Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to quit social media: Report

PTI, Jan 10, 2021, 8:22 PM IST

Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have reportedly decided to quit social media as they focus on their roles in the US away from frontline British royalty. According to The Sunday Times’, the couple who had announced their decision to step back from official royal duties to relocate with their one-year-old son Archie last year will no longer use platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

The duo, who amassed more than 10 million Instagram followers as working royals, are reportedly rejecting social media as part of their new progressive role in America. A source close to the couple told the newspaper they had no plans to use social media for their new Archewell Foundation and were very unlikely to return to platforms in a personal capacity.

The couple are understood to have become disillusioned by the hate they encountered on social media. Meghan Markle, a former actress, has spoken about the almost unsurvivable experience of online trolling. Before her marriage to Prince Harry in 2018, the 39-year-old had a prolific social media presence, with 1.9 million followers on Instagram, 350,000 Twitter followers and 800,000 likes on her Facebook page.

She also had a lifestyle website and blog called The Tig and used the sites for her commercial fashion and beauty partnerships, to promote her friends’ businesses, offer food and travel tips. However, she had shut those down soon after she began dating the 36-year-old prince and the couple together created the @SussexRoyal Instagram account. However, they stopped posting on the account as part of branding negotiations with the royal family after stepping down from official duties.

According to the newspaper report, instead of using social media, Harry and Meghan are poised to continue promoting their work in online video and television appearances, through selected publications and via their Archewell website, which they launched fully on New Year’s Eve. They also have production and podcast deals in place with the streaming giants Netflix and Spotify. They are also expected to resume more frequent public appearances when the coronavirus pandemic eases.