Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Started Flirting on DM Through a Secret Instagram Account

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry may adhere to centuries-old traditions, but when it comes to flirting they are as millennial as anyone else with an active Instagram account. Apparently, when the pair started their courtship, well before the public even knew they were an item — because it wasn’t until their engagement that they finally confirmed their relationship — they did so through direct messages.

We know that Markle used to post frequently on the social media app — that is until she began her transition into a royal and, thereby, gave up having a personal account and a blog, The Tig. But the fact that Prince Harry has a secret Instagram account that he used to communicate with Markle through in the beginning of their relationship? That piece of information is new. Royal correspondent Omid Scobie dropped that revelation (or at least his version of it), when talking about how Markle and Harry grew close while she was working on Suits and would fly to visit Harry every few weeks. “A lot of their early days were spent DM-ing and texting back and forth,” Scobie told Royal Box, via the Daily Express. Apparently, a lot of the DMs he sent included emoji (though Scobie didn’t reveal which ones are on Harry’s most-recently used tab.)

What’s just as funny as imagining the royal flirting on DM through Instagram like any other millennial or Gen Z-er is picturing him using that account to this day to keep tabs on coverage of the royals. According to Scobie, that is exactly what’s happening. (He also uses a secret Twitter account for following royal news.) “Prince Harry told me that he follows a lot of the royal correspondents on Twitter to see what they’re up to,” Scobie said. “I think he does pay attention to what’s being written about him and, of course, now his wife.”

Secret social media accounts aren’t exactly new for Prince Harry. After he was photographed naked and partying in Las Vegas back in 2012, Prince Harry was reportedly forced to delete his fake Facebook account that had been under the name “Spike Wells” and had more than 400 friends, “including some of Britain’s richest young men and women” per The Telegraph. As Scobie said last year when Princess Beatrice’s Instagram account was revealed, “The princesses have long had private accounts. Harry has one too. No protocol to say it’s not allowed!” Sometimes royals really are just like us.