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VENICE, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 26: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Meghan, Duchess Of Sussex (C) attends Holiday Dinner for The Welcome Project in Celebration of Community at Our Place on October 26, 2024 in Venice, California.
Photo by Eric Charbonneau/The Archewell Foundation via Getty Images

‘No one has the patience’: Meghan Markle hit with warning that she risks ‘killing her brand’ if she makes one big goof

The fate of the entire world depends on this.

The money may be nothing to sneeze at, but being a celebrity must be completely and utterly exhausting. It’s one thing for us mere mortals to have to commodify our skills and professional image for the sake of landing a gig or a position, but can you imagine having to commodify your entire mortal essence as a career?

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That’s what Meghan Markle has to do. If she performs a kind act, she’s accused of doing it for the cameras, and if she shows any fault, she’ll get lambasted for it in kind. Now, a PR expert has publicly advised Markle on the best approach for being on social media, at once exemplifying how bombastically contrived the plight of a celebrity is.

Speaking recently to The Express, No Strings Public Relations founder Riley Gardiner stated that it would be unwise of Meghan to not post on Instagram in the weeks leading up to the debut of her new Netflix show With Love, Meghan.

Meghan Markle should absolutely keep her social media presence active in the lead-up to With Love, Meghan. Waiting until March 4 to post would be a mistake. Silence is more of a brand killer than a strategy. If she stays quiet for too long, people will get bored, and the headlines will shift elsewhere – no one has the patience for that level of mystery anymore.

Gardiner then ruminated on the type of content and frequency with which Markle should take to Instagram.

Regular posts are a must – something that keeps her in the conversation without going overboard. Once a week seems like the sweet spot. Content-wise, her posts should feel authentic, but not too self-indulgent. A photo of her children’s birthday? Sure. But it should carry some weight, not just a “happy birthday” tag. Something about her reflections on motherhood and how she’s shaping their futures.

To recap, here we have a PR manager explaining how and how often a social media post should be gerrymandered so as to seem genuine, but also in a way that doesn’t shine a light on the parasocial nature of the celebrity-follower relationship. Gardiner has broken the illusion inherent to the fame market about three times over here. Markle’s fans can literally read about how she’s being sold to them, and how they will ultimately move on to some other celebrity if Markle stops posting on socials. Is this not insane? Tell me this isn’t insane.

Markle, of course, has better things to do than reassure a bunch of strangers that she’s doing a great job of raising her children. For one thing, her home city of Los Angeles has spent the last couple of weeks burning to the ground during one of the most horrific wildfires in the country’s history, and she’s had her hands full with doing what she can to contribute to relief efforts, together with her husband Prince Harry.

Nevertheless, her career as a public figure is unfortunately defined by how much people like her. So, as mechanical as her Instagram campaign may be, she ought to heed Gardiner’s advice to avoid a career nosedive. Her kids need to eat, after all.


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