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The two-year anniversary of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's departure from social media occurred on Wednesday, with the couple last posting to their official @sussexroyal Instagram account in March 2020.
Harry and Meghan have both, in recent years, become vocal advocates for internet safety and measures to reduce the levels of unsolicited hate and abuse that is prevalent on social media platforms.
The couple's last post to their official Instagram account explained that they would be focusing on "a new chapter" of their lives following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their stepping down as full-time working members of the royal family in March 2020.
They stated their aim was to better "understand how we can best contribute... While you may not see us here, the work continues."
A statement released by the Sussex's team, reported by Town & Country, read: "Following today's post, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer post on Instagram under the @sussexroyal handle and will also no longer update SussexRoyal.com website.
"Both the Instagram account and website will remain in existence online for the foreseeable future, although they will be inactive."
Harry and Meghan's relationship with social media has varied over the last decade. Before her marriage to Harry, Meghan ran successful social media accounts across various platforms including Instagram and her blog, The Tig.
Until 2019 Harry and Meghan officially shared the Instagram account @kensingtonroyal with Prince William and Kate Middleton, before separating their households and setting up @sussexroyal in April of that year.
The move to set up their own Instagram account caused media speculation regarding the relationship between the Sussexes and the Cambridges. This followed reporting that Meghan had made Kate cry ahead of the royal wedding in 2018.
Meghan has since refuted this claim.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey last year she said that the "reverse" happened and that a dispute with Kate over bridesmaids dresses left Meghan in tears.
The Sussexes' Instagram account broke records by gaining one million followers within six hours of launching. To date the account has over 9.7 million followers compared to the regularly updated account of William and Kate, who have 13.5 million followers.
A website companion to @sussexroyal was launched by Harry and Meghan in January 2020 to communicate their plans for a new hybrid working model whereby the couple would work to become "financially independent" while still serving the monarchy between bases in the U.S. and U.K.
What followed was the turbulent "Megxit" period which saw Queen Elizabeth II have to intervene and work with the Sussexes to find a path forward. The conclusion of this was for Harry and Meghan to step down as full-time working members of the royal family.
As part of this deal, the couple were asked to stop using the term "sussexroyal" as its suffix might suggest that the couple sought to profit from royal association.
Following her stepping down as a full-time working member of the royal family and abandoning the @sussexroyal instagram account, Meghan gave a digital interview at Fortune's Most Powerful Next Gen Summit in October 2020 discussing her relationship with social media
During the interview she said: "For my own self-preservation, I have not been on social media for a very long time.
"I had a personal account years ago, which I closed down and then we had one through the institution and our office that was in the U.K. separate, and that wasn't managed by us—that was a whole team—and so I think that comes with the territory for the job you have.
"I've made a personal choice to not have any account, so I don't know what's out there, and many ways that's helpful for me... I have a lot of concerns for people that have become obsessed with it, and it is so much a part of our daily culture for so many people that it's an addiction like many others."
In the days following her interview, Meghan and Harry announced a new website for their charity Archewell. Taking over from where the sussexroyal website left off, the Archewell website has become a space for the royal couple to communicate with the public as well as promote the charitable aspects of their work without the need for social media.
Like his wife, Harry too has spoken publicly on his views of social media—both for and against. When a story was published by The Times in January 2021 stating that "Harry and Meghan quit social media" for good, the prince disputed it.
In an interview with the Fast Company released 13 days after the story's publication Harry said: "We woke up one morning a couple of weeks ago to hear that a Rupert Murdoch newspaper said we were evidently quitting social media. That was news to us, bearing in mind we have no social media to quit, nor have we for the past 10 months.
"The truth is, despite its well-documented ills, social media can offer a means of connecting and community, which are vital to us as human beings."
Now two years on from their initial stepping away from social media, Harry and Meghan are working to communicate through other forms of digital media, including their multi-million dollar contract with Netflix to produce video content.
In March, the production company associated with the royal couple, Archewell Audio, announced that a new podcast hosted by Meghan would debut this summer on Spotify, concerning the subject of the labels that women have placed upon them by society.
In the digital age, Harry and Meghan are working together to engage with people on a level that bypasses the negative, and in some cases harmful, aspects of social media.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more