Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, says after experiencing a rollercoaster relationship with social media she sees value in showing up online “on the side of good.”
“I have had a very complicated relationship with social media,” the 44-year-old face of Netflix’s “With Love, Meghan” said while speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in Washington on Tuesday.
“I also recognize the role that it plays in business,” added Meghan, the founder of the lifestyle brand, As Ever.
“My husband and I spend a lot of time working on online harms, specifically surrounding protecting our children — not ours personally — but all of our children, for what they’re susceptible to in the online space,” Meghan, who married Prince Harry in 2018, told Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell.
“So I’m sensitive to that. I also recognize that if you can show up in these spaces and be on the side of good, there is tremendous value in that also,” she said.
“We’re going to continue to expand the footprint in the social and digital space for the brand,” the ex-“Suits” star formerly known as Meghan Markle said.
Meghan returned to Instagram in January, after taking a yearslong hiatus from social media following her wedding and a torrent of online criticism.
In 2023, Meghan and Harry, who stepped back from serving as full-time working members of the British royal family in 2020 and moved to California, made a push for social media companies to implement stronger content-moderation policies.
“The last time I was on Instagram, Boomerang was a thing. That was a long time ago,” Meghan said with a grin, referring to the social media platform feature that was introduced a decade ago.
“So having started in January, I just started to explore and play in the same way that anyone else does when they’re online. I just happened to do it with a little bit more attention,” she said.
Meghan said she turned the comments off on her Instagram posts for her “own self-preservation,” but responds with handwritten notes to some users.
“I said, let’s find small and creative ways to engage the community and let them know that I’m listening, that I really see and appreciate their feedback,” she said.
Despite reemerging on Instagram, Meghan expressed uncertainty about making the move onto another popular platform.
“I don’t know,” she said, when asked if she would join TikTok.
