Meghan shut down her personal accounts when she married Prince Harry, but after that, the couple set up their joint endeavour ‘Sussex Royal’, although they are no longer posting via this channel. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are currently campaigning around improving the digital space, which Harry claimed is going through a “crisis of hate and misinformation”. This is understandable given that Meghan has been the victim of incessant abuse and trolling online, some of which has been racist and sexist.
The royal couple previously claimed they do not read any of the abuse, and Meghan has now said she does not have social media accounts for this reason.
She told Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit: “For my own self-preservation, I have not been on social media for a long time.
“I made a personal choice to not have an account, so I don’t know what’s out there, and in many ways that’s helpful for me.”
However, royal expert Russell Myers pointed out Meghan and Harry actually created their record-breaking social media account Sussex Royal not too long ago and claimed they may have “wanted to monetise” it.
READ MORE: Prince Harry’s ‘heartwarming nod to Meghan Markle’ in Time100 video
In fact, the reason they are no longer using this account is because they were told not to use the Sussex Royal branding after stepping down as senior royals, following a meeting with the Queen.
What’s more, according to the royal expert, it is likely they will soon be setting up a new account for Archewell, their new non-profit.
Mr Myers criticised Meghan’s claim, given how they were essentially “forced to shut Sussex Royal down”.
Pod Save the Queen is hosted by Ann Gripper and features Daily Mirror royal editor Russell Myers.
“So while on the one hand they are putting a positive message out there and that should be applauded, I think it will be very, very interesting to see what they do with their own social media profiles.”
However, Sussex Royal was managed by other people before it was shut down, so Meghan could still have been avoiding actually using the channel herself.
Mr Myers also referenced the “toxicity” that has plagued Meghan on social media, in terms of the torrents of abuse directed at her.
For example, an analysis by Hope Not Hate found that the Duchess was subject to 5,200 hateful tweets in two months, with 70 percent of the abuse coming from just 20 accounts.
Mr Myers said: “We have spoken about the toxicity in the past and whether that will rear its ugly head again when they do enter the social media sphere, because they don’t really have a platform at the moment.”
The royal couple have increasingly been speaking up about hate and misinformation online, and even supported a boycott of Facebook this summer.
The boycott involved encouraging businesses not to advertise with the social media giant in an effort to force it to crack down on hate speech and fake news on its platform.
To subscribe to Pod Save the Queen go to your normal podcast provider.
