We probably won’t ever see photos from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s reunion with King Charles but the Duchess of Sussex has shared a glimpse at another part of their UK visit. Meghan posted a selection of snaps from the family’s trip to Europe, including one that looks a lot like it was taken at Princess Diana’s childhood home, Althorp House.
The tree-lined surroundings have a British countryside feel and Harry reportedly hoped to take his children there. Nestled in the middle of a lake in the Althorp grounds is his mother’s final resting place and if you look closely at what Harry and Archie were carrying, it does seem possible that this picture was from a visit there.
The Princes are furthest away from the camera but you can still see that they’re holding huge bouquets of white and blue flowers.
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Princess Diana loved white and cream blooms and in 2017 The Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace was re-planted with white flowers. It took inspiration from her dresses and the iconic Mario Testino photographs of the late royal.
The inclusion of blue flowers in Harry and Archie’s bouquets also hints to me that they were visiting Princess Diana’s grave. Her favourite flowers of all were forget-me-nots and although you can get them in white, the blue ones are most common.
Forget-me-not season only runs until June and the blue flowers in these bunches look bigger anyway, but they’re the same colour. Unless the Duke and Duchess of Sussex confirm where the photo was taken we’ll never know for sure, though the signs are that Archie and Lilibet did visit their grandmother’s home and grave for the first time.
The Sussex children grew up with photos of her in their nursery and Harry has shared that "Grandma Diana" were some of his son’s first words. He and Meghan keep her memory alive for Archie and Lili and it was probably a moving experience for him to visit Althorp House with them.
The Duchess has been to Diana’s childhood home before, in 2022, and Prince Harry wrote about what it was like "bringing the girl of [his] dreams home to meet Mum" in his memoir, Spare.
"We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity. Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone," he declared.
The island and Princess Diana’s grave are both off-limits to the public so they would’ve had complete privacy there. As well as the Harry, Archie and Lilibet picture Meghan shared as part of her "summer holiday" post, there was another one that had a UK-esque setting.
It showed the seven-year-old Prince walking barefoot in the countryside holding a stick, with the sun set gleaming through the trees. Archie was wearing a very similar outfit to the one in the other photo - beige shorts and a blue shirt.
This could suggest it was also taken at Althorp, although some will likely be hoping it was actually snapped at Highgrove before or after their meeting with King Charles.
