Harry and Meghan's TIME photoshoot has special connection to Prince Philip

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's photoshoot for Time Magazine, which has been making headlines for various reasons, had a special connection to Prince Philip.

Pari Dukovic, the photographer who took the portrait of Harry and his wife Meghan for the magazine, had also clicked pictures of his late grandfather. The photographer was just eight years old when he took two pictures of the Duke of Edinburgh with his first camera, during the royal's visit to his home city of Istanbul.

Prince Philip was visiting Turkey in May 1992 for an environmental trip, during which he met the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople at a church service. It was Dukovic's father who secured him access into the service with the royal, giving him the opportunity to click the photographs, his "first ever of someone influential."

Dukovic gifted the photos to the archbishop of Constantinople, who in turn passed them on to Philip as a souvenir from his visit. The photographer shared the two images in an Instagram post in April this year to pay tribute to the late Prince Consort following his death at the age of 99.

Dukovic, who has also worked with Barack Obama and The Weeknd, shared that he had clicked the pictures with a Russian KMZ Zenit camera that he was given for his eighth birthday just four months before the royal's visit. He said about taking the images, "This experience instilled in me the idea that a kid can create and dreams can become reality....I'm thankful for this life-altering experience that my dad made possible."

Almost three decades later, Dukovic got the opportunity to click the royal's grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle after they were named among the top 100 most influential people of 2021 by Time. Sharing the pictures on his Instagram account, the 37-year-old wrote, "This portrait sitting marks the first time the world-famous couple has formally posed together for a magazine cover shoot."

The picture has received positive reactions from the couple's fans, however, several social media users were of the opinion that the cover is glossy and heavily-airbrushed.