Meghan Markle's suspected 'new' Instagram rakes in 115K followers

Meghan Markle had teased the possibility of her return to Instagram in a past interview. Now, a new "meghan" account has had many suspecting it belongs to the duchess especially since some of the followers are her acquaintances.

There are a couple of things that convinced netizens the Instagram account belongs to the Duchess of Sussex even though it has no posts yet. Firstly, the profile photo is a stock image of her favourite flowers, pink peonies.

The image also carries a poignant meaning to the duchess and her relationship with her mother, Doria Ragland. The former "Suits" star revealed in her now defunct lifestyle blog "The Tig" that aside from "Meg, MM, and M&M" her mum has called her the monicker "Flower" since she was little.

Secondly, the account currently boasts 115,000 followers and some of them are her friends and colleagues. These include Mandana Dayani, who served as president of Archewell Foundation until December last year.

Another follower is author and activist Malala Yousafzai, who joined Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2020 for a virtual chat in tribute of International Day of the Girl.

Meghan Markle has yet confirm that the Instagram account belongs to her. According to its info, it was created in June 2022, just before the launch of her "Archetypes" podcast on Spotify in August of the same year. It was also during this month that she and Prince Harry attended Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

Interestingly, in August last year she also talked about her return to Instagram, telling "The Cut" during an interview, "Do you want to know a secret? I'm getting back...on Instagram."

It is unclear if the Duchess of Sussex or some random user is the real owner of the @meghan Instagram page. Although, a Daily Mail source, said to be close to her team, confirmed that it is hers and that the public should "expect an announcement very soon."

Eric Schiffer, a social media expert whose clients include the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" stars and actress Bella Thorne, projected that Meghan Markle could make a huge profit off of her Instagram page. He said it would not be a surprise for her to make a comeback especially after she signed with Hollywood talent agency WME in April this year.

He told the publication that he would expect the duchess to "quickly become one of the most followed accounts on Instagram" and that she could "command $1million (£790,000) and up for a single post promoting a product."

Schiffer warned that because of her royal status, she has to be careful and "avoid being seen to be hawking every product under the sun. She will align with quality brands and companies that are on point with her political and social beliefs."

Likewise, marketing expert Kent Moore of OneEyedSocial, who has worked with "Star Trek" actor Sir Patrick Stewart said "she would instantly shoot into the top ten highest-paid influencers in the world."

He said she could "charge a million dollars per post as an absolute minimum" and that brands would want to feature her in "several posts and even personal appearances." She could rake in over $12 million (£9.5 million) and even as much as $20 million (£15.9 million) for these types of deals.

Prior to marrying Prince Harry in May 2018, the Duchess of Sussex regularly posted on her personal Instagram page which had over three million followers and also ran "The Tig." She eventually had to close both down during their relationship.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry then joined Prince William and Kate Middleton on their account @kensingtonroyal before creating their own, called @sussexroyal in 2019. Their own account had 9.4 million followers before they had to shut it down after they quit their royal duties in 2020.