Duchess of Sussex posts risky video of daughter to Instagram

The Duchess of Sussex has shared a clip of Princess Lilibet that has shocked viewers.

The royal family are absolute champions at being as contradictory as possible.

King Charles has been banging on about green causes and composting since the Jackson Five all had their original faces — and yet he also flies by gas-guzzling private jet.

Prince William has valiantly fought to save African wildlife for nearly 20 years now — and yet is well known to enjoy a jolly weekend blasting small birds out of the sky while done up in hunting tweed.

Don’t tell Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, but on this front, she is perfectly in lock-step with her now never-seen British in-laws.

What is abundantly clear is that on the contrarian, complicated front the duchess is playing to royal standard.

Over the weekend, Meghan shared a video on Instagram of her making jam with her daughter, Princess Lilibet in which the three-year-old is heard speaking for the very first time.

“What do we think Lili?” the duchess asks in the clip, to which the off-camera tiny princess replies (very poetically) in a clear American accent, “I think it’s beautiful.”

Cue the appropriate gasps that the little girl, despite being the seventh in line for the UK throne, has a crystal clear Californian lilt.

What is far more interesting is not what Lili sounds like but that we have heard her voice at all.

Meghan makes homemade jam with her daughter. Picture: Instagram/meghan

Lilibet spoke with a clear Californian accent. Picture: Instagram/meghan

Lili and older brother Prince Archie, five, have increasingly become starring presences on their mother’s Instagram feed – while at the same time the duchess and husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex have stepped up their campaign against the damage done to children by social media.

If your brow is scrunched, if you are uttering a confused ‘huh?’, if you are squinting at the screen trying to quite make sense of all this, you are not alone.

What Meghan is doing right now feels a bit like she’s trying to ride a unicycle on a tightrope while juggling bunches of organic kale.

The events of last week alone perfectly sum up the competing if not seemingly paradoxical things that the duchess is trying to do, all at the same time.

On April 23, Meghan and Harry were in New York where they opened the Lost Screen Memorial, an installation commemorating 50 young people who have lost their lives to social media harms.

“Life is better off social media,” Harry said at the event. “We’re just grateful that our kids are too young to be on social media at this point”.

And yet four days later, over on Instagram, there was Lili making jam with her mother thus sparking international headlines.

You see the tricky, very fine line that Meghan is trying to walk.

Much of this year has seen the duchess in marketing mode, having, on January 1st, dived back into the murky waters of social media. The ever industrious duchess had her renamed lifestyle company, As Ever, (which sells the world’s most useless foodstuff, her much derided flower sprinkles, herbal teas, a crepe mix and her much ballyhooed spreads) and a TV show, With Love, Meghan to vigorously promo and push.

Meghan Markle sold out of her As Ever product range in less than an hour.

Central to this commercial push is establishing her image as one all about idyllic homemaking, of bright sunshine and joie de vire and fizzing drinks on wisteria-clad terraces, not a care in the world like what worrying about Harry had been doing in his shed for the last three hours.

Especially over the last two months, Archie and Lili have been a part of this brand story.

Of late, Meghan’s Instagram has shown the little prince and princess smelling the roses in the family’s Montecito garden, baking cookies, hugging their mother while she picked garden produce, and Lili playing a game given to her tennis superstar and the duchess’ longtime friend Serena Williams, though the kids’ faces are never shown.

However at the same time, Harry and Meghan have been loudly railing against the threat that social media can pose for young people. Their Archewell Foundation launched The Parents Network to provide support for mums and dads doing battle on this digital front lines in 2023, has partnered with the Social media Victims Law Centre and helping co-found of the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund.

Harry especially has become a vocal critic of social media, saying only last week, “The easiest thing to say is to keep your kids away from social media”.

Last year the duke, at various events, warned that smartphones are “stealing young people’s childhood”, talked how apps have “ been specifically designed to hook and keep children online for as long as possible, mindless scrolling” and has warned of an “epidemic” of anxiety, depression and social isolation connected to social media use.

Meghan Markle on the set of her Netflix series 'With Love, Meghan'. Picture: Jake Rosenberg / Netflix

It’s strong – and highly necessary – alarm bell ringing stuff. But this work also runs directly head on into Meghan’s seemingly enthusiastic embracing of Instagram, and her regular inclusion of her kids, albeit a limited, controlled capacity.

For example, in New York at the opening of the Lost Screen Memorial Meghan said, “our children are in harm’s way by what’s happening online”.

And then went back to Los Angeles and shared the jam video.

It has a certain air of that line from Romeo and Juliet – “My only love sprung from my only hate”.

I’m not saying the Duchess of Sussex should not be on social media nor should she scrupulously keep her kids off her feed – the impulse to share sweet snaps and cute moments from family life is part and parcel of modern parenting. But the balancing act that the 43-year-old mother of two is a nerve-racking, highly challenging one.

The duchess has shown she is intent on juggling all of these competing interests, of being able to market her homemaking nous on Instagram, including glimpses of her children, while also seeking to protect their privacy while also campaigning against the dangers of online harms.

Let it never be said that Meghan is a woman who takes the easy or the simple road. And let it never be said she’s served a piece of toast without those damn flower sprinkles.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Duchess of Sussex posts risky video of daughter to Instagram