Brace yourselves for Meghan Markle’s comeback

As many of us lurched blearily into 2025, desperately trying to remember how, exactly, we’d managed to cause offence to our nearest and dearest in the hinterland between the old year and the new, there was another unwelcome surprise waiting in the wings. In the late afternoon of 1 January, just as the nausea and regret of the previous night was beginning to dispel, the Duchess of Sussex decided that the perfect moment had come to relaunch herself into public consciousness. Out of nowhere, a 28-second video appeared on her hitherto dormant Instagram account, which is now branded simply as “@meghan”. 

Of course, what many may have hoped for – an announcement that she was going to leave public life altogether – was not on offer. Instead, the short film (presumably filmed by Prince Harry, who can now add ‘cinematographer’ to his varied skills that include ‘bestselling author’ and ‘serial litigator’) depicts Meghan, clad in virginal white, skipping onto a windswept, overcast beach and writing ‘2025’ in the sand before merrily sashaying away, leaving viewers in a state of mystification as to what this particular re-entry into public life connotes.