Driving instructor surprised to find out Harry and Meghan took his Instagram handle

Cape Town – Kevin Keiley used the Instagram handle @sussexroyal for years and was surprised when he found out that the handle had recently been given to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle… without his knowledge.

According to Kevin his Instagram handle was changed to @_sussexroyal_ without any communication from neither Instagram nor the royals. The British driving instructor says he chose the original handle because he supports Reading FC (known as the Royals) and he lives in West Sussex.

Instagram confirmed to Radio 1 Newsbeat that Kevin's handle had been "changed in line with its policy that allows the company to make changes to an account if it's been inactive for a certain amount of time".

Guinness World Records confirmed on Wednesday that the new Instagram account opened by Prince Harry and Meghan is the fastest-ever to gain 1 million followers.

The account, which was opened Tuesday, reached the 1 million mark in under six hours, easily beating a record held by Korean pop sensation Kang Daniel.

Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, will use the account for important announcements.

Kevin stills own the Twitter handle @sussexroyal and is now tweeting to keep it active in an effort to hang on to the name. He tweeted on Wednesday: " This is the original and only Sussexroyal. We talk about supporting Reading FC" and on Thursday added: "Morning all. Gone a bit mad today hasnt it".