rupert grint with grey background

Rupert Grint has surpassed Sir David Attenborough's record for the fastest time to reach 1 million followers on Instagram, amassing the huge following in just four hours and one minute. 

The former Harry Potter actor posed with his baby, Wednesday G. Grant, in his first post and reached the one million followers mark just 241 minutes later. 

Friends and fans commented in their thousands, with fellow Harry Potter star Tom Felton, who played Slytherin bad guy Draco Malfoy, saying: “Welcome Weasley, it’s about time. Love to Wednesday xx” 

Grint joked in the caption of his post that he was only 10 years late in joining the platform, but that he wanted to introduce the world to his daughter. 

The 32-year-old became a father for the first time earlier this year. 

Born in Harlow, UK, Grint rose to worldwide fame playing Ron Weasley in all eight of the Harry Potter films from 2001 to 2011. 

The franchise has multiple record titles including being the highest-grossing fantasy film series and the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is the fastest-selling fiction book in 24 hours.  

Previous record holder Sir David Attenborough, a presenter and naturalist, joined Instagram in September 2020 and got to seven digits worth of followers in four hours and 44 minutes. 

david attenborough with telescope shutterstock

His first post was an IGTV video about global warming. 

Before Sir David, the previous record holder was Friends star Jennifer Aniston, who joined the social media app on October 15 2019 and gained 1 million followers in five hours and 16 minutes. 

Footballer David Beckham, Pope Francis and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have all also been record holders in this category.