A young girl, barefoot and sporting bunny ears, joyfully dashes through a magnificent garden bathed in the gentle spring sun. With a basket and a toy bunny in tow, she and her brother eagerly hunt for eggs while their mother encourages them with cheers. Meanwhile, the boy is deeply focused, meticulously decorating Easter eggs.

These charming scenes encapsulate an idyllic childhood in Montecito, captured in an Instagram video shared by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, on Sunday evening.

Only two days earlier, she had shared another striking video, this time of son Archie, who is six, on a skiing trip with his father, Prince Harry. She captioned it: ‘My boys. Quick learner, Archie! So proud (heart emoji).’ The deserted ski slope appears to be at a private resort in Montana where Harry holidayed with Justin Trudeau, the former PM of Canada, and ski champ Eileen Gu last week.

It remains unclear if Meghan participated in that particular outing.

While the posts were touted as a ‘rare glimpse’ of her children Archie and Lilibet, this isn’t entirely accurate—at least, not anymore.

On March 8, Meghan shared a photo of herself embracing her daughter Lilibet for International Women’s Day. Additionally, on February 14, she posted another picture of Lilibet, this time showing her snuggling with Prince Harry, with Lilibet’s face, unusually, visible in profile.

And in the video of Archie decorating an egg, his face – again for the first time – could be clearly seen, although he was looking down rather than at the camera.

In some previous snaps she has obscured the children’s faces with emojis or, more typically, posted only pictures in which the backs of their heads are visible.

The Duchess of Sussex shared a video of her children racing to find eggs at Easter

Meghan has always been reluctant to ‘offer up’ her children for public consumption – ever since those first pictures of baby Archie, swaddled to obscure his face, after he was born. That was due to a lively dislike of the Press in general, and the Royal Rota (the select media pool that gets access to official royal engagements) in particular.

But now, in two months, she has posted four times to show off the ‘Montecito Two’. In that period, William and Kate have posted precisely zero pictures of their children on Instagram.

Indeed, although Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are seen on family and State occasions, they have not been featured in a post by the Prince and Princess of Wales since December 31.

It’s a striking change for Meghan, and one which you might think surprising given Prince Harry’s very passionate regard for privacy for himself and his family.

It’s also surprising given the hostility which he and Meghan both apparently harbour towards social media. The couple released celebratory statements when Australia banned social media for the under-16s last year and have long campaigned for corporations to take greater responsibility for online harms, and supported parents’ organisations.

Last month a US court found Meta and Google liable for one woman’s social media addiction, after she said it had damaged her mental health. In response to the ruling, the Sussexes issued a statement which said: ‘This verdict is a reckoning. For too long, families have paid the price for platforms built with total disregard for the children they reach.

‘We stand with every parent and young person who refuses to be silenced. Today, the truth has been heard and precedent has been set. Let this be the change – where our children’s safety is finally prioritised above profit.’

So what in the name of bunny ears is going on? A California source told me around three weeks ago that Meghan is settling on her next direction, and that the new pivot will involve leaning into what she calls her greatest and most relatable role – as a mother.

She has been talking for years about how meaningful she finds being a mother, and now this is going to be her focus. Naturally, she will have to build her ‘mom’ identity on Instagram since you cannot have a lifestyle brand without using social media.

Harry, meanwhile, remains focused on his own philanthropic work – that brand separation which was first disclosed in the Daily Mail two years ago still holds sway.

Since stepping away from Sentebale, the charity he co-founded in 2006 to help vulnerable children in Lesotho, his focus has been on Invictus and the Invictus Games, which supports disabled former servicemen and women, and on mental health initiatives – notably those that campaign against the ‘harms’ of social media. He also has two part-time jobs, with the companies BetterUp and Travalyst.

Over the past few months, the Duchess has flown to sit front row at a fashion show in Paris, starred on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar, made a cameo return to acting and undertaken a quasi Royal tour of Jordan in February.

Lilibet is seen wearing bunny ears and carrying a basket during the egg hunt

Archie is seen decorating an egg at Easter in the Duchess of Sussex’s video

Lilibet clutches a large toy bunny as she wanders through a garden in the spring sunshine

Plus there has been endless online shilling of her ‘lifestyle’ brand As Ever, with videos and posts coming on an almost daily basis on Instagram. The brand now offers chocolates, plugged with a grimacing smile by Prince Harry, and once offered an extremely expensive box of gardenia flowers, to accompany Meghan’s jam and tea.

Is it successful? The exit of Netflix – an initial partner in the brand – suggests not.

People who have been in their circle suggest Meghan lacks focus. One says: ‘It’s scattergun, she is just trying anything to see what sticks.’

Which is as good a reason as any as to why she is now moving into the ‘mommy space’. My source said: ‘Nobody wants to pay for her kitchen tips, but this is an area where she can find some credibility. It’s not lost on anyone that she keeps on posting videos of her with Lili, it feels like it’s almost every day now. That’s where she is going, and there is so much money in it.’

After the tricky episode where she was called out for using jam tongs upside down, and the negative reactions to some of her crafts and ‘recipes’ on the Netflix show With Love, Meghan, you can’t blame her for getting out of the kitchen and embracing her life as a mother-of-two.

In one earlier interview, the Duchess even suggested that she has taken so naturally to child-rearing that her friends always ask her for advice as they know she has read all the books.

Her appearance for a ‘fireside chat’ at Her Best Life, a women-only retreat in Australia – which runs from April 17-19 when the couple are in Sydney – should be seen in this context. Events such as the one she will be speaking at are highly lucrative.

There is a huge influencer economy in the ‘motherhood space’, and Meghan has returned in a number of interviews to the theme of her relatability: she says that, despite her fortune and fortunate circumstances, she is just like other working mothers, doing school runs, filling lunchboxes and cooking ‘mama meals’ for the children who adore her.

To be effective here, she’ll need to invade the privacy of her family. But, as her recent Instagram videos of Lilibet show, this is something she seems willing to do.

There is a sense at this point of Meghan and Harry engaging with whatever it is going to take to make their finances work.

During their Australian visit next week, Meghan will be posing for pictures with fans after an ‘in person’ chat at a gala dinner at the InterContinental Sydney Hotel. It can be revealed that all 300 tickets, costing between $2,699 (£1,411) and $3,199 (£1,672) sold out within a week, meaning that organisers will have taken around $750,000 (£391,950).

Not all that money, naturally, will go in Meghan’s direction, but the fee is thought to be a fat one, apparently in the region of $250,000 (£130,645).

Her husband Prince Harry’s public-facing engagement in Australia is also a money-spinner. He is due to make an appearance at the InterEdge Summit, a for-profit symposium on ‘psychosocial safety’ in the workplace, in Melbourne on April 15 and 16.

Unfortunately it has still not sold out even though tickets have been on sale for nearly a month. Those tickets cost $1,978.65 (£1,034) for gold level and $2,378.65 (£1,243) for platinum, and the capacity is 250. A new cheaper tier has since been introduced.

It won’t make a difference to the Prince’s pocket – he’ll get the negotiated fee in any case, which is thought to be around $50,000 (£26,130).

That’s a step down from his wife’s fee; if you were feeling unkind you could say that he has gone from being Prince William’s ‘spare’ to that of his wife Meghan.

The platinum ticket offers ‘networking opportunities’, but it’s not clear if the Prince is selling actual access to himself at this point. Perhaps not just yet. He will take part in an exclusive lunchtime Q&A session for the platinum ticket holders, though.

The principle of allowing the great unwashed to pay to get close to the Sussexes was set – as revealed by this newspaper late last year – when their charity Archewell took part in an event which raised money via Charitybuzz.

That organisation auctions access to celebrities typically at charity events, in order to support good causes. (Paying to have access to a working member of the Royal family is seen as a no-no. One of Fergie’s many mistakes was to offer access to Prince Andrew for cash.)

Why is it seen as undesirable? It’s felt to be beneath the dignity of the Royal Family but also opens the very real possibility that they will end up associating with exactly the ‘wrong kind of people’.

That scenario appears to be in play already for Meghan, who may be contractually obliged to pose for a photo with one fan who goes by the social media handle ‘Zandi Sussex’. This individual has twice accused Meghan’s sister-in-law, the Princess of Wales of ‘faking’ her cancer, which is exactly the kind of online hate against which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex campaign. ‘I went VIP so our table gets a photo with Meghan,’ wrote Zandi. Others, including some notorious troll accounts which target the Duchess, claim also to have bought tickets.

The couple say that the trip will be a combination of philanthropic, business and personal engagements, much as we have come to expect from their trips abroad so far. The good causes will include funding the Sussexes themselves, who have had to pay for their expensive California lifestyle without any help from King Charles’ coffers following Megxit in 2020.

They are planning a visit to the Invictus Australia team and will also meet with some of those – apparently including politicians – who backed Australia’s ban on social media for Under-16s last year.

A ‘source close to the couple’ piously told a newspaper: ‘There is a lot of misinformation being spread about this trip – all designed to whip up hate. The truth is, you have a couple heading down under for work. While they’re in town, they’re going to check in on some charitable causes they have long supported and – in the Duke’s case with the Invictus Games – he set up.

‘The couple are critically aware that by just visiting a charity, they can help shine a light on its work – bringing media attention that wouldn’t otherwise exist. They don’t have to do that.

‘They could just as easily get paid and head straight back to California. It’s an irrational reaction to criticise a couple who just want to support some the charitable causes close to them. God forbid they try to do any good in a world that could, frankly, use a little more Harry and Meghan, and a little less sniping from ‘Royal Commentators’.

While there, the couple will be supported by a team. It’s one which has been shrinking thanks to numerous departures among staff and the decimation of their charity foundation, which now only seems to have one (freelance) person left on its books.

One of their most senior associates James Holt, a long-standing friend and the leader of their charity Archewell until late last year, will not be there.

He was meant to be supporting them on an ad hoc case by case basis after leaving the Archewell Foundation among redundancies and a complete restructuring in December and he was in the team for their two-day visit to Jordan earlier this year, but he won’t be in Australia.

Instead Shauna Nep, of Archewell, will attend.

PR support will be given by ex-serviceman Liam Maguire. PR chief Meredith Maines quit in November last year after the Kris Jenner birthday party debacle. (My understanding is that her advice not to ask for pictures to be taken off social media after the party – which was held the night before Remembrance Sunday – wasn’t heeded, so she decided to move on).

In her place Meghan has rehired the agency Sunshine Sachs, who used to look after her when she was an actress. Her longstanding friend Keleigh Thomas Morgan, who was at the Royal Wedding, is on the team alongside Shawn Sachs. But neither Morgan nor Sachs will be in Australia.

Meghan shared a video last week of her son Archie, who is six, on a skiing trip with his father, Prince Harry . She captioned it: ‘My boys. Quick learner, Archie! So proud (heart emoji.)’ The deserted ski slope appears to be at a private resort in Montana

On February 14, Meghan posted another picture of Lilibet, this time cuddling Prince Harry. Lilibet’s face – for once – was clearly visible, albeit in profile

Meghan posted a picture of her cuddling daughter Lilibet for International Women’s Day on March 8

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, seen in Wellington, Florida, in 2024 at an event for the Sentebale charity, which the Prince has since stepped away from 

There will be just two more aides in Australia: Sarah Fosmo (Meghan’s Chief of Staff) and Miranda Barbot (Harry’s Chief of Staff).

That’s fewer people by far than supported the Sussexes when they undertook an official Royal Tour of Australia in 2018. Back then there were four PRs, two private secretaries, a PA, a hairdresser and stylist Jessica Mulroney, whose services Meghan was paying for privately. Plus two local staff were taken on to help with logistics – so 11 people in total rather than four.

You wonder if the Sussexes ever reflect at this point on how their star has fallen. With the publication of that disastrous article in film industry magazine Variety last month about Netflix being ‘done’ with them, they surely will have mulled it over.

And you wonder who is advising them now – and what advice are they giving.

One thing to note is that the couple parted ways a long time ago with the very influential talent agency WME. A well-placed insider at the respected Hollywood talent agency (full name William Morris Endeavor) said the Duchess of Sussex fell out with them over a ‘lack of cover over the holidays’ around Thanksgiving in 2023, and as a result they quietly opted to stop working together.

A source said: ‘She complained that she was having to do everything herself and WME essentially told her to get lost.’

The news means Meghan is without the formidable bargaining power of WME and its influential boss Ari Emanuel at the point when their deal with Netflix has been downgraded and success stories are in short supply.

One well-placed Hollywood insider said: ‘There is no way that the Variety piece (about her fall out with Netflix) would have run if WME were still looking after Meghan.’

A source in the Sussex camp demurs that WME are ‘still involved’ with Meghan, but that formulation does not mean that there is a current contractual relationship.

I’m told that all concerned agreed that they would not comment on the split, and indeed back in February last year the story of the break-up was denied by WME and Sussex sources, after the New York Post said that it had happened.

At least, though, they will have the chance to make money. The last time Meghan was in Australia – on a triumphant post-Royal-wedding tour in 2018 – Meghan had a complaint: ‘I can’t believe I’m not getting paid for this,’ she reportedly grumbled to staff after spending hours shaking hands with well-wishers and receiving dozens of bouquets from children.

There’s no danger of a replay when she gets Down Under this time.

When gazing up at the night sky, you’re likely to spot the moon, stars, and maybe even a planet or a few satellites. However, the images shared by the Artemis II crew offer a different perspective.

From their vantage point aboard the Orion capsule, the astronauts have been capturing and sharing breathtaking images of Earth and the moon. These snapshots provide us earthbound observers a glimpse of their extraordinary journey, including rare views of the Orientale basin—a part of the lunar surface never fully observed by humans before. The crew uses Nikon cameras to take these photos, and they also have iPhone 17 Pro Maxes for additional photography and video documentation.

Notably absent from these images are stars.

Slideshow: Photos from Artemis II mission

This omission is largely due to the dimness of the stars and the camera settings used. Capturing starry skies would require cameras with a slower shutter speed and greater sensitivity to low light, adjustments not currently being made by the Artemis crew.

Additionally, photographing stars isn’t the primary focus of their mission.

In addition to unseen parts of the backside of the moon, NASA officials say they’ll be able to view Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn, as well as the solar corona when the Sun passes behind the moon in an eclipse.

Even though the photos coming in from space have black backgrounds, they’re being taken in periods of direct sunlight. The sun is shining on the spacecraft or the moon, making it quite bright. The cameras’ exposure settings have to be adjusted for that brightness, meaning the far-away, dim stars “remain invisible,” astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy told Reuters in 2022 during the Artemis I mission.

It’s like trying to take a photo of someone standing next to a very bright, sun-lit window, Emily Lakdawalla explained in a 2019 article for The Planetary Society. You may only be able to see that person’s silhouette since they aren’t brighter than the window.

To see the faint light of the stars, the astronauts would have to use a longer exposure time, a step that’s recommended when trying to capture weak but present northern lights. They could also adjust the aperture, a setting that controls how much light enters the camera, Astronomy explains.

However, that doesn’t work as well when there is a bright object – the sun reflecting off the spacecraft, the surface of the moon, or something else – in frame. Like taking a photo next to a bright window, a washed-out effect may happen, keeping the stars from view. 

While the Artemis astronauts aren’t capturing photos of stars in space, other NASA spacecraft are hard at work doing so. Take, for example, the James Webb Space Telescope. 

In 2025, it and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory captured the below photo of two massive galaxy clusters. The Webb telescope has also taken stunning photos of the Horsehead Nebula, a star birth in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex (our closest star-forming region), the Pillars of Creation, and the Tarantula Nebula and Carina Nebula star-forming regions. You can see those photos, as well as other star-studded images from the Webb telescope, in the slideshow below.

Slideshow: Photos from the James Webb Space Telescope

Even more photos from the Artemis II mission are expected after they splash down in the Pacific Ocean later this week. NASA officials said during a Sunday press conference that while photos are sent back to Earth when bandwidth allows, there are more on the cameras’ flashcards that will be recovered upon the crew’s return.

A man was shot by police outside a grocery store after brandishing a 13-inch kitchen knife, the New York Police Department has reported.

“This incident serves as a stark reminder of the risks our officers face each day when they don their uniforms. Today was no exception,” stated Inspector Andrew Natiw, the executive officer of the Patrol Bureau of Manhattan North, during a press briefing on Monday morning.

The NYPD detailed that around 1:15 a.m. on Monday, a 53-year-old man engaged in a verbal altercation with another individual inside the City Fresh Market located at East 120th Street and Third Avenue.

After becoming “irate and disorderly,” store employees had to forcibly remove him, according to police statements. The man soon returned to the establishment, this time wielding a large kitchen knife and banging on the windows, police said.

Officers from the 25th Precinct arrived on the scene around 1:44 a.m. in response to a police-involved shooting. Surveillance footage from a nearby supermarket captured the suspect threatening employees with the knife before he encountered law enforcement.

WATCH: Knife-wielding man seen menacing grocery store employees

Surveillance video captured the man wielding a 13-inch knife, yelling, pressing against the store’s glass, police said.

Employees locked the door and called 911 just after 1:30 a.m. 

When officers arrived, they told the man to drop the knife multiple times, but he “quickly advanced toward the officers with the knife extended out.”

Police shot a 53-year-old man armed with a 13-inch knife in East Harlem early Monday. (NYPD NEWS)

Authorities said that one of the officers shot the suspect and immediately requested EMS and rendered aid to the 53-year-old suspect.

The suspect, they said, was removed to Harlem Hospital where he went into surgery, and is in critical, but stable condition.

Police recovered a 13-inch kitchen knife outside an East Harlem grocery store after they say a man charged officers with it. (WNYW)

The NYPD declined to provide a name of the suspect. Police said the man has a history of prior arrests and was known to law enforcement.

Investigators recovered approximately seven shell casings at the scene. The incident remains under investigation.

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In a dramatic scene captured on video, an Israeli woman was knocked to the ground by a powerful explosion on Monday, only to rise and walk away with remarkable composure. The incident occurred just a few yards from where she stood.

The woman, who is 34 and has not been publicly identified, had just exited her vehicle when a suspected Iranian cluster munition struck nearby during an airstrike in Petah Tikva, a city located approximately six miles east of Tel Aviv, according to Haaretz.

A local resident named Merav recounted the terrifying experience to the Israeli news outlet, saying, “It was a boom. I realized it was close. I left the safe room, and all the windows in the apartment were shattered.”

Following the initial partial explosion of the munition, the woman had exited her car in accordance with the safety protocols recommended by the Israeli Home Front Command. However, she did not have enough time to hit the ground before the full explosion occurred.

Despite the proximity of the blast, the woman miraculously survived, though she sustained serious chest injuries from shrapnel.

She was evacuated to a nearby hospital, where her condition was upgraded from serious to moderate-to-serious.

Pictures showing her car with shattered windows were also shared online.

A second explosion hit the city of 260,000, also, fewer than 200 yards away from Monday’s strike.

“We’re completely under fire,” a resident said.

At least five waves of Israeli missiles were launched from Iran toward Israel on Monday, according to the Israeli military.

The bodies of four people were pulled from the rubble of an apartment building in Haifa, a day after an Iranian missile struck it Sunday.

The four fatalities — two men and two women — belonged to the same family, according to the Israeli military.

A total of 20 Israelis have been killed, including four minors, by Iranian missile fire since the start of the recent conflict on Feb. 28.

The attacks come fewer than two weeks after Iran launched a fresh wave of missiles at Israel, boasting that it would “remove any hope” of continuing US-led negotiations to end the conflict.

WEISENBERG TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania — In an unexpected turn of events, a small plane executed an emergency landing on Interstate 78 Saturday morning, leaving motorists in awe as they watched the aircraft glide to a halt across two eastbound lanes in Lehigh County.

“It was nothing short of an Easter miracle,” remarked Victor Machese from Skippack, who witnessed the astonishing landing just shy of 9:30 a.m.

The pilot and a passenger, who had taken off from Solberg Airport with Indiana as their destination, encountered engine trouble while flying over Pennsylvania, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Despite hesitance heard in radio communications about landing on the highway, the pilot deemed it the most viable option.

Police reported that the 65-year-old pilot from Michigan managed to land the plane without incident. Drivers captured the remarkable scene on video as the aircraft descended and came to a smooth stop.

Machese expressed admiration for the pilot’s adept handling of the situation.

“He landed in 2 lanes. His wings were literally from almost the center median to the grass on the other side, and like I said, he didn’t look like he was freaking out, he was just looking straight ahead,” he said.

Another witness, Chase Galanti of New Tripoli, said seeing the landing unfold was impressive. “You hear about things like that, but not too often do you get to see it first person,” he said. “He must have done the right things and kept his cool to be able to safely land the plane.”

State Police said neither the pilot, the 34-year-old passenger from New Jersey, nor any drivers on the interstate were injured.

Weisenberg Volunteer Fire Chief Justin Oswald said several agencies responded to assist. “This is probably the best possible outcome for this type of incident we could see,” he said. Crews helped tow the plane to an airport in Allentown, with some vehicles escorting the aircraft and others blocking exits.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t necessarily train for. You don’t anticipate an aircraft landing on your highway,” Oswald said. He added that responders coordinated smoothly. “Everybody worked together very well to do something we don’t run into every day.”

The eastbound lanes of I-78 fully reopened by 1 p.m.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.