'No, It's Not His Baby': Meghan Markle Blasted as 'Hypocrite' Over Deleted Instagram Photo

Meghan Markle has been accused of hypocrisy after sharing, then swiftly deleting, an Instagram photo of herself cradling a friend's baby in Montecito on 12 June 2026, joking in the caption that 'no, it's not his baby' in an apparent pre-emptive strike against fresh surrogacy rumours.

After years of online conspiracy theories about how Meghan and Prince Harry welcomed their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Since leaving royal duties and relocating to the United States, the Duchess of Sussex has been the subject of relentless speculation, including persistent and entirely unproven claims that both children were born via surrogacy. Against that backdrop, even a seemingly innocuous Instagram story featuring a baby in her lap was never likely to pass without scrutiny.

In the now-vanished post, first reported by People, the former Suits actor appeared in a white outfit, holding a redheaded baby on her knee and kissing him gently on the forehead. Over the image, Meghan wrote: 'We know I love a redhead. And let me stop you before it starts, no, it's not his baby,' punctuated with laughing-crying emojis.

The caption was hard to misread. It was a direct nod to the online fringe that insists, despite a lack of evidence, that the Sussex children are not biologically hers. Rather than waiting for that corner of the internet to seize on the photo as 'proof' of a secret third child, Meghan tried to get there first, with a joke that said she understood exactly how she is talked about.

The baby in question was not some mystery infant but almost one-year-old Jack Oliver Zajfen, the son of Meghan's close friend Kelly McKee Zajfen and her husband, Julian. Kelly co-founded Alliance of Moms, a community organisation that supports young parents in the foster care system.

In 2022, she suffered the sudden death of her nine-year-old son, George, a loss that was widely reported at the time. Kelly has previously thanked Meghan for standing by her through that grief, and the Instagram moment was, at heart, a glimpse of a godmother-style bond rather than anything more dramatic.

Meghan Markle's Instagram Joke Divides Social Media

Once the image began circulating beyond Meghan's stories, reactions were predictably polarised. Supporters argued that the deleted post showed a woman worn down by constant misinformation, using humour to disarm it. Critics saw the same caption and concluded she was guilty of the very thing she has so publicly campaigned against.

One fan on social media wrote that Meghan was 'holding her best friend Kelly Zajfen's baby' and said the line 'before it starts' 'says so much,' adding that the duchess had 'mastered the trolling of the trolls'. Another admirer described Meghan as 'so funny,' applauding the way she 'trolls' what they called her 'deranged haters' and calling the baby 'so adorable.'

It is true that, taken in isolation, the post was playful rather than provocative. It barely lasted online before being removed. Nothing in the original reporting suggests the deletion was explained, and there has been no official comment from Meghan's representatives, so any speculation about her motives remains just that. Nothing is confirmed yet, so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.

Child Privacy Row Reignites Around Meghan Markle

Where supporters saw a light-hearted moment, detractors saw ammunition. Several users on X, formerly Twitter, quickly argued that Meghan had undermined her own messaging on children's privacy and safety online.

One critic asked pointedly: 'Thought she was against exposing children on social media?' Another wrote: 'Wait, she is showing a child's face on social media. Didn't she just travel to Geneva to lecture 10 people not to do this.' Those comments referred to Meghan's recent appearance at an event in Geneva focused on protecting children in the digital age, where she urged technology platforms and parents to do more.

Another X user went further, calling her 'a hypocrite' for 'showing a baby's face online' and asking, 'What happened to protecting children online, Meghan?' The implication was clear. By posting a friend's child, however briefly, she had blurred the line she has previously drawn around her own children.

There is, of course, a distinction between sharing a single, affectionate image with a friend's consent and the industrial-scale harvesting of children's data that campaigners warn about. The original reporting does not address whether Kelly McKee Zajfen approved the photograph being posted, and without that, it is impossible to say whether any boundaries were breached. What the backlash does underline is how little benefit of the doubt Meghan receives from her critics, and how every digital footprint she leaves is combed for contradictions.

For Meghan's supporters, that is precisely why she felt compelled to add the 'no, it's not his baby' line in the first place. For her detractors, it is another example of what they view as selective principle. Caught between those two camps, a short-lived Instagram story about a redheaded baby has become yet another proxy battle over who gets to define Meghan's public image and what, if anything, she is allowed to joke about.