Royal insider says it’s been ‘impossible’ for Archie to see family
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new life in California strikes a dramatic contrast with the life led by the remaining senior royals behind Palace walls. With their new sprawling mansion in the isolated community of Montecito, Santa Barbara, the couple are finally able to raise their son Archie Harrison as the “private citizen” they always hoped he would be. From his birth, the Sussexes made it clear he would not be following the usual royal route for the Queen’s great-grandchildren and rejected the offer of any title for their newborn son.
Although surprising, this was not an unprecedented move — Princess Anne, the Queen’s second child and only daughter, also declined to reward titles to her two children because she wanted them to live a more normal life.
This is also not the first child-rearing move Harry has copied from his aunt and her first husband, Mark Phillips.
The Sussexes decided to veer away from the royal tradition of employing a nanny from Norland College, the prestigious nanny-training school which has provided staff to the Royal Family since 1892.
Anne and her ex-husband Mark Phillips decided to ditch the more familiar figures as nannies to their two children, Peter and Zara, as well.
In his book, ‘Princess Anne’, biographer Nicholas Courtney explained: “Like most of the ‘old guard’ nannies, the royal ones are used to moving around within the family and caring for the…