Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took fans by surprise this week after they released a new Christmas card for 2024 containing six photographs.

While the pictures they included of them at charitable events were to be expected on the greetings card, one of the snaps showing the couple about to hug their two children Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, took royal fans by surprise.

Since the couple quit royal life in 2020 and moved across the pond to America, where they now live in a £11 million Montecito mansion, they have been very careful not to issue many, if any, photographs of their young children for privacy reasons.

However, as well as wanting their children to have as normal a life as possible, which Prince Harry, 40, said has been possible in America, a friend of the couple also revealed that the decision not to show their children’s faces comes from concerns over their safety.

This is likely to have influenced which family picture the couple opted to use in the card, with the one chosen showing just the backs of the children as they ran to greet their parents, with Lilibet wearing a white and blue dress and Archie in jeans and a jumper.

A source previously told PEOPLE: "Harry has been reluctant to show his children publicly, not out of a desire to hide them but to protect their privacy and safety from potential threats.

“He wants them to lead as normal a life as possible without the fear of kidnapping or harm."

While the prince himself has not said this, he did hint that he was “grateful” to be bringing his children up in America as opposed to the UK.

Earlier this month, Harry attended The New York Times DealBook Online Summit on December 4 and told columnist and Dealbook founder Andrew Ross Sorkin that living in America was a “fantastic opportunity”.

Speaking about his children, the duke said: "I very much enjoy living here and bringing my kids up here. It’s a part of my life that I never thought I was going to live. I feel as though it's the life that my mum wanted for me. To be able to do the things I'm able to do with my kids that I undoubtedly wouldn't be able to do in the UK — it's huge. That is a fantastic opportunity and I'm hugely grateful for that."

Meghan, 43, spoke in a similar manner in her interview with The Cut in 2022 when she explained why she wouldn’t be able to take her son to or from school if she still lived in the UK as it would be a “royal photocall”.

She said at the time: “Sorry, I have a problem with that. That doesn’t make me obsessed with privacy. That makes me a strong and good parent protecting my child.”

Archie and Lilibet are expected to spend Christmas at their Montecito home with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. No photos of the royal children on the big day are likely to be released publicly.