New family photo of Harry and Meghan appears hours after Oprah interview

Intimate family photo released on Instagram by pair’s photographer friend Misan Harriman

In this handout photo released on March 8, 2021, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex pose with son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Getty Images

A new photo of Harry and pregnant Meghan cradling Archie has been released by their photographer friend Misan Harriman, hours after their interview with Oprah Winfrey shocked the world.

The picture shows the Duke of Sussex cuddling his wife as she holds Archie, his face hidden by hers, in a lush Los Angeles garden.

It was taken by the same friend who took the photograph to announce Meghan's most recent pregnancy. He shared the image on Instagram to mark International Women's Day.

"What wonderful news to celebrate on International Women’s Day! Congratulations my friends, and welcome to the girldad club H," Harriman said.

Like the previous photograph, both the Duke and Duchess are barefoot with the same large tree in the background.

This time Meghan is wearing a different dress to the previous image.

The photo was released shortly after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan lifted the lid on life inside Britain's royal family with an explosive interview.

The two-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was the most startling since Harry's late mother Princess Diana made her own bombshell revelations in 1995.

And they sparked similar questions about the ability of Queen Elizabeth II's family to weather the storm.

Harry described feeling "really let down" by his father Prince Charles, who had stopped taking his phone calls for a time.

Both Charles, the queen's heir, and Harry's elder brother William were "trapped" by the conventions of the monarchy, Harry said..

"They don't get to leave. And I have huge compassion for that," he said in the interview broadcast on CBS on Sunday night.

Harry was explaining the couple's dramatic exit from royal life last year, after which they were stripped by the queen of their honorary titles and patronages.

Meghan, a mixed-race former TV actress, described herself as "naively" unprepared for life in the pressure cooker of the royal family.

But she said she was denied help for a mental health crisis, became the target of lies in an incident involving her sister-in-law, and there was even official concern about the skin colour of her unborn son.

"I ... just didn't want to be alive any more. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought," she told Winfrey, describing the impact of vitriol from hostile tabloids in Britain and social media.

Asked if she had had suicidal thoughts while pregnant with son Archie, Meghan replied: "Yes. This was very, very clear."

She said she ultimately contacted one of Princess Diana's best friends for support. "Who else could understand what it's actually like on the inside?"

Meghan, 39, also told of "concerns" about "how dark" Archie's skin would be, saying Harry revealed to her conversations over their baby's appearance, and the security he would be entitled to, before his birth on May 6, 2019.

The couple both declined to name the royal involved but Winfrey said Monday that Harry told her the queen, 94, and her 99-year-old husband, Prince Philip, were not part of the conversations.

The revelations have started a storm of reaction on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly the explosive claims about racism, opening up a wider debate about prejudice in British society.