Prince Harry and Meghan release family portrait for Lilibet’s birthday

Harry and Meghan have marked their daughter Princess Lilibet’s fifth birthday with a new family portrait. The image showing Prince Harry holding Lilibet with her mother smiling adoringly at the five-year old was shared to Meghan’s 4.6 million followers on Instagram. Lilibet’s strawberry blonde hair, which falls past her shoulders, obscured her face from the camera. Another photo showed the Sussexes’ younger child standing in the garden of the family’s £11million Montecito home as she admired some flowers. Meghan’s caption read: ‘Our dream girl. Happy fifth birthday, Lili.’ In the photos, Lilibet is wearing a light yellow sundress previously seen in a behind-the-scenes shoot for her mother’s lifestyle brand As Ever.

And it appears that Meghan’s ‘mini me’ is developing a style similar to her mother’s; in the photo, she sported a thin gold bracelet that looked very similar to the Duchess’s £5,800 Cartier ‘Love Bracelet’. Lilibet’s latest birthday post comes after branding and PR experts told the Daily Mail that there has been a ‘noticeable shift in Meghan’s approach to featuring her children on public social media’ over the last year, adding it ‘reinforces the idea that As Ever is an extension of her life as a mother and homemaker’. Like her older brother Archie, seven, Lilibet spent the first four years of her life shielded from the spotlight while growing up thousands of miles away from the Royal Family.

Such was the Sussexes’ dedication to privacy that they never followed up her first birthday portrait – depicting the angelic toddler enjoying the sunshine during a picnic at Frogmore Cottage – with any more official snaps that showed her face. When she turned four, Meghan gave fans the first proper glimpse of Lilibet in a black and white photograph that clearly showed her eyes and the top half of her face. Meghan also posted the now-famous video of her and Prince Harry dancing in a hotel room to induce Lilibet’s birth, with the Duchess twerking to Starrkeisha’s viral Baby Mama song. Days later, she documented the family’s two-day Disneyland holiday on Instagram, including sharing the moment Lilibet and Archie met Elsa from Frozen, as well as a picture of the Duke enjoying a theme park ride with his daughter. The social media blitz continued as Meghan paid tribute to her daughter on International Day of the Girl, gave millions of followers a glimpse into their Halloween celebrations and released the Sussexes’ annual holiday card.

Harry, 41, is shown with his hands cupped protectively around Archie’s head. The father and son are staring at one another lovingly, both with smiles on their faces. Next to them on a bridge are Meghan and Lilibet. The Duchess is bent down to rest her forehead against her daughter’s while holding both her hands. In dappled California sunshine, Lilibet’s face is covered by her hair, which comes down to her shoulder blades. While Lilibet’s face was hidden in earlier photos, fans finally saw what she looked like in Meghan’s Valentine’s Day post. The Instagram snap showed Harry smiling as he held the princess in his arms while Lilibet clutched a bunch of red balloons. It sent fans into overdrive with people commenting on her red hair ‘like her father’ and her being ‘beautiful just like her daddy’. Meanwhile, Archie’s face has not been seen in a photo since the Sussexes’ Christmas card in 2021. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have both advocated for stronger protections for children online, including backing a social media ban for under-16s brought in in Australia.

In April last year, the couple unveiled a memorial in New York City to young people who lost their lives due to the harmful effects of social media and met families who believe social media played a part in the deaths of their youngsters. Some five months later, Harry warned that the impact of social media on children is ‘one of the most pressing issues of our time’, as he spoke at a gala in New York. At the same event, Meghan said she and her husband often discussed how they would protect their own children as they grow older. Commenting on the increasing frequency with which Lilibet appears on Meghan’s Instagram, branding expert Megan Dooley told the Daily Mail that there has been a ‘noticeable shift’ in the Duchess’s social media policy that may be linked to her brand.

The head of London-based TAL Agency said: ‘We certainly have seen a noticeable shift in Meghan’s approach to featuring her children on public social media, especially when we compare it to hers and Harry’s earlier dedication to privacy. ‘But a closer look suggests that these appearances are very selective and intentional rather than casual and unplanned.’ Instead of interpreting it as a ‘reversal on their privacy-oriented stance’, Megan suggested it was a ‘strategic recalibration of what they post’. She added: ‘Meghan is allowing more of a glimpse behind the curtain into their family life – carefully curated, of course – to support the positioning of the As Ever lifestyle brand as warm and aspirational, with its roots in home, motherhood and authenticity.’