Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are "reluctant" to introduce Archie and Lilibet in public

[Prince Harry and Princess Meghan Markle have kept their children mostly out of the public eye since moving to California in 2020, a move that is reportedly intentional on their part.

"Harry doesn't want to show the children publicly, not because he wants to hide them, but to protect their privacy and safety from potential threats," a friend of the Sussex couple told People.

"He wants them to live as normal a life as possible without fear of kidnapping or harm," a friend of the Sussexes said.

She added, "As a father and husband, Harry is determined to make sure that history does not repeat itself."

Harry's history is heavy in many ways, first with the untimely death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in 1997 while being tracked by paparazzi.

Then there was the Duke of Sussex's difficult history with the press, which he claims had a profoundly negative impact on his childhood and adolescence.

The two small children are rarely seen in public after 2020, with the two making a brief cameo in their parents' 2022 Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan.

Sometimes parents comment on their children during public appearances, as when the Duchess revealed Archie's enthusiasm for photography inspired by family friend Misann Harriman.

While moderating a talk in December, Princess Meghan said, "Our four-and-a-half-year-old son said, 'No, I'm not four. The last time Missan was with us, I was teaching him how to take pictures, and I bought Archie a camera. I said, 'You can't buy a Leica! ' He said, 'It's not even Christmas.'"

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But apart from such tidbits, we know very little about the two children, and the Sussexes seem to have left it at that.