The latest photos of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at a farmer’s market are a reminder of what a celebrity circus royal life has become

In the idyllic Californian setting, breezy white linen shirt worn unbuttoned, Meghan looked like a Nancy Meyers heroine in the setup to a meet cute. And not like a woman whose mere existence provokes such passionate reactions that the threads attacking and defending her are the only things keeping Twitter alive.

There was something healing about these images, which were quickly posted and reposted across social media. They call to mind the Meghan of 2016, when she was just an actor on a cable show, blogging about her love of shopping for fresh ingredients — including in Toronto’s Kensington Market — and Instagramming bunches of peonies with the reckless abandon we all did at that time.

It also feels like a dispatch from the happiest Meghan and Harry timeline in the present, the one where the move to California delivered all of the things they wanted: A chance to build a family life on their own terms, significantly better weather than the U.K.’s endless mizzle.

In this fantasy universe, the tabloids and the hordes whose outrage they foment have seen the error of their ways, and we can have nuanced conversations about whether Meghan’s children’s book “The Bench” had literary merit without it devolving into a vicious personal attack fuelled by some of our darkest impulses. And the only feeding frenzy pictures like this of Meghan incite is a rush to buy her olive knit dress before it sells out online.

In this perfect world, these pictures might not have been taken at all, but intrusion is Harry and Meghan’s lot, and they’ve ensured that it is by trading on their personal stories to make their living. This particular snap feels refreshingly banal, as low stakes as a “Sunday Spotted” on the beloved gossip account Deux Moi’s weekend roundup of mildly notable figures sighted at coffee shops or strolling to dinner.

It’s not entirely clear who this snap of Meghan was taken by. It popped up on the Instagram grid of Canadian artist Donald Robertson, who has previously mentioned on social media that he lives near the couple in the California neighbourhood, joking that they only talk to people who have kids the same age as Archie and Lilibet. He’s since deleted the post.

Regardless, they feel like the work of someone who just happened to be at the market, rather than a staged photo opp, or a paparazzi lurking with a zoom lens propped on some organic zucchini. On the sliding scale of intrusion, these feel … chill, which is not something you can say about any image of Meghan or Harry taken in the past few years. They are so innocuous, so uncomplicated, in contrast to the fraught photos of them in a taxi in New York City, or even the more recent snaps of Meghan going to the hairdresser, every detail analyzed for significance in the light of the news that the couple were parting ways with Spotify.

Even those primed to get their knickers in a knot could muster only the most minor of infractions: GB News tried to out Meghan for breaking a “no dogs” policy that may or may not actually be enforced at the open-air market.

And in the broader context of royal watching, pictures like these — no subtext, no larger conversation swirling around them, no context that makes you look at them differently — are increasingly rare.

Take, for example, Kate and William bringing George and Charlotte to Wimbledon for the finals yesterday. Not so long ago, this might have felt like an easy breezy, softball royal moment. “How sweet! Aren’t George and Charlotte adorable / they’re growing up so fast / their spectating facial expressions are endearingly comical.”

In a post-“Spare” world, though, you can’t help but think of Harry’s description of feeling like an exhibit in a zoo whenever George and Charlotte appear. You wonder what tense negotiations, internalized sense of too-adult responsibility or hierarchical family dynamic might have led to these kiddies sitting in that royal box, dressed up like miniature versions of their parents.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, thinking critically about the place of royalty in a modern world, how we can be manipulated by images, the welfare of the real people behind the photographs can only be for the good of everyone involved. It might just help create a future where no one is writing a scathing tell-all about this family in 20 years.

And, perhaps, where Meghan Markle actually can live out her “Something’s Got To Give” fantasies unbothered — for real this time.