WISH you were here! Yes, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been sharing their summer holiday album with the great unwashed and it’s quite the sizzler.
It’s the privacy-loving pair’s latest attempt to prop-up brand royal-but-not-Royals and row back into our hearts. Yet, this time, more than ever before, it’s feels especially distasteful. So what does this latest outpouring tell us?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s latest ‘holiday photo dump’ has caused waves online Credit: Instagram
The couple shared yet-more photos of their children, despite claims of wanting privacy Credit: Instagram
First stop Portugal – paddling in the sea and little Archie in the cockpit of their private jet. Then over to Blighty with Meghan on a sun lounger and…a visit to Granny Diana’s burial site at Althorp, Northampton.
Yes, it’s the Sussexes. Why wouldn’t the most personal of pilgrimages to pay respects to the late Princess at her family’s ancestral home be added to the latest photo dump?
Especially when the vibe is so just so Instagram-friendly.
In fact, the images seem almost as curated as a promo for Meghan’s As Ever lifestyle brand. You know the ones – where she pretends to picks produce from her own garden.
We’ve got the usual back view of a barefoot Archie walking with dad Harry. The pair are some way off in the distance though you can just about make out that the seven-year-old is clutching a bouquet of flowers, presumably to leave for Diana.
And then there’s Lilibet – who, like her brother, can boast one of the world’s most famous backs. She looks cute in her floral dress with a little handbag making her way across a landscaped sun-dappled lawn lined by trees.
Crass oversharing amid the usual pretensions for privacy?
Well don’t forget this was taken during the couple’s UK trip earlier this month – the one that played out against the usual never-ending security saga.
The duke, who once again has been refused automatic police protection while he visits the UK, flew solo to attend the Invictus Games in Birmingham, while Meghan followed afterwards, entering the country in secret with her children.
Privacy seems to consume them. But as always, the most personal of moments just keep becoming public.
Who can forget a heavily pregnant Meghan busting some ‘spontaneous’ dance moves in the delivery room? Or the pair’s dramatic reactions to some hot-headed text from brother William, helpfully caught on camera?
Yet this latest snap at Althorp leave a particularly bad taste.
The truth remains that Althorp is the money shot. It offers the Diana stardust by proxy, which has never been more needed amid the couple’s flagging brand and relevance.
It’s supposed to serve as a reminder to those who have long fallen out of love with the twosome – and in the early days there was much goodwill – that they boast a inseverable link to one of the world’s most revered icons.
It’s the perennially useful association that can prop up many of those mediocre projects on Netflix and the latest jam launch.
Following the couple’s LA exile, the tit for tat bad feeling between them and the rest of the Royal family once seemed to be irreparable.
Archie appeared to be having a blast in an airplane cockpit Credit: Instagram
The photo dump was captioned ‘Summer Holiday’ by Meghan on Instagram Credit: Instagram
It has been suspected that this photo of Lilibet was taken at Althorp, Diana’s ancestral home Credit: Instagram
The late Princess walking around the grounds of her home in 1980 Credit: Getty
The UK trip has signalled some much overdue bridge building – the first time the still cancer-stricken King Charles has seen his grandchildren in four years.
It’s rumoured that Harry is tiring of the LA dream and missing his old life.
Whether the olive branch is totally self-serving with an eye on brand Sussex or signals something deeper who really knows.
Whatever the true motivation, most would agree that it’s a positive step for Archie and Lilibet to forge a relationship with their grandfather.
It must have taken a lot for the King to forgive and show some trust in his petulant and at times disloyal youngest son and daughter-in-law.
Perhaps more than ever this was time for the Sussexes to put the camera away, stop the showboating and simply appreciate the fact they are getting a second chance.
