Prince Harry’s candid photo with Lilibet show a sad royal first

The King’s youngest grandchild has been photographed enjoying a day out with her father but the shots are a grim milestone.

Irony is a bit like art – you know it when you see it.

Take this weekend in the US, when the land of the free was busy celebrating their independence from that rotter George III back in 1776. The day is all about throwing off of the yoke of British tyranny so what better occasion for Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, to put his head above the parapet?

The self-exiled duke was out and about in he and wife Meghan’s hometown of Montecito, a moneyed enclave two-hours north of Los Angeles, over the holiday weekend, a fact we know thanks to the efforts of the area’s eagle-eyed paparazzi.

However, while these new shots show the 38-year-old giving us Classic Flavour Harry - kinda glum expression, khaki shirt – what is unusual is who was with him: namely his adorable two-year-daughter Princess Lilibet.

Prince Harry carries daughter Lilibet as they enjoy a father daughter outing on the 4th of July near his home in Montecito. Picture: Backgrid

Note the time and the place here, people. What these photos represent is a miserable first for the tiny princess, a little girl named after an iconic Queen and seventh in line to the throne: Her first time being papped.

Her brother Prince Archie was only about eight months old when he hit his milestone:

In early 2020, he and his mother were papped while out walking in a park near their borrowed pile on Vancouver Island.

During that time, they also filmed paps in helicopters, boats and cars pursuing them. (The footage would later be used in their Netflix ‘docuseries.’)

Months later, when the Sussexes relocated to another borrowed mega-mansion, this time in Beverly Hills, drones and helicopters were flown over the garden by photo agencies to try and snap the tiny boy.

In the duke and duchess’ Netflix series, a must for masochists and budding propagandists looking to pick up some tips, viewers see a distressed Meghan explaining that Archie had been woken up at 5am by helicopters overhead.

Harry and Meghan with Archie and Lilibet in their 2021 Christmas Card. Picture: Alexi Lubomirski/Handout/The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

As they later wrote in a privacy lawsuit, choppers were flown over their backyard “as early as 5:30am and as late as 7pm, waking neighbours and their son, day after day. And still others have even cut holes in the security fence itself to peer through it.”

While the couple took legal action over this and the Canadian park incidents, triumphing on both counts, this has only just been a taste of things to come.

When it was reported in 2020 that they had bought a home in Montecito, a couple of hours north of Los Angeles, TMZ said their ‘New neighbours [were] already fed up’ and that“choppers are zooming over Harry and Meghan’;s hood, sometimes 4 times a day, and papsare staking out their home and a nearby shopping centre.”

Welcome to your Californian childhood, Archie!

Let me make one thing clear here: Say what you will about le Sussex mère and père, but you would be hard-pressed to find two parents more adoring than them. In ditching the UK for the US and ‘freedom’, they clearly did what they thought was right for their children’s futures.

But it’s impossible not to see the ripple effects of that one choice for Archie and Lili in terms of just how exposed their lives will be, and already are, in contrast to their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

A photo released to celebrate Lilibet's 1st Birthday. Picture: Misan Harriman

There are approximately 1001 ways in which their childhood will differ from that of the Wales trio back in the UK, not least that Archie and Lili will never be made to spend a precious springtime Saturday waving from a carriage while pretending to enjoy the bagpipes … but this paparazzi factor is a huge one.

While George, Charlotte and Louis are expected to pose for annual birthday pics along with those for Father’s and Mother’s Days and Christmas, at least they generally happen in their back garden with the snaps taken by a camera-wielding Kate.

Yes, George, Charlotte and Louis have to share themselves with the public and have no say over the matter, an obligation that is already an immutable part of their lives.

But what William and Kate have that Harry and Meghan don’t (shush, whoever yelled “a clue”) is control: A hell of a lot more control over how and when their children are put on display.

While George, Charlotte and Louis face expectations and demands that Archie and Lili never will, the little Sussexes will grow up with the knowledge that whenever they leave the privacy of the high-walled, gated enclave they call home, it is open season on them in terms of the paps. Let me strenuously point out that I am not for a single, solitary second condoning this.

Meghan holds baby Archie during a trip to Africa. Picture: AFP

The sad reality is that the American prince and princess will grow up without the benefit of the curbs and restrictions on the press when it comes to children that do apply in the UK.

While the first year or so of George’s life saw some similar paparazzi action in London, at some stage his parents came to an understanding with Fleet Street – they would put out those aforementioned staged kid pics, and in return adult men with large cameras would not stalk their toddler son as he wobbled around Kensington Gardens’ round pond.

These days, German and Italian tabloid mags do occasionally buy and run pap shots of the Wales kids, however the UK press does not. A notable exception was in 2021 when William, Kate and their three were photographed while out having a pub lunch, but given that the prince and princess did not make any sort of objection to the press complaints commission well, some might even think they were happy for such a moment to make the papers.

Still, there has never, ever been a long-lens shot of George, Charlotte or Louis being dropped off or picked up from school. There has already been for Archie, even though he is much younger.

The Wales kids have never, ever been snapped playing in their various gardens – plural – by the press. Archie has.

There is an agreement in place between Kensington Palace and the Fourth Estate in the UK that royal children won’t be surreptitiously or sneakily photographed, except when say the kids get taken somewhere where William and Kate know there will be press, e.g. a horse show.

Harry and Meghan. Picture: AFP

When Harry and Meghan made the move to the West Coast, they gave up these protections and lost a lot of the control over the press’ interaction with their kids.

The rules and governing guidelines that mean we have never seen a photo of Kate taking her three to the supermarket do not apply over there in the US.

The Prince and Princess of Wales can and are able to shield their family from the press in a way that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex never will again.

While it’s not to say things are perfect back in Britain, they are certainly better. For example, in January 2019, Harry and Meghan decided to give up their rented Cotswolds weekender after The Sun took photos of their backyard. However, their former official home, Frogmore Cottage was part of the Windsor estate therefore there were, reportedly, certain airspace restrictions in place.

While Harry and Meghan have taken a strong, litigious stance to defend their family’s privacy, if they want to keep doing so it will require even more legal bills, even more going on the offensive. The cases that they brought against Splash and X17 back in 2020 were not enough to prevent this week’s Harry and Lili photos, were they?

Living in the US, the Sussex kids will grow up with the constant looming knowledge that a photographer might be watching at any given time; that will now be a permanent part of their mental furniture.

Archie and Lili will be the subjects of lifelong public fascination, if not obsession, especially when they become teenagers and young adults. This intrusion, the menacing presence of the paps will only become more a feature of their lives.

In the three and a bit years that the Sussexes have been in the US, they have been repeatedly papped hiking, at the beach, shopping, out and about in Los Angeles, doing charity, getting on and off private jets, and leaving a number of restaurants, apartments, and offices on both the West and East coasts.

Aside from that pub shot, not a single unplanned or unauthorised photo of William, Kate or their kids has appeared.

So back to that irony. On a weekend when the United States was celebrating its

emancipation from tyrannical British rule, something that the duke and duchess would surely be able to relate to, so began the lifelong erosion of Lili’s privacy. So much for freedom.

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