Originally Published January 1, 2025 | Updated January 4, 2025
Self-awareness was clearly not on Meghan Markle’s New Year’s resolution list.
When the words “terror attack” are attached to a distressing incident and loss of life… fear is heightened—our country rallies.
On New Year’s Day Americans suffered two jarring incidents. A man in a rented vehicle with an ISIS flag plowed into a crowd of strangers celebrating the new year on Bourbon Street. Over 30 individuals were injured and at the time of this writing, 14 are dead. This led to the postponement of a major college football game that drew tens of thousands of fans to The Big Easy.
Hours later, frighteningly, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
So obviously there was no better day for Meghan Markle to frolic in angelic white down a beach to launch her personal Instagram page.
A likely steady-handed Prince Harry chases Meghan closer to the tide before she lunges towards the sand and writes “2025” with her finger. Compelling.
The camera pans up along the waves but seems to stay on the waves for too long as Meghan rushes through the shot impatiently with a choreographed giggle.
As an individual who worked in public relations for over a decade, I can tell you that Meghan’s choice to launch her Instagram page just hours after a suspected terror attack does not bode well for Markle’s Sparkle in 2025.
And to those who argue that she is now a private citizen, the rules or standards that might apply to working royals no longer apply to her… I’d argue right back that she should remove the Duchess title from her bio if she doesn’t want to be held accountable for her poor PR choices.
The “Men in Gray Suits” would have never allowed such an error in judgment. Such a self-absorbed, shallow display during a time of hurt, fear, and confusion.
Meghan’s “look at me” moment lacked the compassion in action that the Sussexes constantly preach about.
But what did we expect from a woman who launched her new lifestyle Instagram account just weeks after her father-in-law, King Charles III, announced he was suffering from cancer? Or how about the time post-cancer Catherine announced her triumphant Trooping return for Nacho Polo to post Meghan’s dog biscuits on Instagram?
Meghan has been chomping at the bit to get back on the ‘gram no matter how poor the timing is.
“Do you want to know a secret?” She shamelessly asked The Cut Magazine weeks before Queen Elizabeth’s death. “I’m getting back on Instagram!” She warned.
Then, to contradict herself, something royal watchers have grown accustomed to when it comes to the Sussexes, Meghan spoke on a SXSW panel about how social media is having a negative impact on women. She said in March 2024, “The toxicity that comes at you, yes, social media is an environment that has a lot of that.”
Markle told the audience at the Austin Convention Center that she deals with negative social media feedback by avoiding it completely. She just didn’t have it! That was her expert solution. She said it baffled her how “catty and cruel” people can be. I thought the same thing when I read Prince Harry’s play-by-play of Catherine, Princess of Wales not wanting to share her lip gloss with Meghan in Spare. Meghan Markle has kissed Russell Brand. I wouldn’t share my lip gloss with her either.
But @Meghan’s fear of “catty and cruel” feedback is likely why she turned the comments off on her debut Instagram post.
You don’t turn the comments off of your posts unless you anticipate a significant amount of trolling. Trolling that could quickly become the story. Only glowing headlines for Meghan’s re-re-relaunch… on the day of an ISIS terror attack.
What does the timing tell us about the former 90210 star?
That she is still as totally self-consumed as she was when she sat on the wicker patio furniture across from Oprah Winfrey complaining about titles and tiaras amid a global plague. Not to mention while the Duke of Edinburgh sat in King Edward VII’s Hospital suffering from an infection one month before his death.
Sorry if we struggle to accept images of Meghan Markle dragging underprivileged children around third-world countries in her couture as sincere.
Tone deaf just doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Let’s not forget Prince Harry, who, 10 years ago was undoubtedly the most popular member of the British royal family. Hobnobbing with American Presidents and doing chocolate mushrooms at Courteney Cox’s house. Today he’s relegated to the 40-year-old Instagram boyfriend whose job is to chase after Meghan Markle and capture the right angles or risk her wrath. Allegedly. Ask the Sussex Survivors Club.
This public relations foul is not their first and won’t be their last in 2025.
Page Six recently reported, “As far as Meghan being quiet, she’s been in the background working on her entrepreneurial efforts.”
An “insider” told the publication, “It’s going to be a good year for Meghan specifically, she’s spent the majority of the year doing work behind the scenes to launch a project in the first few months of 2025.”
Already being parodied as a Kotex commercial… if Meghan’s bland and ill-timed Instagram debut is any indication of what’s on the horizon… Duchess Difficult is going to prove to be Duchess Dud.
To quote ex-Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, Meghan Markle is “flawless about getting it all wrong.”
Kinsey Schofield is a Los Angeles-based royal reporter, the author of R is for Revenge Dress, and host of the To Di For Daily podcast. Follow her royal commentary at Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered on YouTube.
UPDATE: BBC reports, “The Prince of Wales has said he and Catherine are ‘shocked and saddened’ by the death of his former nanny’s stepson, Edward Pettifer, who was killed in the New Orleans attack.”
Just 31-year-old, Edward was one of the 14 people killed in the Bourbon Street terror attack on New Year’s Day. Edward’s stepmother is Alexandra “Tiggy” Pettifer, née Legge-Bourke, who famously consoled William and Harry after the death of Princess Diana.
Tiggy is also said to be Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son, Archie‘s, godmother.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere condolences to Mrs. Pettifer and her entire family. To New Orleans, which I used to call home, and everyone affected by January 1, 2025.
This is exactly why any decent publicist or marketing consultant would advise a person to hold off on the launch of their influencer brand on the same day as a terror attack.
Meghan says in the trailer to her new Netflix series, With Love, Meghan, that she loves… “Surprising people with moments that let them know I was really thinking of them…” Well, while at least 14 families were mourning the loss of their loved ones after a horrific attack in New Orleans… Meghan let the world know that all she was thinking about was getting back on Instagram. Because Meghan Markle only REBRANDS on days that end in Y.
Little did she know that one of those mourning families was Archie’s godmother’s. Tactless.
Let’s pretend she was contractually obligated to officially launch her Instagram (that she’s had since 2022) to promote her new television series… Why the beach video? How generic and irrelevant.
I suggested that she could have launched with a campaign to support New Orleans victims and their families. And why shouldn’t she? Lili’s godfather, Tyler Perry, is from New Orleans, LA.
But no. Another year of an insufferable… out of touch woman telling us that she is overflowing with empathy and compassion while her 80-year-old Daddy waits by the phone to hear from his daughter for the first time in six years.
Kinsey Schofield is the host of the To Di For Daily podcast and the creator of ToDiForDaily.com. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram. No TikTok or Facebook for this Millennial.