Meghan Markle Takes a Subtle Swipe at Royal Family in Cryptic Instagram Post
The Duchess reposted an astrology meme about ending a painful seven-year cycle — and the math is not exactly subtle.
Meghan Markle rarely says things directly. She does not need to, in a life lived almost entirely in public, even a repost invites reading between the lines. So when the Duchess of Sussex reshared two astrology posts on Instagram on April 25, her followers knew exactly what to make of it. One came from the account Astrology Is For Everyone — a video of two men dancing with the caption: "Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, & Aquarius ending the hardest seven years of their lives on April 25." It was the implication that was hard to ignore, and for many, the timing felt less like a subtle dig at her husband's family, the most famous one in the world.
Markle, who was born on August 4, is a Leo. The second, from the account spiritdaughter, was slightly heavier. "The tension between who you actually are and what the world around you was willing to see has been exhausting in a way that is hard to explain to people who have not lived it," it read. "Your confidence took hits it had no business taking. You questioned your creative direction, your spotlight, your worth. April 25th, the pressure lifts. You get the space to just exist without fighting for it."
For anyone attuned to the longer arc of Markle's story, the timing also carries a sharper edge. Seven years ago, the start of that difficult cycle is placed squarely around 2018, the period when her relationship with the Royal Family began its very public unraveling.
The reposts came just days after she and Prince Harry returned from Australia, where the couple spent four days across Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney. The visit centered on mental health, community resilience, and support for veterans and their families, but it was their personal candor that left the deepest impression. Harry spoke about not wanting his royal role in the wake of Princess Diana's death in 1997. Markle also spoke about her experience with bullying. Speaking directly to a classroom of students, she said: "For now, 10 years, every day for 10 years, I have been bullied and attacked. Now, I'm still here."
The Australia trip also took Markle to the Her Best Life podcast's ‘girls weekend’ retreat, where she appeared as the headline guest for a Q&A alongside co-host Gemma O'Neill. She spoke about motherhood and what it has given her, saying that raising Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, had taught her patience and perspective — something she admitted she needed, given what our life is like.'
The press coverage, the commentary, the relentless dissection of everything from her body language to her outfits — it was a pressure campaign that ran on a scale most people will never fully grasp. That she is now framing April 25 as the day the weight lifts suggests someone who has been actually counting down to a moment of release for a very long time.