A mistake in Meghan Markle's Instagram bio has sparked fresh speculation that she has divorced from Prince Harry.
Markle made her return to the social media platform after stepping away from it four years ago. She kicked off 2025 with a video of herself on the beach.
And it certainly got people's attention.
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Markle and Harry had both taken down their profiles in 2021, three years after they first wed. Elle Magazine claimed they had taken this action after growing weary of the constant barrage of criticism.
If you cast your mind back to that year, you'll recall they'd left the UK a year prior and had granted a tell-all interview to Oprah Winfrey a few months before. But Markle is back, grabbing people's attention with a video of herself running barefoot on the beach. However, this wasn't the only thing that got the royalist rumour mill churning.
As anybody on Instagram knows, once you sign up for a profile, you're given a handle.You can customize it to suit your needs. Ours, for example, is simply 'Tyla'.
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However, Markle opted to go for 'Meghan, Duchess of Sussex'. You may question what the issue is. After all, that's her name and that's her title owing to her to marriage, right?
Well, it turns out that omitting the word 'the' has set off a lot of speculation.Many were quick to point out that excluding this word has bad precedent in royal history.
As recently as the 1990s, Princess Diana became known simply as 'Princess of Wales' rather than 'The Princess of Wales', once she split from King Charles.
Royal watchers were quick to comment on this development.
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One said: "So Meghan is back on Instagram under her own name. To start with it was just 'Meghan' but now 'Duchess of Sussex' has been added....
"BUT did any of you notice...The is missing from her title...In other words she is sharing a title of a divorced 'Duchess' That THE is very important."
It turns out that 'the' carries a lot of weight in the monarchy.
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Once a member of the Royal Family gets divorced, they lose the 'the' from their full title. From that point on, they are granted a 'courtesy title'.
Of course, the most likely explanation here is that Markle's team simply made a mistake while setting up her account.
But since when have rational explanations ever held weight on the internet?
It may be a new year, but speculation is continuing to surround Markle, just like previous years.
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Tyla have previously approached representatives of the Royal Family and Meghan Markle for comment.
Topics: Instagram, Meghan Markle, Royal Family, Prince Harry, Princess Diana
Ben Thompson