Duchess Meghan shared rare family photos from a European summer holiday on July 23, featuring Prince Harry, Prince Archie, and Princess Lilibet. The vacation follows a July 10 family reunion with King Charles at Highgrove House, though security concerns continue to shadow the Sussexes’ U.K. travel plans.
The Duchess of Sussex posted a July 23 Instagram carousel detailing the family’s European getaway, capturing beach days, countryside strolls, and pool time. The family of four visited Althorp, the Northamptonshire country estate and childhood home of the late Princess Diana.
Additional snapshots placed the family in Portugal, where a restaurant menu from O Melidense in Melides was identified by Town & Country. Images showed Harry wearing a backwards baseball cap while flipping his daughter in a pool, Meghan watching from the sand, and Archie sitting in a plane cockpit under pilot instruction. The children’s faces remain obscured throughout the published images as the Sussexes maintain privacy for Archie and Lilibet.
Highgrove House Reunion With King Charles
The summer holiday followed a visit to the United Kingdom earlier in the month. Buckingham Palace confirmed that King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted Harry, Meghan, Archie, and Lilibet on July 10 at Highgrove House, the monarch’s private country residence in Gloucestershire, England. The gathering marked the first time King Charles spent time with Archie and Lilibet in four years, since the children attended Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in July 2022.
That royal meeting materialized despite weeks of negotiations and friction over security arrangements and accommodations.
A representative for the 41-year-old prince acknowledged that the decision was disappointing
and accused the palace of withdrawing the offer at the final moment.
Ongoing Security Battles and Invictus Games Planning
Security concerns remain a central friction point for the Duke of Sussex, who has lived in California with his family since 2020. Harry pays about $3 million a year for private security in the United States and travels with members of his own security team, but he has been denied taxpayer-funded VIP protection by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (RAVEC) after battling the British Home Office.
The Duke has previously stated he can’t see a world
in which he brings his family back to Britain without adequate protection. While King Charles offered the family accommodation on a royal estate—which provides existing security coverage—the trip required extensive private coordination.
The European getaway and U.K. visit also align with preparations for the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, for which Harry is scheduled to promote a one-year countdown celebration.
Digital Time Capsules for Archie and Lilibet
While the European trip yielded public vacation photos on social media, the Duchess of Sussex maintains private documentation of her children’s upbringing. During an April 2025 appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, Meghan described creating dedicated email addresses for Archie and Lilibet.
“I thought it was such a great time capsule to create for them, because I still have scrapbooks and photo albums, but we’re past that generation now. And so I’d created for the kids these email addresses…that I will give them at some point in their lives when they’re older. But before I go to bed almost every night, I email them.”
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex
She noted that the messages include daily updates such as report cards, funny remarks, and breakfast photos, serving as an ongoing digital archive alongside traditional family scrapbooks.