The children of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have appeared on Instagram more times in the past four months than in the preceding several years combined - and there is a growing view among royal observers that it is no accident.
The latest post came on Sunday night - an Easter video showing the family's Montecito garden, children playing in the sunshine, an egg hunt in full swing. It followed footage shared just two days earlier of a six-year-old Archie navigating a ski slope alongside Harry, with Meghan captioning it: 'My boys. Quick learner, Archie! So proud (heart emoji).'
The empty mountain backdrop is understood to be a private Montana resort where Harry holidayed last week in the company of Justin Trudeau and Olympic ski champion Eileen Gu. Meghan's whereabouts during that trip remain unconfirmed.
A pattern emergesWhat makes this notable is the accumulation of such moments. A photograph of Meghan holding Lilibet appeared on March 8 to mark International Women's Day. Valentine's Day brought another image - Lilibet alongside Harry, her face caught in profile for what observers noted was a rare clear view. The Easter egg video offered something equally unusual: Archie's face, visible for the first time, as he bent over his decoration.
For years the Duchess shielded her children from direct view - photographing them from behind, or digitally blurring their features before posting. That approach appears to have changed. Four posts in four months have featured the children in some meaningful capacity.
The Wales family, by comparison, has maintained a different discipline entirely. George, Charlotte and Louis have not appeared in a single Instagram post from their parents since the last day of December.
The strategy behind the shiftA source with knowledge of the situation in California, cited by Daily Mail royal columnist Alison Boshoff, says Meghan has made a deliberate decision to build her next public chapter around the role she describes as her most important - being a mother. The vehicle for that identity, inevitably, is Instagram.
However, Boshoff puts the real motivation bluntly: "You wonder if the Sussexes ever reflect at this point on how their star has fallen."
The irony of that position has not escaped notice. The couple have spent years advocating for tighter controls on social media, particularly where children are concerned. When Australia moved to ban the platforms for under-16s, they publicly welcomed it. Their broader campaign has pressed technology companies to confront the damage their products cause to young users.
The tension sharpened last month when a US court ruled against Meta and Google in a case involving social media addiction. The Sussexes issued a joint statement:
"This verdict is a reckoning. For too long, families have paid the price for platforms built with total disregard for the children they reach.
"We stand with every parent and young person who refuses to be silenced. Today, the truth has been heard and precedent has been set. Let this be the change - where our children's safety is finally prioritised above profit."
Two different directions
Harry's public focus is travelling a separate road. Having withdrawn from Sentebale - the charity supporting vulnerable children in Lesotho that he co-founded two decades ago - he has channelled his energies into the Invictus Games, mental health advocacy and his part-time positions at BetterUp and Travalyst.
Meghan's profile, meanwhile, has been kept conspicuously high. Front row at Paris Fashion Week, a Harper's Bazaar cover shoot, a fleeting return to screen and a visit to Jordan that carried the hallmarks of a royal tour have all filled her calendar in recent months. Her As Ever brand continues to generate a near-constant stream of content - its offering now stretching from jams and teas to chocolates and, briefly, an eye-wateringly expensive box of gardenia flowers.
How well it is actually selling is a separate question. The departure of Netflix as a founding partner speaks for itself.
When the Sussexes travel to Australia, they will do so with two members of staff - Meghan's chief of staff Sarah Fosmo and Harry's equivalent Miranda Barbot. Cast your mind back to their official tour of the same country in 2018 and the contrast is stark: that trip required four press officers, two private secretaries, a personal assistant, a stylist and two additional local staff - eleven people in total.
A Variety article last month, reporting that Netflix regards its relationship with the couple as finished, added another uncomfortable data point to a story that has been heading in one direction for some time.
