A week after Kate Middleton and Prince William sent their official Christmas card to the masses, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have followed suit. But unlike the Wales’s missive, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s holiday message didn’t come from the couple, themselves. Instead, it was sent by their production company—the reason, perhaps, that the famous couple’s kids are left out of the picture.
As you likely recall, for this year’s card, William and Kate opted for a staged, black-and-white photo captured by fashion photographer Josh Shinner. The photo session with the couple and children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis was “one of the most relaxed and enjoyable sittings I’ve ever had,” according to Shinner. “And I now have a whole new set of jokes that are right on my level thanks to the children.”
But the photographer behind Meghan and Harry’s card was denied any youthful comedy. Instead, the couple opted for a candid shot by Getty Images's royal photographer, Chris Jackson, from his coverage of the closing event at this fall’s Invictus Games, the six-year-old athletic event for injured or disabled veterans and members of the military that Harry founded in 2014.
Another difference between the brothers’ cards is the sender. While William and Kate’s card is arguably a product of the Firm, as the organization around the monarchy is casually known, that’s not explicitly stated: instead, the “from” line on the virtual envelope reads “The Prince and Princess of Wales.” But Meghan and Harry’s card, appears to be a vehicle for the impact report from the pair’s Archewell Foundation, with a link to the report embedded in a virtual card from the couple, their foundation, and their audio and video company, Archewell Productions (which, based on its website, appears to be stagnant for now).
This isn’t the first time Harry and Mehgan have opted for the corporate holiday approach. Last year’s card also gave a nod to their companies, and used another candid photo—that time, from the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award Gala. They haven’t involved their kids in a holiday card since 2021, when they used to opportunity to share the first photo of Princess Lilibet, as well as a casually-clad Prince Archie.
Comparing the couples’ holiday cards has been a diversion since 2018, when Harry and Meghan sent a photo from their wedding reception in which only their backs were presented to the camera. Was that 2018 card a foreshadowing—unwitting or not—of things to come? Given the number of times the phrase “Harry and Megan have turned their backs on” something or other in the years since, perhaps it was.
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