The royal family have shared a rare portrait of the Queen and Prince Charles celebrating Easter together

Easter looked very different for most families this year, and the royals are no exception.

As well as it being the second Easter Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and baby Archie have spent in their new home of California, it was also a significant date for Princess Eugenie – who celebrated her first Easter as a new mother to baby August.

Pre-pandemic, the Queen would typically be joined by her extended family to attend Easter services together at St George's Chapel, but this year, like last year, the royals did not make a public appearance to mark Easter Sunday.

Instead, the Palace released two sweet new photographs of Prince Charles and the Queen walking together in the gardens at Frogmore House in Windsor.

Taken by Getty photographer Chris Jackson, the portraits mark brighter days ahead as vaccines are rolled out across the UK, and coronavirus restrictions begin to ease.

'Very special to take this photograph of The Queen and The Prince of Wales in the historic grounds of Frogmore House that has been released tonight,' Jackson wrote on Twitter.

'It feels especially poignant as hopefully we will ALL be seeing a bit more of [our] families over the coming days and weeks.'

The first of the two portraits was shared on the official royal family Instagram account, while the second was shared on the Clarence House Instagram page – which represents Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The gardens of the Frogmore estate don't currently allow for public visitors, though they're set to re-open in 2022. Frogmore House itself isn't occupied by the royal family anymore, either, but it is often used for entertaining – most notably, when it hosted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding reception in May 2018.

Harry and Meghan lived at Frogmore Cottage, also on the Frogmore estate, before leaving the UK to begin their new life in Montecito, California with baby Archie. After the couple's departure, the cottage was occupied by Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank – though the couple have since returned to Kensington Palace.