(PHOTO) Meghan Markle Celebrates Her 45th Birthday With a Bikini Swimsuit and Rare Balloon Photos This Week

Meghan Markle rang in her 45th birthday Tuesday with a playful splash, sharing a series of black-and-white photos and a video on Instagram that showed the Duchess of Sussex leaping into a pool surrounded by birthday balloons.

The As Ever founder turned 45 on Aug. 4, marking the occasion with a carousel post that captured both the jump and its aftermath. In the images, Meghan is seen mid-air in a black one-piece swimsuit and sunglasses, arms raised as a cluster of balloons floats behind her, followed by a second shot showing the splash as she crashed into the water.

A multi-part celebration

Beyond the pool photos, Meghan's birthday post included several additional glimpses into her celebration. One slide featured an arrangement of her signature As Ever jams alongside a candle and a bucket chilling a bottle of Champagne. Another offered a personal touch, a throwback childhood photo showing a young Meghan sitting cross-legged in what appeared to be her childhood bedroom, wearing a white turtleneck, a multicolored striped skirt and her hair styled in pigtail braids. The final slide of the post carried the caption, "A birthday worth celebrating."

Alongside the photos, Meghan also shared a video showing her dancing during the festivities. In the caption accompanying her post, she offered a simple message of gratitude to fans. "Thank you for the birthday love," Meghan wrote, adding a red balloon emoji.

A birthday following a notable family trip

Meghan's birthday celebration comes just about a week after she shared a separate series of photos documenting her family's recent trip to England, a visit that drew significant attention among royal watchers. The trip included a reunion between King Charles III and his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, whom the king reportedly had not seen in person in several years.

For that earlier post, captioned "Summer Holiday," Meghan opened with a black-and-white photo of herself and Prince Harry sitting at a dining table, laughing over glasses of wine, with Harry's arm resting behind her chair as she covered her face mid-laugh. The rest of the carousel showed the family's time together during the trip, including beach days and sunset walks through grassy fields with Archie and Lilibet. One particularly striking image captured Harry tossing Lilibet into a pool, with water droplets frozen mid-air as she flipped into the water.

A relatively quiet public presence

Despite the family's reunion with King Charles during their England trip, Meghan did not make any public appearances during that visit, keeping the reunion largely private aside from the photos she later chose to share. Her latest birthday post follows that same pattern of offering fans curated glimpses into her personal life through social media rather than public events, a approach that has become increasingly characteristic of how the Duchess of Sussex shares moments from her life with the public.

A recent turn in front of the camera Down Under

Meghan's 45th birthday also comes during a period of increased public visibility in other areas of her career. Earlier this year, she made her debut appearance as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, filling in for regular judge Andy Allen while he was on paternity leave. During that appearance, Meghan described her visit to the country as a "full circle" moment, having previously traveled to Australia with Harry nearly eight years earlier during the same trip when the couple announced their pregnancy with Archie.

A birthday tradition that has evolved over the years

Meghan's approach to marking her birthday publicly has shifted noticeably over the past several years. Last year, for her 44th birthday, she shared a more intimate glimpse of a private dinner celebration at Funke, an upscale pasta restaurant in Beverly Hills helmed by chef Evan Funke, describing the meal as among the top five of her life. That post also included messages of gratitude to her husband, friends and family, along with a photo of her blowing out candles on a flower-topped birthday cake.

That earlier celebration also drew tributes from friends within Meghan's circle, including former "Suits" co-star Abigail Spencer, who shares the same birthday and posted an effusive tribute crediting Meghan with having a significant, positive impact on her life.

A milestone year for the Duchess

Turning 45 marks another milestone for Meghan, whose public profile has continued to evolve since she and Harry stepped back from their roles as senior working royals in 2020. In the years since, she has built out a business focused on lifestyle products through her As Ever brand, taken on new media and entertainment opportunities including her MasterChef Australia appearance, and continued to share curated updates about her family life with Harry, Archie and Lilibet through social media.

With her birthday celebrations now shared publicly, attention is likely to remain on how Meghan continues to balance her public-facing business ventures with the more private, family-focused glimpses she has increasingly chosen to share with followers. Her latest post, much like the family photos shared following the England trip, offered fans a warm, personal look at her life without straying into the more heavily scrutinized territory of formal royal engagements, continuing a pattern that has come to define how the Duchess of Sussex presents herself publicly in the years since leaving royal life.