Princess Lilibet, the daughter of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, turns four today and mum Meghan has shared another two photos of the birthday girl – this time with her dad calling it the “sweetest bond to watch unfold”

Prince Harry with daughter Princess Lilibet (Image: @meghan/Instagram )

Meghan Markle has shared yet more never-before-seen photos of Princess Lilibet – this time with her dad Prince Harry. The young princess is celebrating her fourth birthday today and earlier Meghan took to Instagram to share several snaps of her cuddling the daughter. And now, she’s posted another two unseen snaps of her daughter on her big day, this time showing her with her father.

The first picture shows a newborn Lilibet being cradled by Harry as he glazes lovingly at his daughter. The second shows a grown up little hand-in-hand with her dad as they walk down a sandy lane. Meghan wrote alongside the snaps: “The sweetest bond to watch unfold. Daddy’s little girl and favorite adventurer. Happy birthday Lili!”

Prince Harry cradles a baby Lilibet (Image: @meghan/Instagram )

Lili – the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s youngest child – was born on June 4 2021 and was named Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. She only became entitled to be a princess when her grandfather the King acceded to the throne, because of rules set out by King George V in 1917.

Harry and Meghan started using prince and princess for Archie and Lili after the princess’s christening in 2023, following correspondence with Charles about the matter.

The duchess usually only shares photos of her daughter pictured from behind to protect her privacy, but in more recent photos such as those from earlier today, Lili’s eyes and the top half of her face could be seen, with her nose and mouth and the rest of her face covered by Meghan’s arms as she hugged the princess.

And former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told the Mirror: “I suppose Meghan is showing the children more on Instagram because she knows there is a public appetite for photos of them. But she’s being very coy about allowing us to see what they really look like.

Meghan earlier shared a picture of her hugging her daughter (Image: meghan/Instagram)

“That’s fair enough, if she wants to protect their privacy – though you could certainly argue that there’s a very fine line between using them to publicise her Instagram account and her determination to keep their family life private.

“With both children at school, she and Harry will obviously have a bit more time to pursue their various activities. Meghan seems to be ramping up her projects more and more, but I think they will both continue to put their family first – just like William and Catherine. And there’s nothing wrong with that if you are lucky enough to be able to do so.”

Previously, she suggested the couple may reveal more and more of their children in the future. She explained: “They are clearly fiercely protective of their children. And I think much of that stems from Harry’s experience of having cameras trained on him when he was a little boy – and ever since.

“He showed his contempt for the cameras when he was very young, sticking his tongue out, as he sat in the back of a car with his mother. She told him to stop it very quickly! Of course, seeing only glimpses of them makes them even more interesting to the public. And it brings extra attention to whichever video they appear in, which is commercially valuable.

“Sooner or later, they are bound to release pictures of the children. Otherwise, there’s a real danger that paparazzi will follow them until they get what they want – in the hope that a newspaper or magazine somewhere in the world will buy the pictures.”