere.
Then clues are mounting, daily.
Last year, she told journalist Allison P. Davis, “Do you want to know a secret? I’m getting back … on Instagram,” only to reportedly change her mind and shelve the plans for a bit.
The mysterious @Meghan account is thought to be hers, and is currently gaining tens of thousands of followers a day. It has gained more than 110,000 followers this month alone, despite her never having publicly claimed it or posted a single, solitary thing.
In April, the duchess signed on with mega talent agency WME, who announced they would “be focusing on building out her business ventures across multiple facets …[including] brand partnerships.”
This week, Page Six reported that the 42-year-old “has been in talks with a number of brands to work with — and is especially keen to sign with luxe jewellers Cartier” in conjunction with an Instagram reboot.
Never one to be left out, the Daily Mail has reported that she stands to make up to $US1 million ($AUD1.55 million) per paid post, with the sound of cash registers gloriously ringing in the background.
Right now, the restoration of Meghan to social media seems like nothing but an inevitability, a question of when not if. (Really, the most surprising aspect here is that it has taken so many years post-palace for us to get here.)
But, everyone wait a minute. Let’s catch our breath. Because I’m far from convinced that the debut of @Meghan is the savvy play here. Meghan could lose as much as she stands to gain.
Once the Duchess of Sussex opens this particular Pandora’s box, there will be no easy closing it.
For Meghan, and husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, their greatest – if not their only real- asset is their royal status; that he was born into a family who can trace their line of descent back to the ninth century and people like Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, which sounds like something out of a bedtime story.
But that royal status, that royal magic, is an intangible and fragile thing which will be entirely imperilled if they go down the spon-con route.
And once gone, it’s gone.
The Sussexes currently exist outside of, and above, the celebrity ecosystem; they possess an otherness that sets them apart from your garden variety A-lister.
There is a world of difference between someone like Kim Kardashian, whose fame, wealth and nearly unthinkable reach is built solely on her (or at least her mother’s) cunning and a woman whose global fame is entirely down to her membership via marriage of an ancient institution entirely founded on the concept of hereditary privilege.
But, the minute that @Meghan goes live, like a reverse Cinderella scenario, they will be turning themselves back into ordinary pumpkins, no better, no worse than some Bachelor semi-finalist keen to dip their wick into some of that nice teeth-whitening spon-con cashola.
In early 2020, Harry’s cousin Peter Phillips was rightfully lambasted for the cringe-worthy ad he did for a Chinese milk company, playing up his royal ties, the whole thing so tacky it nearly looked like a spoof.
Do Harry and Meghan really want to trail down this same tack-a-rama, Sussexes-for-sale path?
The danger of the Duchess of Sussex suddenly cropping up on Instagram to spruik luxury watches or to be the face of Dior or to promote the health benefits of hemp milk is that it will just look like the blatant money grab that it is. These sorts of posts might be interspersed with lots of photos and videos of she and Harry Caring ™ – them comforting the most photogenic underprivileged children or replanting some African delta while holding hands – but nothing will be able to disguise that one of the motivating factors in her Insta return would seem to be moolah.
The argument could be made, why shouldn’t she cash in on her connection to a family who were about as warm and welcoming to her as a walk-in freezer? And if that’s what Meghan wants then, fine. Get it girl etc. But the understanding needs to be that once the duchess is in the pocket of Big Turmeric or being paid to wear $900 T-shirts, she will irrevocably be joining the Kim side of the table.
The other part to this is aside from the occasional paid post, an Instagram account needs content; it needs to be stoked regularly to keep the like-fires burning. If Meghan – or Meghan and Harry – start sharing their daily matcha lattes and random sunsets and cutesy videos of the duke putting the bins out, they will be inviting the world inside their Montecito bubble.
Despite what half the world and the writers of South Park think, Harry and Meghan have never said they want privacy but in quitting the royal game they clearly wanted to have more control over how much of themselves they were expected to share with what Edmund Burke called the “swinish multitude.”
With a new social media account of the duchess’ very own, the Sussexes might have much greater control over what parts of their lives they show to the world and when and how.
But, like the pigs in Animal Farm, once we the public are in their house, so to speak, invited by them, can they ever really turf us all out again?
Running underneath all of this is the question, when this filtered, hashtagged New Jerusalem arrives, is this actually the life that Harry wanted, them turning themselves into content, anew and forevermore?
So too the question, if TikTok is totally outpacing and outstripping Instagram in terms of users and the trillions (yes, trillions) of hours of use, is the Duchess of Sussex betting and risking a lot on a bit of a lame horse?
Still. In 2019, when Harry and Meghan launched their stand-alone charity and new Instagram presence @SusssexRoyal they amassed one million followers in six hours. I would bet good money that when a manicured finger somewhere in California, soon, hits the big button and @Meghan goes live, that record will be left in the dust. In the time it has taken me to write this story, the account gained 1000 more followers.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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