Prince William and Kate release Christmas card ahead of Harry and Meghan documentary

The Prince and Princess of Wales have released their official Christmas card, showing the family walking hand-in-hand through the Norfolk countryside.

William and Kate were photographed with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on a sunny day earlier this year.

The five royals can be seen strolling along a path with the prince holding the hand of future king George at one end, while at the other the princess holds Louis’ hand, with Charlotte in the middle holding hands with her brothers.

The royal children are dressed for a day out exploring the countryside, wearing short-sleeve tops and shorts while their parents are casually dressed.

The moment was captured by photographer Matt Porteous who has taken Christmas pictures for the couple a number of times, most recently in 2020, and taken images to mark significant moments in the royal couple’s life.

Porteous is also a wedding photographer and was reportedly commissioned to photograph singer Ellie Goulding’s 2019 wedding to Caspar Jopling.

Christmas images used to decorate official festive cards are regularly released by senior members of the royal family, with the cards sent to friends, family and colleagues.

The King and Queen Consort released their Christmas card image at the weekend.

The photograph of the couple was taken by photographer Sam Hussein during the Scottish Highland Braemar Games in September, a few days before the Queen died.

The cards were released amid a tumultuous time for the royal family, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex prepare to release Volume II of their highly anticipated and controversial Netflix documentary, Harry and Meghan.

Ahead of the release of the final three episodes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix docuseries, Prince Harry has suggested there was a difference in the way he and Meghan were treated compared to his brother, the Prince of Wales.

Prince Harry made the claim in a trailer released by Netflix on 12 December, ahead of the release of volume two on 15 December.

In the clip, the duke stated: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

The duchess then claimed that she “wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,” while Harry described their experience as “institutional gaslighting”.