Prince Harry doesn’t want Archie and Lilibet to be seen because of his childhood in the spotlight
The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, has kept his young children away from being seen in public, with one royal expert now saying it is due to a lifetime of being photographed
Harry has long shared his concerns about posting his children online (Image: Shutterstock)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have long kept their children’s faces hidden online. While the Duchess of Sussex has a major presence on social media, if she ever shares an image of Archie and Lilibet, their faces are always obscured, whether it’s by the angle the photo was taken, or by an emoji covering their identifiable features.
And while Meghan came into her fame willingly as she kicked off her career as an actress, the Duke of Sussex had no such choice in the matter. As the son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana, Harry has been photographed his whole life, both when he was a child and when he started working as a senior member of the Firm.
Prince Harry does not want his children seen in public
And according to The Sun’s royal editor Matt Wilkinson, it is Harry’s future in the spotlight that has made him hypersensitive to the idea of his children being photographed without their consent.
Appearing on A Right Royal podcast, Matt said: “My understanding of this, or up to a certain stage, is that Harry would much rather his children were not seen. He doesn’t want them to be tapped.”
He added: “He’s got this idea that if he takes them outside of Montecito, there’s a horde of us out there trying to take pictures of his kids – they’re not by the way.”
The expert also pointed out that Meghan, having grown up differently in California, wouldn’t necessarily want to keep the children hidden. He said: “She doesn’t want to hide them away and we’ve seen this, haven’t we, more and more with the use of Lilibet and Archie.”
Meghan usually takes photos of her children from the back (Image: Meghan/Instagram)
She also obscures Archie and Lilibet’s faces with emojis online (Image: meghan/Instagram)
Harry has spoken openly about the chaos of his childhood previously, most notably when he appeared on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s Armchair Expert podcast in 2021.
He said that since his birth, his life had been like a “mix between ‘The Truman Show’ and being in a zoo,” as he said: “The biggest issue for me was that being born into it you inherit the risk, you inherit the risk that comes with it — you inherit every element of it without choice and [the media] feel an ownership over you”
The prince went on to say that there were three major moments in his life that he felt he had no control and felt ‘completely helpless’, as he explained: “One, when I was a kid in the back of the car with my mom being chased by paparazzi, two was in Afghanistan in an Apache helicopter and then the third one was with my wife.”
A royal expert said Harry and Meghan have different ideas about sharing their lives on social media
He added: “And those were the moments in my life where, yeah, feeling helpless hurts. It really hurts, and that’s when you think to yourself, ‘sh**, like, I got the privilege. I got the platform. I got the influence, and even I can’t fix this. I can’t change this.”
Due to his childhood in the spotlight, both Harry and Meghan have recently been fierce campaigners of safer online spaces for children, as he has spoken about his desire to protect his children.
A source close to the Duke told People magazine in 2024: “Harry has been reluctant to show his children publicly, not out of a desire to hide them but to protect their privacy and safety from potential threats. He wants them to lead as normal a life as possible without the fear of kidnapping or harm.”
The friend added: “As a dad and husband, Harry is determined to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.”
Credit: The Mirror
