Meghan Markle’s latest Instagram post is drawing fresh accusations of hypocrisy from royal watchers who say the Sussexes want privacy while still sharing curated family content.
The Duchess of Sussex, 45, uploaded an intimate video to Instagram on Sunday that offered glimpses of life with Prince Harry, 41, and their two children since the family’s return to the United Kingdom. The footage showed the couple holding hands on a walk, five-year-old Princess Lilibet riding her bike, and seven-year-old Prince Archie running alongside. One shot captured a child’s feet warming before a cozy fire, though Markle deliberately avoided showing her children’s faces.
Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, host of YouTube’s “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered,” fired back at the post in an exclusive statement. “If privacy is genuinely the priority, the most effective strategy is simple… stop broadcasting your family life to millions of strangers,” she wrote. “Every hyper-curated glimpse of the children, the dogs, the countryside, and their domestic routine invites more attention, more questions, and more interest in where and how they are living.”
Schofield continued, “You cannot deliberately feed that machine and then act astonished or outraged when people want to know more.”
The commentator also highlighted what she sees as a particular contradiction in Harry’s involvement. “He has spent years describing the damage he believes media attention caused him as a child, yet he is now participating in packaging portions of his own children’s childhood for public consumption,” she shared. “You cannot spend years telling the world that unwanted attention traumatized you and then actively manufacture public interest in the private lives of your own children.”
Schofield raised additional concerns about consent, noting that “Archie and Lili are too young to meaningfully consent to having their voices, activities, and private family moments broadcast to millions of strangers,” She added, “Hiding their faces does not suddenly eliminate the attention it generates around them.”
Tom Sykes, another royal commentator, expressed similar reservations to the outlet about the video’s polished presentation. “Especially when you look at Harry’s comments in a 2017 video which he recorded for the Heads Together charity in which he said that one of the big problems with social media was that people portrayed a perfect life and then you can feel inadequate when you look at their fake portrayal of their perfect life,” he said.
“Even Harry was able to understand this in 2017 how damaging and fake this kind of performative video is and yet now he is doing the very same thing himself,” Sykes continued. He described the overall effect as an attempt to “sell a narrative of glossy family perfection” and found the children’s inclusion “jarring.”
The renewed scrutiny comes as the family adjusts to life back in Britain. The couple, who stepped back as senior working royals in January 2020 and relocated to Montecito, California, have reportedly enrolled Archie and Lilibet in a ritzy $35,000-a-year prep school. Schofield said earlier this month that local parents received warnings about strict rules surrounding the young royals, with a message reminding them “not to photograph or film other children without permission, or share photographs, information or details about pupils or their families on social media.”
Markle herself has previously voiced strong feelings about protecting her children from media exposure. In a 2022 interview with The Cut, she addressed concerns about paparazzi potentially photographing school drop-offs and pickups. “Sorry, I have a problem with that,” she said at the time. “That doesn’t make me obsessed with privacy. That makes me a strong and good parent protecting my child.”
The family’s status remains formally unchanged despite their physical return. Earlier this month, King Charles made clear in a letter that Harry and Markle are still not working royals. A top palace official said that the letter specified the couple cannot use their His and Her Royal Highness titles and are “private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.”
The Sussexes’ 2020 departure from senior royal duties, dubbed “Megxit,” saw them relocate to California and launch commercial ventures including Netflix documentaries, podcast deals, and Harry’s bestselling memoir “Spare.” Their move back to the UK this year has fueled speculation about whether they might seek some form of royal rehabilitation, though the palace communication appears designed to shut down such talk.