Meghan Markle Posts Rare Pics of Kids and Sees Follower Count Jump by 200K

Meghan Markle has published extremely rare footage of her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, as she seeks to drive engagement on her new Instagram page ahead of the launch of her new TV show.

After years of protectively guarding her private family life from exposure, with just a handful of photographs of her children ever published, Meghan appears to have performed a dramatic 360 in recent days and now seems ready to enthusiastically embrace the demands of a regular social media posting schedule. Her follower count has jumped from 1.2 million to 1.4 million.

Her new account, @meghan, was activated on New Year’s Day, and she has published three posts in eight days, mixing work content (a trailer for her new cooking show) with personal vignettes, such as Tuesday’s update on the death of her dog Guy.

The video and photo montage accompanying the tribute to Guy prominently featured her kids, with footage of Archie walking the dog and a photo of Lilibet playing with him on a sunny day. This new exposure of the children counts as a notable update given that Meghan and Prince Harry have only released a tiny handful of images of their children.

The eulogy to the dog was also notable for its length—over 300 words of text—and the way it carefully wove together totemic personal and professional themes.

She gave a nod to her turbulent experience with the British royal family when she said that Guy, who had been rescued from a “kill shelter,” had been there for “everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort.”

There were references to “H and I,” her engagement and marriage, and becoming “a mom.”

Why was one half of the famously privacy-loving couple, who just four months ago claimed she was one of the most bullied people in the world due to social media, suddenly letting us in on these intimate moments of her life?

Well, the post had an answer for that too, albeit a non sequitur, saying Meghan was sharing the sad news because “many of you will now see Guy in this new series,” which meant we “may fall a little bit in love too,” and this would help us to “understand” why Meghan was so upset.

Ah! The new series! Cynics and hard-nosed data analysts might argue that promoting the new show, due out next week and titled With Love, Meghan, is the real reason why Meghan has suddenly decided to play one of her trump cards and share imagery of her kids. The show has been much mocked on social media since a trailer was released last week.

Meghan’s highly personal post could also represent a desire to boost engagement.

It’s certainly a wise move from a strategy point of view: As Warren Johnson, founder of W Communications, who has worked on social campaigns for a wealth of clients, including Sony and Disney, told The Daily Beast earlier this week: “Engagement is everything. You’ve got to work at it. You get back what you put in.”

While the cooking show may vanish into the Netflix ether, social media experts and consultants who spoke to The Daily Beast argued that Meghan’s presence as a figure on social media is here to stay, and that if that presence is handled correctly, she could make millions from a new life as super influencer.

Similarly, Gary Frayter, celebrity social media director at Kronus Communications, this week told The Daily Beast: “Having managed social media for Mike Tyson’s podcast and other celebrities, I’ve seen firsthand what they earn. I’d argue Meghan could easily pull in $100K per post, minimum. The same goes for Harry.”

Meghan’s latest post told how she adopted Guy in 2015, and suggested that she saved the “small and frail” dog from death.

She said the dog “endured a terrible accident shortly before I moved to the U.K.” and spent several months in a clinic, adding: “I have cried too many tears to count - the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they’re not there. But they are. And that’s okay too.”

Queen Elizabeth II and Meghan were said to have bonded over their love of dogs. When Elizabeth was asked whether she thought Meghan and Harry would ever return to the U.K. when they first left the royal family, she is said to have replied, “No. They took the dogs.”