After an alleged feud between the Sussexes and Cambridges, their Instagram accounts are now being pitted against each other. After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their decision to step back from their royal duties, their Instagram account, Sussex Royal, reportedly overtakes Prince William and Kate Middleton's number of Kensington Palace's followers.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex now have 11.1 million followers, while the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have 11 million followers -- only 100,000 followers short. According to Express, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's follower count started to skyrocket after they announced their plan to step down as senior members of the royal family.
"After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution," they said. They intended to step back as senior members of the royal family and be financially independent. This post alone received more than 1.8 million likes and almost 200,000 comments.
Compared to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Sussex Royal, Kate Middleton and Prince William's Instagram account has been around for much longer. So far, they have almost 2,000 posts, while Harry and Meghan only have 185.
Although they both receive similar amounts of likes per post, their official statements get much higher engagement. Kensington Palace's post for Kate Middleton's birthday got over 1.2 million likes and almost 30,000 comments.
Kate Middleton and Prince William follow 97 accounts on Instagram. Although Prince Harry and Meghan Markle follow new accounts each month to highlight charitable causes, they are only following one today -- the Good News Movement, which only shares positive news.
Meanwhile, with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step down from their royal duties, the Duke of Sussex officially talked about their plan, per Daily Mail Online. In an emotional speech at a private event for his charity, Sentebale, he said that he was "taking a leap of faith" in stepping back from his life as a member of the royal family, and there was "no other option."
He added that he would leave his royal duties behind in exchange for a more "peaceful life" for his family. It was recently announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would stop using their HRH titles starting the spring. They, too, would spend the majority of their time living in Canada and would be paying back the taxpayers' money spent on renovating their Frogmore home.
