With love from Mum... Meghan the birthday girl
Our second exclusive set of enchanting unseen photos from her earliest years
Excitedly opening her birthday present at an alfresco family party, the pretty little girl is a study of anticipation. it is so hot that she is barefoot and wears only a pair of shorts.
And here she is on another golden day in the park, giggling impishly as she totters around in her striped summer frock; then squatting down on the grass to feed the pigeons under the protective gaze of her mother.
these delightful new photographs capture the infant Meghan Markle taking her first steps on the extraordinary journey that has led her from the obscurity of a los Angeles suburb to the heart of the British establishment.
they are among dozens of evocative snapshots contained in a treasured and previously unseen family album shown exclusively to the daily Mail by Meghan’s uncle, Joseph Johnson.
On Saturday, readers cooed over pictures of her as a baby, including her first- ever photo, taken just hours after her birth on August 4, 1981.
today, from that same enchanting collection, we bring you more intimate images, showing Meghan as a bright, beautiful and mischievous toddler.
One rare photo, taken at a celebratory family meal, is particularly revealing. cradled in her father thomas’s bear-like arms — he is looking at her adoringly — her half-siblings tom Junior and Samantha, then wholesome-looking teenagers, are seen seated further down the table.
As the adults laugh and joke at a table laden with her mother doria’s homecooked dishes, and drink wine from glass goblets, infant Meghan, a string of beads draped over her tousled hair, radiates contentment and security.
Until now, the perception has been that Meghan’s childhood was scarred by the acrimony between her parents, who divorced when she was six, and her older sister’s jealousy.
the truth, as these photos show, appears very different.
they depict a family seemingly at ease and united in their adoration for their newest addition. there is no hint of the unedifying rancour and feuding that frequently embarrasses her today.
According to Meghan’s uncle, the camera doesn’t lie.
‘She was always a special child, and so
happy. She had a lovely and sunny disposition,’ said Mr Johnson, 69, who is doria’s half-brother.
He remembers how, when Meghan was young, he and his sons, Jason, Shawn and Jarred, would get together with thomas Sr, tom and Samantha, and have fun.
And, as the photos also show, Meghan was close to her cousins and remained so. in her teens, she would go for nights out with them in their hometown of Fresno, three hours north of los Angeles.
Any day now, of course, Meghan will become a mum herself, and Mr Johnson is sure she will be every bit as capable and doting as doria.
though Uncle Joe is yet to meet Harry, having studied him from afar — admiring his ‘sensitivity’ and palpable devotion to Meghan — he feels sure the Prince will make a brilliant father, too.
For the imminent royal baby, this hitherto unseen snapshot of Meghan’s upbringing augurs wonderfully well.
And perhaps, in a year or so, we will see the duke and duchess of Sussex’s freespirited toddler scampering, bare-footed, across the manicured Windsor lawns chasing the pigeons, too.