Picture of Harry and Meghan added to National Portrait Gallery’s collection

A photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has become part of the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection.

The portrait was taken by their long-time friend and photographer Misan Harriman at the One Young World event in Manchester in September 2022, just a few days before the death of the Queen.

The black and white image captures Meghan and Harry before they took to the stage and shows the couple side-on, looking composed as they stand next to one another holding hands.

In an Instagram video of Harriman looking at the photograph in the museum, he said: “I’m in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery.

“It never gets old that this extraordinary image of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is now part of the permanent collection.

“As I’ve said before, I’m a dyslexic boy who never really believed that my mind was worth much and it’s in moments like this that I, I give the message to the rest of the world that maybe your kids or yourself can have a point of view, dare to dream and keep taking pictures.”

He also wrote that he was “humbled and proud” by the moment.

Harriman has previously released the first birthday images of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s daughter Princess Lilibet, which shows her smiling and dressed in a pale blue frock with a white bow in her hair, and were captured at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor.

The National Portrait Gallery already houses prints by Alexi Lubomirski of Harry and Meghan on December 21 2017, which were released to official mark their engagement.

Taken at Frogmore, the images show the couple in black and white and in colour holding each other.

Fashion and celebrity photographer Lubomirski’s wedding prints from 2018 are also kept in the London museum’s collection along with the couple’s official photograph from the momentous day, which features the late Queen alongside the rest of the family including the Prince and Princess of Wales.