Just In: Meghan Markle’s New Instagram: Who’s Following from the Royal Family?….Read More

The Duchess of Sussex is “excited” to make her Instagram return after almost five years offline

Meghan Markle is back on Instagram for the first time in years, and her comeback is already being embraced by many of her closest friends and supporters, who have followed her account and celebrated her return, but are any members of the royal family following her new account?

On Jan. 1, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, unveiled a verified Instagram account with the handle @meghan and has amassed 1.4 million followers in the week since. After almost five years away from social media, a source says Meghan is “excited” to make her Instagram comeback, where she plans to spread “joy” and share updates on her latest projects.

While several members of the British royal family also maintain a presence on the platform, none of those accounts have followed Meghan’s profile so far. Prince Harry and Meghan’s relationship with the royal family remains strained. Last summer, insiders revealed to PEOPLE that Harry’s attempts to reach out to his father, King Charles, and his brother, Prince William, went unanswered.

Neither Charles and Queen Camilla’s @theroyalfamily handle nor William and Kate Middleton’s @princeandprincessofwales profile have clicked to follow @meghan, but both official accounts still follow the @sussexroyal page that Meghan and Harry once maintained.

Princess Eugenie and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who is married to Eugenie’s sister, Princess Beatrice, also both follow @sussexroyal, but not the @meghan account. Eugenie, who also doesn’t appear to follow her brother-in-law on Instagram, has remained on close terms with the Sussexes since they stepped back from their royal roles in 2020.

Fellow family members Sarah Ferguson and Mike Tindall, meanwhile, do not follow @sussexroyal or @meghan, and Princess Beatrice doesn’t have a public Instagram account.

Unlike the King and Queen or the Prince and Princess of Wales, Eugenie, Edo, Sarah (who was previously married to Prince Andrew) and Mike (who is married to Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall) are not full-time working royals and pursue private careers. The four use their Instagram pages to highlight their work, personal lives and charitable commitments, which are mostly the same themes that King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate spotlight on their verified pages. However, the @theroyalfamily and @princeandprincessofwales pages are likely run by communications teams, while their fellow family members likely run their own social media.