--- title: Creator of Instagram Record Holding Egg Photo Reveals Self description: A picture of a simple brown egg beat Kylie Jenner as Instagram's most-liked photo. The creator of the viral sensation has revealed himself. canonical: https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/ author: George Steer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-04T13:16:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:18.095Z og:title: Creator of Instagram Record-Holding Egg Reveals Himself og:description: A picture of a simple brown egg beat Kylie Jenner as Instagram's most-liked photo og:url: https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca67e0cbc9c16808/6989434d8fd2ee605535d95c/world-record-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: An Egg Becomes The Most Likes Instagram Post : Illustration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Creator of Instagram Record-Holding Egg Reveals Himself twitter:description: A picture of a simple brown egg beat Kylie Jenner as Instagram's most-liked photo twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca67e0cbc9c16808/6989434d8fd2ee605535d95c/world-record-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Creator of the Egg That Became Instagram's Most-Liked Photo Came Out of His Shell > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [George Steer](https://time.com/author/george-steer/) ## George Steer Feb 4, 2019 1:16 PM UTC  In this illustration photo, a mobile phone shows the image of an egg which was posted on the Instagram social network on January 14, 2019 in Paris, France. In this illustration photo, a mobile phone shows the image of an egg which was posted on the Instagram social network on January 14, 2019 in Paris, France. Chesnot—Getty Images by [George Steer](https://time.com/author/george-steer/) ## George Steer Feb 4, 2019 1:16 PM UTC “An egg has no gender, race or religion. An egg is an egg, it’s universal.” Thus spoke Chris Godfrey, the man who revealed himself Sunday to be the person behind the most-liked picture on Instagram: a photo of a perfectly normal egg. 29-year-old Chris Godfrey, an advertising executive from London, has been credited with creating the viral sensation, helped by friends Alissa Khan-Whelan, 26, and C.J. Brown, 29\. When they saw that a picture uploaded by Kylie Jenner that had been liked almost 19 millions times held the world record, they hatched a cunning plan to usurp her. Since it was uploaded January 4, their picture of a lightly speckled brown egg, resplendent on a sheer white back drop, has been liked over 52 million times. Khan-Whelan [told The _New York Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/style/world-record-egg-instagram.html) the group decided to “put any speculation to bed” by revealing their identities now. The trio, who live in London, spoke to media as the egg featured in a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Broadcast on streaming service Hulu, the ad shows the egg cracking under the pressure of social media fame in an advert for [Mental Health America](http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/), a non-profit organization based in Virginia “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness,” according to its website. The ad reads: “Hi, I’m the world record egg. (You may have heard of me.) Recently I’ve started to crack. If you’re struggling too, talk to someone.” > [](https://twitter.com/MentalHealthAm/status/1092276111927664643) Godfrey told the _Times_ that the past few weeks had been “crazy” and a “real journey.” “It’s not really about me,” he said. “It’s just about the egg and sort of where we can take it and what we can do with it.” However, he did admit the success had been a “fluke.” “But it’s a fluke that caught the world’s attention. It’s what you do with that attention that counts,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/"},"headline":"The Creator of the Egg That Became Instagram's Most-Liked Photo Came Out of His Shell","datePublished":"2019-02-04T13:16:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:18.095Z","description":"'An egg has no gender, race or religion,' says creator Chris Godfrey","url":"https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Tech","Social Media","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca67e0cbc9c16808/6989434d8fd2ee605535d95c/world-record-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"George Steer","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/george-steer/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca67e0cbc9c16808/6989434d8fd2ee605535d95c/world-record-egg.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"An Egg Becomes The Most Likes Instagram Post : Illustration","caption":"An Egg Becomes The Most Likes Instagram Post : Illustration","creditText":"Chesnot—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5519974/instagram-egg-creator/","name":"The Creator of the Egg That Became Instagram's Most-Liked Photo Came Out of His Shell"}}]}] ```