Meghan-and-harry-instagram-account.jpg

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new Instagram account has broken the record for the fastest time to gain one million followers on Instagram.

The account, named sussexroyal, was set up on Tuesday 2 April and reached the 1 million milestone in just 5 hours and 45 minutes. Since then, the account following has doubled, standing at 2.1 million followers at the time of writing on 3 April 2019.

Their royal couple's record will now feature in Guinness World Records 2020.

The gallery post also included images of the royal couple together, as well as images of causes the couple are passionate about, including conservation and the British Armed Forces. 

The caption reads: '"Welcome to our official Instagram; we look forward to sharing the work that drives us, the causes we support, important announcements, and the opportunity to shine a light on key issues. We thank you for your support, and welcome you to @sussexroyal.”- Harry & Meghan.'

The account has received widespread media attention – and the post has received comments from the likes of Instagram itself. 

“Ummm... hello! Welcome ❤️ We are so happy you are here.” they commented, leading to 11,291 comment likes and 373 replies. 

According to journalist Benjamin Wareing, the rush of followers to the account caused Instagram to crash momentarily due to the unprecedented user volume. 

The flurry of action may be fuelled by the fact that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, deleted all her personal social media accounts ahead of her wedding to Harry in May 2018. This account is her first presence on social media since joining the British royal family. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The royal couple have taken the title from K-Pop star Kang Daniel, who achieved 1 million followers in 11 hours 36 minutes - double the amount of time it took Harry and Meghan. The 22-year-old acquired the title in January after posting a selfie with the caption 'HELLO'. 

 
 
View this post on Instagram

Before Kang Daniel, the record was held by Pope Francis, who reached 1 million in 12 hours after debuting his verified Vatican Media channel 'franciscus' back in 2016.

With just a month to go until Meghan's due date, we wonder if the next picture will be of the new baby – and if that too could secure a record? 

Both Beyoncé and Kylie Jenner have earned the title for the most liked image on Instagram with their baby announcements in recent years, until both were surpassed by world_record_egg with a post which now has more than 53 million likes.