When I checked the @Meghan Instagram account Thursday morning, the Duchess of Sussex had over 700K followers after she made her first post on New Year’s Day. About seven hours later, Meghan had more than a million followers. It’s the SussexRoyal IG all over again – once people know for sure that Meghan is on the ‘gram, they flock to her account. In case you’re wondering, Prince William and Kate’s Instagram account has 16.8 million followers. How many of those followers are bots paid for with Duchy of Cornwall money though?

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail is obviously still obsessed with every single thing about Meghan’s IG account, including how she got a coveted mononymous account. All of the biggest accounts – Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez – have IG handles with their first and last names. So how did Meghan manage to pull off @Meghan?

Meghan Markle has made a sensational return to Instagram after teasing a new project with an elusive video of herself a the beach. The wife of Prince Harry, 42, is making her comeback on the photo-sharing app, having stepped away in 2020, and is appearing to forego her Duchess of Sussex title by simply using the handle @meghan. She first made her cautious reappearance last summer, after teasing her return for months. News that the @meghan handle was hers created a frenzy of followers despite the account lying empty without a single post until Wedensday, and following no other accounts.

But how did the Duchess get her hands on the single-moniker handle? Speaking to FEMAIL, branding expert Emily M Austen revealed it’s likely the account – which has now been verified with a blue tick – was owned by someone else before, as it’s ‘not a unique name’.

‘Most likely, Meghan (or her team), will have used a website to negotiate through a third party, the handle, and will likely have had to pay for ownership,’ she explained. ‘It is possible to change your Instagram handle whenever you want, within certain limits, but this looks like a totally new account, so it’s most likely a purchase. Meghan likely used a third party which would mean her identity would remain hidden. Most sellers start with a guide price, which can go from $200 to $20,000 depending on the desirability of the handle.’

Another expert, talent rep Raymani Zaloumis, also said that while it’s ‘very difficult to predict the exact amount Meghan Markle would have paid for the handle’, it’s likely the sum would have been ‘significant’.

‘Short, common, or celebrity-related usernames are highly sought after, often commanding premium prices,’ he told FEMAIL. ‘Depending on their desirability and the willingness of the owner to sell, such handles can range in value from tens of thousands to even hundreds of thousands of dollars.’

[From The Daily Mail]

Reportedly, Prince Harry and Meghan did something similar to get their hands on “sussex.com.” They patiently negotiated with the URL owner and paid the person to “own” it. It’s more than likely that Meghan did this way back in 2022 too – that’s when the IG account first appeared, and it was a big mystery as to whether it was really Meghan. She was thinking long-term and she was in no rush to post just to post. Still, I’ve always wondered if she or Harry (or both) had finstas this whole time.

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Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Meghan’s IG.