Meghan Markle has made her long-promised return to social media, quietly launching a new Instagram account.

Revealed on Thursday (US time), it is the Duchess of Sussex’s first official social media account since she and husband Prince Harry shelved their Sussex Royal accounts as they officially quit royal duties in 2020.

It also came after Meghan shuttered lifestyle website The Tig when her relationship with Harry became public in 2017.

Under the name American Riviera Orchard, the new account was launched with a cryptic video on Instagram Stories.

It shows Meghan arranging a bouquet of white roses and cooking up something in what appears to be the kitchen of her Californian home. She is wearing a casual white tank top in the video, set to Nancy Wilson’s I Wish You Love.

There is also an image of the new brand’s logo, which features the Sussexes’ coat of arms. The Instagram account was closing in on 200,000 followers by early Friday morning (Australian time).

Its bio reads, simply: “By Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex⁣⁣⁣.”

There has been confirmation from Meghan’s office that the new account is hers. And “insider” reportedly told US gossip site Page Six that it would focus on home, garden, food and general lifestyle wares.

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“She’s been working on this for over a year and it’s all the things that are close to her heart – all the things she’s passionate about,” Page Six said it had been told.

The site has also discovered a trademark application that reveals American Riviera Orchard will sell a wide range of home goods including jams and spreads, cutlery, table linen, drinkware and cookbooks.

The new brand’s name seems to be a nod to Santa Barbara, the upmarket Californian region where Harry and Meghan live with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet. It is sometimes called the American Riviera, because its geography and climate are similar to that of the coast along the northern Mediterranean Sea.

Meghan’s return to social media comes just weeks after she and Harry relaunched their Sussex.com website.

It promises coverage of the work of the couple and their Archewell Foundation. Much of it also links back to the Sussex’s former royal website.