On Sunday, the Duchess of Sussex posted some cute videos of Archie and Lili at a local pumpkin patch. She also included some footage of the family – including Doria Ragland and Markus Anderson – carving pumpkins at home in Montecito. One video clip was a time-lapse of Harry carving his pumpkin like a boss. I didn’t realize it, but Meghan ended up deleting that part soon after it was posted. The reason? In the background of Harry’s pumpkin-carving, you could see Lili and Archie running around. They were super-blurry and in the background, but you could “see” their faces. Again, I have no real idea what these kids look like beyond their hair. I haven’t seen clear photos of Archie and Lili’s faces since they were both babies/toddlers. But it’s up to Meghan and Harry to show whatever they want to show, and Meghan’s Instagram is all about showing a more personal side to her life. The British press eats it up and then those same people scream, cry and throw up every single time Meghan includes her kids on IG in any way. Which brings me to Tom Sykes’ Royalist Substack, in which an unnamed publicist snidely and exclusively claims that this whole pumpkin-carving video was all a convenient branding exercise. The pumpkin is made of lies!
For a couple so famously vigilant about privacy, it is an extraordinary lapse. Over the weekend, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle briefly posted a video to social media showing the clearly visible—if blurry—faces of their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, for the first time since they were infants. The clip, showing Meghan on what appeared to be a wholesome autumnal outing to a California pumpkin patch, went viral after eagle-eyed followers and journalists noticed that both children’s faces were clearly visible in the background. But within hours, the footage was scrubbed, a source confirmed to The Royalist.
The Sussex social media operation—usually cautious to the point of paranoia when it comes to images of the children—moved at lightning speed to delete the entire second half of the video. But by then the damage was done. Dozens of screenshots circulated on X and TikTok before the takedown was complete, leaving Meghan’s communications team scrambling to contain a pumpkin patch privacy fiasco.
“It’s all a bit too convenient,” one cynical publicist told The Royalist. “The clip gets attention, the internet explodes, and suddenly Meghan’s brand rollout is on everyone’s radar.”
For years, Harry and Meghan have maintained a blank space around their children’s faces, allowing only carefully curated, back-of-the-head glimpses in documentaries and family Christmas cards. But, if you genuinely wish to keep your children out of the public eye, why include them in any promotional material at all, some might say.
The Sussexes’ digital output is famously controlled—every frame reviewed, every caption weighed. This was not a paparazzi ambush but a self-produced, self-edited video. The notion that their children’s faces could appear by accident will strain credulity for some.
Sykes continues to go on and on about how Harry and Meghan should never, ever show their children and now everyone knows what the kids look like, and I don’t even know who he’s trying to convince at this point. I follow what the Sussexes are doing, and as I said, I have no idea what these kids’ faces look like at this point. I didn’t even catch the kids running around in the video of Harry’s pumpkin carving but sure, other people noticed it and whatever – extremely blurry, out-of-focus photos of the kids. Meghan took down that part quickly and that was that. This is not a crisis, nor was it some cynical brand-building exercise. These people are going to climb up Meghan’s ass regardless of what she shows or doesn’t show. What they’re really mad about is that Meghan gets to decide what she shows and doesn’t show. They’re mad that one post from her account makes international news and overshadows them. They’re mad that THEY can’t profit from two cute ginger kids.
Photos/screengrabs courtesy of Meghan’s Instagram.
