Harry and Meghan are showing the royal family how brand management is done | Gaby Hinsliff

As the Sussexes unveil a slick Netflix series, the Windsors are struggling with accusations of racism at a palace reception

If ever there were a love story for the Instagram age, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's beautifully chronicled romance is the one. Here they are, in a series of pictures from their private album released to promote next week's six-part Netflix documentary on their relationship, sitting atop a Jeep on what looks like their first holiday together. Here he is, serenading her on the guitar. Then the two of them, impossibly glamorous, spinning joyously around the dancefloor at their wedding; and her on a beach, pregnant and delightedly cradling the bump, against an almost too perfect sunset.

Couple goals, luxury travel, a baby: that's all the influencer boxes ticked. But perhaps the most telling image shows them late at night in their kitchen, just in from an official engagement. Harry has stripped off his dress jacket and is kissing Meghan, who is perched on the counter in an evening gown; it's sexy, dishevelled and achingly intimate, at least until you ask yourself how precisely there came to be a photographer handy to capture it.