What Meghan’s new Instagram profile with image taken by her favorite photographer reveals about what she’ll do subsequent

Meghan Markle released a stunning new smiling image to mark her Instagram return taken by a fashion photographer friend from Toronto who knew her and Harry when they fell in love while she was starring in Suits, MailOnline can reveal today.

The laughing Duchess of Sussex, 43, wears a near-£1,000 white cotton dress from New York Luxury brand Khaite and a £12,500 diamond necklace from Santa Monica jewellery designer Logan Hollowell.

Experts have analysed the black and white image and believe the beach photo, and her outfit, was carefully chosen to show ‘purity’ and released on January 1 to ‘timestamp’ her 2025 relaunch and entering ‘new era’ to the world.

The laughing Duchess of Sussex made it her profile picture for her @meghan account as she also released a video of her frolicking barefoot on a Montecito beach filmed by her husband Prince Harry.

It was taken by New York-based Jake Rosenberg, who has known the Sussexes for years and attended their London wedding and was photographed entering St George’s Chapel, Windsor, with Oprah Winfrey.

Sharing the image Mr Rosenberg used the photo in a post marking the start of 2025 and to ‘welcome back’ Meghan to Instagram after a six-year hiatus. He said: ‘Always love capturing these moments together – What a way to start the year!’.

Jake flew to California from New York to take the picture. He has not said when it was taken.

But in recent months he visited Harry and Meghan’s mansion in Montecito for a photoshoot to coincide with the launch of her lifestyle and cookery brand, American Riviera Orchard. Jake also took a series of pictures of Meghan on her own and her with the children.

The stunning image may have been captured then. 

Meghan teased her return to Instagram in 2022 but has waited two years to launch it. Experts have said that the account, which has gone from 100,000 followers to 715,000 in 24 hours could command fees of £790,000 from companies per post as ‘an absolute minimum’. 

Experts have told MailOnline that the black and white image, and the choice of white dress, are a carefully constructed message to the world that she is planning big things in 2025.

Mark Borkowski, arguably the UK’s to PR guru, told MailOnline: ‘The all-white attire screams “purity of reinvention” while the “2025” etched in the sand conveniently doubles as both a literal timestamp and a metaphorical clean slate.   

‘Meghan has gone for the classic cryptic performance art Instagram post.

‘It’s a PR textbook example of someone signaling a new era,—designed to intrigue and mystify. 

‘It’s a subtle power play, simultaneously fostering curiosity and establishing control’.   

The photo taken by Jake Rosenberg is a California-style fashion shot that would not be out of place on the pages of a glossy magazine like fashion bibles Vogue or Vanity Fair, experts have said.

Looking typically stylish, the mother-of-two opted for a white oversized flowing shirt, which was rolled up at the sleeves.

Complementing her statement shirt, she donned a pair of white skinny jeans that were also rolled up on her leg as she ran through the sand barefoot.

Meghan’s return to social media came despite vowing not to return to social media due to the ‘almost unsurvivable’ abuse she faced, the Duchess of Sussex returned to Instagram yesterday with a playful video on a beach.

A source close to Meghan said yesterday that: ‘The Duchess is excited to return to social media as a way to reconnect with communities around the world and share updates on the impactful projects she has been working on. 

‘She is committed to promoting a joyful and thoughtful approach to online engagement—one that fosters meaningful connections and inspires positivity in today’s digital space’.

The 43-year-old shared her first clip – filmed by Prince Harry near their California home – and simply captioned it ‘@meghan’.

It had been rumoured that the profile – originally set up in 2022 but lying dormant – belonged to her after she teased fans in 2023 by declaring she was ‘getting back on Instagram’.

Now the mother-of-two has confirmed the account is hers by posting footage taken on the shore not far from the home she shares in Montecito with Harry and their children Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. Within minutes, tens of thousands of people had begun following the account.

To the sound of the surf, the 30-second clip shows Meghan in white pedal-pushers and a white shirt jogging barefoot to the water’s edge and writing ‘2025’ in the sand with her finger, before running off giggling.

The duchess shut down her social media accounts in January 2018, just after getting engaged to Prince Harry, and in 2020 the couple stopped posting to their Sussex Royal Instagram and Twitter accounts.

However, she then secured the new account in June 2022 before launching her Archetypes podcast in August 2022. It had a profile image of pink dahlias, but no biographical information.

At the time, a source said: ‘Meghan was set to go live on Insta, but changed her mind… so it’s just sitting there now.’

Experts have predicted she could earn £790,000 per post as ‘an absolute minimum’.

Social media expert Eric Schiffer told The Mail On Sunday that there was ‘no reason Meghan couldn’t be earning those sorts of fees’.