Meghan Markle's jaw drops as she recognizes an old friend in New Zealand

She may be one of the most recognized faces in the world, but Meghan Markle proved she’ll never forget her roots she ran over to a loyal fan she’d befriended long ago while touring New Zealand on Tuesday.

The Duchess of Sussex was at Viaduct Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, for a public stroll with her husband, Prince Harry, when she stopped in her tracks after spotting Hannah Sergel in the crowd. According to Sergel, she and Meghan used to be friendly on Instagram and would private message each other before the former Suits actress deactivated her account.

In the video, Meghan can be seen walking along holding hands with Harry when suddenly she stops and her jaw drops in shock. She quickly lets go of her husband’s hand and makes her way over to Sergel, who’s filming the whole thing.

“She said, ‘Thank you so much for getting in touch,’ and then she took my letter and told me that she’d read it,” Sergel told Aukland news station 1 News about her encounter with the duchess.

“I was friends with her on Instagram before she had to deactivate her account. We used to have conversations and stuff on there,” she said. “She would tell me to do well at university and encourage me to be myself.”

As if meeting her idol wasn’t thrilling enough, Sergel later received a private message on Twitter from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “She just sent me this photo of Meghan noticing me … we are now best friends,” Sergel wrote online.

The picture shows a visibly shocked Meghan standing with her mouth wide open, with Prince Harry looking very confused.

Before she deactivated her Instagram account, Meghan would regularly post pictures of her beloved dogs, cozy apartment, travel pics, and more. She even had her own blog called The Tig.

In January 2017, however, all of her Instagram photos were taken down, and a farewell statement was posted to her now-defunct blog just two months after her then-boyfriend, Prince Harry, released a statement expressing his disappointment that Meghan had been subjected “to a wave of abuse and harassment.”

On her recent trip to Bondi Beach, Meghan spoke with locals about the dangers of social media. Lyn Malcolm from Sydney spoke with the duchess when the royal couple sat with the One Wave surfing community group.

“She said you have to be really careful with social media,” Lyn told Yahoo Lifestyle. “She said it’s important to feel really OK within yourself regardless of what happens on social media. You might get lots and lots of likes and one dislike and you feel terrible.”

Lyn added: “All of it doesn’t really matter, it’s all about how you can get to feel within yourself. That was really powerful.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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