Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released their annual Christmas Card this week, surprising royal fans with some of the photographs they decided to use.

The couple released their 2024 Christmas card this week (Image: Archewell/PA Wire)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made headlines yesterday after they released their sweet 2024 Christmas card.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex included six photographs on the card, including one photo of them with their two children Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three.

In the sweet family snap, believed to have been taken at their Montecito home, the two children can be seen running up the path to embrace their parents, who look delighted to see their children.

While this was the photograph that caught the attention of thousands across the globe, especially considering the fact the couple have previously kept their children out of the public eye as much as possible, there are five other discreet details in the card that may have been missed.

Lilibet’s hair

Princess Lilibet has very rarely been seen in public since she was born three years ago, however this new snap does show her looking very different compared to the last picture released of the princess in 2022 for her first birthday.

While changes are obviously expected as the princess gets older, Lilibet’s hair was seen to have drastically grown in this new picture as it was seen to fall just below her shoulders.

Although this may be a surprise to some royal fans, Prince Harry hinted at his daughter’s lovely long at the WellChild Awards in London just months ago.

As reported by Hello! Magazine, the chief content officer (CCO) spoke with the Duke of Sussex as he “chatted animatedly about his children” ahead of the event.

Sophie Vokes-Dudgeon wrote: “Archie and Lili have been blessed with their mother’s thick hair, he told us, self-effacingly, as he marvelled that it won’t be long until Lili can sit on hers.”

Royal fans were delighted to see the sweet snap of the family (Image: Archewell)

The lack of formality

While royal fans have undoubtedly noticed and focused on the new picture of Prince Harry and Meghan with their two children, not many have looked into the details behind the sweet snap.

From the glimpse given, it appears that the photograph was likely to have been taken at the couple’s Montecito home in California, where the family have been living since 2020.

The photograph also lacks formality and professionalism, suggesting that it was likely a sweet candid snap taken either by Meghan’s mum, Doria, or a close friend of the couple.

The delight seen on the couple’s face in the photograph, and the children’s delighted run, also suggests that the picture could have been taken as part of a family reunion, potentially after one of Harry and Meghan’s work engagements.

Six photographs feature on this year’s Christmas card (Image: Archewell)

The location of the sweet family snap

The location of the sweet family photograph has also been overlooked since the couple released the sweet Christmas card yesterday.

While it is unconfirmed, it is believed the photograph of the couple with their children was taken in the privacy of their Montecito estate, the same place Meghan and Harry filmed most of their 2022 Netflix docuseries.

The garden, the backdrop of the photograph, is also the same place Meghan, 43, was photographed alongside her husband, 40, when pregnant with Princess Lilibet.

The family live on a large estate in Montecito, California (Image: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)

The couple’s dogs

Although many fans have been quick to talk about the appearance of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet on the Christmas card, not many people have noted how the couple’s three sweet dogs also feature in the photograph.

Looking on as the children reunite with their parents, two beagles and one black labrador can be seen standing either side of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

It is believed the couple adopted the black Labrador in 2018 when living in the UK and called it Pula, a name which was chosen because of its links to Botswana, a country with strong romantic significance for the couple, GloucestershireLive reports. The prince is reportedly often seen walking the dog to the local beach.

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“Photoshopped the kids. Come on media, remember the uproar against Catherine for this?” 19

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It is believed the beagles in the photograph are Guy, the beloved beagle owned by Meghan before she met Harry, and Mamma Mia, a beagle the pair rescued in 2022 from the Beagle Freedom Project charity.

The pictures from their trips abroad and solo work

The couple went on some overseas trips together this year (Image: RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP via Getty Images)

Away from the sweet family photograph, the five other pictures in the Christmas card were also significant as they showed the couple both on their controversial trips abroad, and in their solo work.

By including photographs of the couple by themselves meeting people, it is believed that this could be a nod to their increasingly frequent solo ventures. However, by including photographs from the couple’s recent overseas trips, including to Colombia and Nigeria, this could be a sign of how united the couple still are under their Archewell foundation.

One picture in particular from Colombia of Prince Harry hugging Meghan while giving her a kiss on the head could also be a way of the couple continuing to squash the rumours that a divorce is on the cards.

Prince Harry shut that down recently by joking that according to the media, he had already divorced multiple times.