Meghan Markle’s new Instagram post gave her followers a closer look at the Sussexes’ life in Montecito as she declared they were ‘springing into summer’ together.
One day after the Duchess of Sussex, 44, unveiled a new influencer collaboration for her lifestyle brand As Ever, Meghan posted a series of 11 family photos on her personal Instagram.
These included pictures of the Duke of Sussex, and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, who just turned five.
Most of these images appear to have been taken at the couple’s plush Montecito mansion, as Meghan shared photos of the family dog lounging in the sun, wicker baskets overflowing with fruits and vegetables, and the Duke with Prince Archie.
But Meghan also shared an intimate, previously unseen image from the early days of her romance with the King’s estranged son, as X users noticed the Duchess made a ‘cropping’ blunder.
Other hidden details include Prince Harry’s tribute to his daughter, the Duchess’s quietly sentimental piece of jewellery, and her recipe for ‘spagbol’.
Meghan’s quiet luxury £817 summer ensemble
The first photo in Meghan’s carousel is a greyscale image of her lying on the grass with a straw hat covering her face.
The Duchess is wearing a striped silk shirt from Matteau, priced at around £578 ($775), along with a white linen skirt from POSSE, worth around £239 ($320).
All of her outfits from the post have since been uploaded to her profile on OpenOff, the AI fashion discovery platform that Meghan partnered with when she and Prince Harry embarked on their four-day quasi royal tour of Australia earlier this year.
Prince Harry’s ‘Girl Dad’ t-shirt
One of the photos in Meghan’s post showed Prince Harry wearing a ‘girl dad’ t-shirt
Meghan’s latest Instagram post revealed Prince Harry is a proud ‘girl dad’ as the Duchess included a picture of her husband wearing a t-shirt with the slogan.
The snap showed Prince Harry and the couple’s son, Prince Archie, playing with a giant football in the sprawling garden of the Sussexes’ £11million mansion.
While Harry and Meghan’s daughter, Princess Lilibet, is not pictured, the Duke of Sussex sweetly paid tribute to their close relationship with his choice of clothing.
It comes after Meghan marked Lili’s fifth birthday with a new family portrait, which showed Harry holding his daughter in his arms.
Meghan’s sentimental £15,000 necklace
Meghan paired her casual Canadian tuxedo outfit with a £15,000 necklace from Logan Hollowell that paid tribute to her son Prince Archie
Jeweller Logan told Instyle that the Lover’s Duet Chain necklace features an emerald that is her son Prince Archie’s May birthstone
In one of the photos, Meghan can be seen wearing a Canadian tuxedo, with a lightwash denim shirt and matching jeans both from Tracy James, which she accessorised with a £15,794 ($21,150) necklace from Logan Hollowell.
It’s the same accessory Meghan wore when she addressed the World Health Organisation’s 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva last month – but the necklace has a more ‘personal significance’ for the Duchess as well.
Jeweller Logan told Instyle that the Lover’s Duet Chain necklace features an emerald that is her son Prince Archie’s May birthstone.
It was paired with a diamond, which the brand ‘interpreted as a nod to Prince Harry’.
A representative for the brand said the necklace ‘feels very in line with Meghan’s signature approach to jewellery styling – choosing pieces that quietly tell a story and carry personal significance’.
Meghan’s ‘cropped’ photo
Meghan, who started dating Prince Harry in July 2016, shared a previously unseen image from the early days of their relationship, as X users noticed it was timestamped March 31, 2017, a little after 7.37 am
Eagle-eyed fans on X noticed one of the photos Meghan uploaded was not taken this summer – but rather dates back to 2017.
Meghan, who started dating Prince Harry nearly a decade ago, shared a previously unseen image from the early days of their relationship, as X users noticed it was timestamped March 31, 2017, a little after 7.37 am.
It appears the pair went for an early morning run, with Meghan wearing running shoes, a black sleeveless top, and a dark baseball cap.
She is pictured leaning against Prince Harry, with Meghan’s arms around her then-boyfriend’s neck.
Meanwhile, the Duke donned a backwards baseball cap with a light-coloured t-shirt and shorts.
Prince Harry started dating Meghan in July 2016, before the Duke got down on one knee at his former Nottingham Cottage home while they cooked a roast dinner during a ‘cosy night in’ the following November.
In an interview shortly after the proposal, Harry gushed: ‘I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly…All the stars were aligned – everything was just perfect. It was this beautiful woman just sort of literally tripped and fell into my life – I fell into her life.’
Meghan’s chopping technique
Meghan was wearing a white button-down shirt and a blue cap in the video, as fans noticed her unusual knife skills
Among the photos and videos Meghan shared with her 4.6 million followers last night was a clip of her preparing a ‘spagbol’ dinner for her family.
Footage showed the Duchess chopping onions on a wooden board that was laden with garlic, parmesan, minced beef from Snake River Farms in Idaho, and canned tomatoes, as Sabrina Carpenter’s hit Busy Woman played in the background.
Meghan was wearing a white button-down shirt and a blue cap in the video, as fans noticed her unusual knife skills.
‘No idea who chops like this,’ one X user wrote, while another said: ‘No chef or even an amateur or domestic cook chops onions like that.’
Meghan’s new post also revealed that Princess Lilibet is a Beyoncé fan, after the five-year-old was pictured wearing a T-shirt paying homage to the singer.
The Duchess of Sussex posted the image on Instagram of the King’s granddaughter with the top featuring an illustration of the popstar and the phrase ‘B is for Beyonce’.
The T-shirt was designed by a ten-year-old girl named Pearl, according to a product description from the National Women’s History Museum which sells it for $48 (£36).
The ‘one and only’ letter
A letter to Meghan from Prince Harry addressed to ‘the one and only’
Meghan’s latest Instagram carousel also featured a photo from her and Prince Harry’s eighth anniversary celebrations alongside their children last month.
The couple wed at St George’s Chapel within the grounds of Windsor Castle in a ceremony attended by Sir David Beckham, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey on May 19, 2018.
As they marked eight years of marriage, Prince Harry surprised Meghan with a lemon elderflower cake and a penguin statue, along with a letter addressed to ‘the one and only’.
Meghan shared a photo of the envelope, with Prince Harry’s writing on it, that contained a card from her husband.
Meghan read the card out to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in an earlier video, as she told them: ‘When momma and poppa got engaged, we had a party with all of our friends, and we said everyone had to wear an animal onesie and we were penguins.’
She also told her two children: ‘We were penguins because we are together for life.’
At the time, the Duchess included a picture of the pair kissing in their kitchen while grabbing the cake, before showcasing a selfie from their engagement party where they dressed in the penguin onesies.
Meghan also gave her followers a glimpse into their wedding party when she shared two never-before-seen images from their big day.
‘Eight years ago today…’, she captioned the two posts, with one showing a glimpse of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first dance at their evening reception at Frogmore House, where they shared a passionate kiss in some of the pictures.
The second post revealed snaps from Meghan and Harry’s nuptials at St George’s Chapel, which were watched by an estimated 1.9 billion people.
However, it was Sir Elton John, who performed at their special day, and Isabel May, British PR executive and a close, long-time confidante of Meghan’s, who featured in the photographs.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the rift between the Sussexes and the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Royal Family – apart from a glimpse at the back of King Charles after he had walked his daughter-in-law down the aisle – were nowhere to be seen in the wedding photos.
Instead, the only guest that Harry was pictured hugging was Ms May, while Meghan could be seen chatting with her mother, Doria Ragland, who was partly out of the frame.
