Happy fourth birthday Prince Archie! A glimpse into the life of Harry and Meghan Markle’s son

Today Prince Archie, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex turns four.

But with his father, Prince Harry, attending the Coronation of his father, King Charles III, it is left to his mother, Meghan, to organise the celebrations at home in Montecito, California.

The Duchess has chosen to remain with children Archie and Lilibet, aged one,  rather than travel to join her husband in Westminster Abbey.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have taken care to keep the lives of Archie and his younger sister Lilibet private until the past few months.

Harry holding son Archie in 2019. Yesterday – the day of his grandfather’s Coronation – Archie turned four 

Prince Harry explained in the Netflix docuseries that for Archie and his little sister, California feels like ‘home’

On June 4, 2021, the family welcomed Archie’s younger sister Lilibet, who will celebrate her second birthday soon

They have rarely shared photographs of their children’s lives.

But the recent  Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, and Prince Harry’s tell-all memoir Spare, have given a us a much clearer view of the Californian royals than before – thanks in part to an unprecedented number of images and videos.

Snapshots of their American lives show that Archie, who turned four yesterday, is growing up in an idyllic environment.

He is filmed chasing seagulls at the beach, for example, helping his parents pick oranges from the garden and playing with his two beloved family dogs – a Labrador called Pula and a Beagle called Guy. 

Prince Harry explained in the Netflix docuseries that, for Archie and his little sister, California feels like ‘home’, pointing out that the four-year-old only spent the first five months of his life in Britain. 

Archie was born in Portland Hospital, London, in May 2019. At the time of his birth Prince Harry recalled that both parents were calm.

He wrote: ‘Meg was so calm. I was calm too.’

The Prince used laughing gas, meant for his wife, to calm his nerves, and said the couple’s bodyguards delivered them a takeaway Nando’s.

According to the Duke, Meghan ‘bounced on a giant purple ball’ as she went into labour and then climbed into a bath and listened to ‘soulful hymns’.

At the same time, Prince Harry lit the room with electric candles and placed a photograph of his later mother, Princess Diana, on a table in the delivery room.

Once Archie was born, both parents wept with joy.

Archie’s first home was Frogmore Cottage on the royal family’s Windsor Estate, where his parents had moved months before his birth.

One clip from their time in the cottage, revealed in the docuseries, showed baby Archie gazing up to his father from a baby rocker, while another photo shows him with his nanny Lorren Khumalo who wrapped him in a yellow and brown cloth – traditional in Zimbabwe.

Netflix footage shows Archie tinkling away on a tiny piano while another clip shows him chasing seagulls around the beach

Prince Harry with his son in Los Angeles, California. Archie was born in Portland Hospital, London, in May 2019, but spent only a short time in the UK  

Archie celebrating his first birthday with his mother, Meghan, father, Harry and maternal grandmother Doria 

Another emotive clip of the young royal, which appears to have been filmed on a smartphone, shows Archie reaching to touch a photo of Princess Diana on his nursery wall in Frogmore Cottage.

The baby babbles away as Meghan says, ‘Who’s that? Hey grandma’.

After her baby son reached out to touch the black-and-white portrait, Meghan said: ‘Yeah – that’s your Grandma Diana.

For the youngster, however, the house near to his grandparents and great-grandparents did not remain home for long.

By October 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they would be taking six weeks off royal duties for some ‘family time’ with their newborn.

They travelled to Canada, staying for a period on Vancouver Island. 

By January, however, the pair had announced they would ‘step back as senior members of the Royal Family’ splitting their time between the UK and North America.

By March 2020, just before the pandemic sent many parts of the world into lockdowns, the couple and their young son had moved to Los Angeles.

In July 2020, they moved into their Santa Barbara home, in Montecito, which reportedly cost them $14 million.

The home is close to friend Oprah Winfrey, as well as other celebrities, such as Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom as well as Brad Pitt.

Since then, Archie has spent his toddler years  in the Sussexes’ huge 11-bedroom mansion. It sprawls over 20 acres of land, between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

On June 4, 2021, the family welcomed Archie’s younger sister Lilibet, who will celebrate her second birthday next month.

In an interview with The Cut magazine last August, Meghan gave insight into Archie’s day-to-day life.

She recounted how he spent time at pre-school – including how he had pretended to be a doctor with a stethoscope.

One of his favourite thigns to eat was quesadilla, a Mexican tortilla-based food.

Clips from the docuseries show his doting parents playing hide and seek with him, chasing him round a maze.

The home video shows Meghan shouting ‘Where are you?’ in the distance and his dad warning: ‘Dead end! this way, go this way!’

Archie then takes a tumble with Harry gasping ‘he’s down’ before he is scooped up and dusted off by his mother.

One Netflix clip from their time in the cottage shows baby Archie gazing up to his father from a baby rocker, while another photo shows him with his nanny Lorren Khumalo, who had wrapped him in a yellow and brown cloth – traditional in Zimbabwe

Archie’s fourth birthday falls on the same day as the King’s Coronation. Pictured: Archie walking along the beach with his mother and their pet beagle, Guy.  

Other footage shows the young royal showing off his musical talent, tinkling away on a tiny piano while another clip shows him chasing seagulls around the beach, pulling up his soggy trousers as he watches the birds fly off.

Other moments shared by his parents, show Archie calling a sunset ‘beautiful’ and watching a hummingbird with his father – although he seemed more interested by the mud on his boots.

‘We won’t get a chance to be this close to hummingbirds ever again,’ Prince Harry tells his son. 

As Meghan films them both, Archie then asks: ‘Why?’

Despite asking his toddler to stay quiet and watch the wildlife, the toddler then exclaims: ‘I’ve got a dirty foot mama because I was with you!’

Trying her best to stifle her laughter, Meghan tells him: ‘You’ve got a dirty foot, sweetheart. Papa is a birdwatcher, so this is a really big moment for him.’

When his great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II died in September, Archie and Lili remained in California and were cared for by their maternal grandmother, Doria Ragland, and their nannies.

Duke and Duchess shared a number of photos which show Archie spending time with Doria.

Archie with his parents and grandmother, Doria Ragland, while living at Frogmore Cottage in Windsor

She was pictured with the couple and Archie celebrating his first birthday and in one clip pushes her grandson around in a plastic toy car.

The tot was also pictured with his grandmother and mother on a Zoom call with a professor who claims she is writing a book about ‘racism and the British Monarchy’.

Prince Archie does not appear to have spent any birthdays with his British family. But birthday wishes were sent to Archie from the Instagram accounts of the Queen, the Royal Family, then Prince Charles, and Prince William and Kate.