Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Might Need To Pay Twitter Handle, Fans Mad

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry might need to buy their Twitter handle.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have officially joined Instagram with the username “sussexroyal.” The royals usually keep their handles consistent across all social media. However, Prince Harry and Markle’s handle is already taken on Twitter.

The Twitter account that matches Prince Harry and Markle’s Instagram handle is currently owned by a man named Kevin Keiley. He is not super active on the site and only tweets every few months about football games and TV shows. However, he is unlikely to give up his handle as he has used it for almost a decade already.

Also, the announcement of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Instagram has increased the value of Kevin’s Twitter handle. Royal blogger and podcaster Laura Faurot speculated that the royals may have to barter for the handle.

“They could pay for it also or Kevin could willingly relinquish it too,” Faurot told 9Honey.

She added that the royal family is unlikely to get involved because they have never paid for a handle. However, Twitter could do something to give the handle to the royal couple.

“Given the lack of transparency and consistency from Twitter they could just acquire the handle back and give it to the British Royal Family even though the account hasn’t violated any rules,” Faurot said.

Meanwhile, some of Markle and Prince Harry’s fans were mad at Kevin. One suggested that they should report him while another tried to ask Kevin to just give it up.

“So to the guy with the twitter account @Sussexroyal .... we’re kindly asking u to give up the name!” one user wrote before adding that it might be necessary because he only has 15 followers anyway.

Another user encouraged Kevin to post tweets if he doesn’t want to lose his Twitter handle to Prince Harry and Markle because “dormant accounts“ can be transferred by Twitter to someone else.

In related news, Prince William and Middleton lost followers after the announcement of Prince Harry and Markle’s official Instagram. A number of netizens said that they would unfollow Kensington Palace because they only wanted updates from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Also, some of them didn’t like the way the palace handled the issues targeting Markle when they were still managing the couple’s presence on social media.