(PHOTO) Meghan Markle Shares Rare Summer Holiday Photos of Archie and Lilibet from Portugal and England Trip

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, offered fans a rare, personal glimpse into her family's summer travels Thursday, sharing a carousel of photographs on Instagram documenting a European getaway that took the family from the beaches of Portugal to a poignant visit at Princess Diana's childhood home in England.

Meghan, 44, posted the images alongside a simple caption, "Summer Holiday ☀️," featuring her husband, Prince Harry, 41, and their two children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5. The post marks one of the more extensive public photo collections the couple has shared of their children in recent months.

A Portuguese getaway confirmed

The photos confirmed months of speculation about the Sussexes' connection to Melides, a coastal town south of Lisbon sometimes referred to as the "Hamptons of Portugal." One image in the carousel shows a menu from O Melidense, a beachfront restaurant in the town. People magazine had reported in 2024 that the couple purchased a holiday home in the area, a report the couple has neither confirmed nor denied. Harry's cousin, Princess Eugenie, and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, own a property nearby at the CostaTerra Golf and Ocean Club in Comporta, a connection that had fueled earlier speculation about the family's ties to the region.

The Portugal photos capture a range of relaxed family moments: Meghan and Harry in swimsuits on the beach with Archie and Lilibet splashing in the sea, Harry playfully tossing Lilibet into the air over a swimming pool, and the couple laughing together over a glass of red wine during what appeared to be a date-night dinner. Another image shows Archie seated in the cockpit of a plane alongside the pilots, wearing a captain's hat as he reaches toward the controls, and a separate photo shows him holding a stick at sunset.

A visit to Princess Diana's childhood home

Among the more emotionally resonant images in the collection was a photo taken at Althorp, the ancestral estate of the Spencer family and the childhood home of Harry's late mother, Princess Diana, who is buried on the grounds. The photo shows Harry walking across the estate with Archie and Lilibet, with both Harry and his son carrying bouquets of flowers.

The visit echoes a moment Harry described in his 2023 memoir, "Spare," recounting bringing Meghan to visit his mother's grave for the first time in 2022. Diana is buried on an island at the center of an ornamental lake known as The Round Oval, within Althorp's Pleasure Garden. In the memoir, Harry wrote about the experience: "We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave. Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity." He recalled finding Meghan afterward "kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone," and asking her what she had prayed for. "Clarity, she said. And guidance," he wrote.

Part of a broader trip to the U.K.

The Portugal getaway preceded the family's higher-profile visit to the United Kingdom earlier this month, during which Harry, Meghan and their children traveled to Highgrove House, King Charles' private country residence in Gloucestershire, for a reunion with the King and Queen Camilla. The gathering marked only the third meeting between Harry and his father since Charles' 2024 cancer diagnosis, and the first time the King had seen his grandchildren in person in more than four years.

The family's arrival in the U.K. had been uncertain until the last minute, following a public back-and-forth between Harry and the palace over security arrangements and accommodations. Meghan ultimately did not attend several of Harry's public engagements during the U.K. trip, including events marking the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, citing security concerns.

Reflecting on the significance of the family reunion at Highgrove, royal author Catherine Mayer offered perspective to PEOPLE in an earlier exclusive cover story. "One of the strangenesses of the monarchy is that we are all encouraged to forget they're human beings because they're representatives of the institution," Mayer said. "But at its heart it is just a family, and this family has gone through extraordinary upheavals. Whatever you think of the monarchy, this is a moment most of us wanted to see happen."

A pattern of curated family glimpses

Thursday's post continues a pattern the Sussexes have followed in sharing selective, carefully curated images of their children over the past several years, typically timed around holidays or significant family milestones rather than offered as a running public account of their day-to-day lives. Previous posts have included matching family photos for winter holidays and occasional glimpses of Archie and Lilibet at the family's Montecito, California home, but full vacation photo collections of this scope have remained relatively rare.

With the family's European travels now documented publicly, attention is likely to turn to whether Harry and Meghan continue offering similar glimpses into their children's lives in the months ahead, particularly as royal watchers continue to track the broader state of relations between Harry and the rest of the royal family following this month's reunion at Highgrove. For now, Thursday's post offers fans a rare, unfiltered look at a family holiday that took the Sussexes from a quiet Portuguese coastal escape to one of the more emotionally significant stops in the Spencer family's history.