Meghan Markle's secret method of chatting to fans after turning off social media comments

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has revealed she has a special method of interacting with her fans despite having something of a 'complicated' relationship with social media

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The spotlight is back on Meghan after she has spent the last couple of weeks undertaking some high-profile public appearances.

The Duchess, who launched a lifestyle brand this year, recently took part in a wide-ranging discussion about her business ventures, during which she opened up candidly about her complex relationship with social media.

Before meeting her husband, Meghan had always had an active social media presence since its inception, and as an actress, she cannily leveraged her public profile to create opportunities for herself even when things like Instagram were in their fledgling stages.

Using her online following, she launched a successful lifestyle blog called The Tig, which covered everything from wellness to travel, and which gained her a lot of fans. However, when things got serious with Prince Harry, the Duchess deleted all her accounts, and her online presence was pretty minimal for a long time, until now.

When she relaunched her Instagram account last New Year, she quickly amassed a large following, and shortly afterwards announced her new lifestyle show for Netflix, With Love, Meghan, and her brand that sells physical products, As Ever.

During the candid chat for the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit 2025, Meghan explained to Alyson Shontell, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer for Fortune, that despite how useful social media is for growing a brand, she has a complex relationship with the platform, and admitted just why she has turned comments off on her account.

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"There are certain things that I have done, just for my own self-preservation," Meghan explained. "But also that I've applied to the brand, and for the people that are incredibly supportive.

"I know the question can be around naysayers, but if you really see the groundswell of support that surrounds the brand and me, that's what I feel the most, and that's what I appreciate. But by design, I also recognize that a lot of those people aren't going to my page to see negativity, and so not just protecting myself or the people that work with me, but also the supporters. So I don't have the comment section on."

Despite the understandable urge to protect herself from trolls, Meghan admitted that the move presented something of a "challenge" for her new company in its early stages, which required her to create a sense of "community" with fans and customers.

"That's a choice, and yet, part of that challenge that I was trying to solve. But how do I build a community? That is so key to this brand, and it's so key to how I like to show up in the world. How do we actually connect, if you can't have comments and exchange?" Meghan said.

This "challenge" presented Meghan and her social media manager with an opportunity to get creative and find unusual ways of interacting with other users whilst still remaining "authentic," she explained.

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"So my social media manager would send me screen grabs of different things that people were posting in their UGC [User Generated Content]. And I said, 'Okay, what am I going to do here?'

"And they said I can do a text overlay and respond. So, in the same way I would on my own camera roll at home, I'll zoom in, I can scribble a little note, and send it to a friend. I've just started this construct where I will start writing in my handwriting, a note to users who put up content.

"So 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. So I think a lot of it is just designing what's best for you while growing the business with an intentional and authentic point of view."