Archie’s starring role! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle son takes centre stage in Netflix documentary
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s son Archie has been given a starring role in his parents’ explosive Netflix documentary.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s three-year-old son has appeared in each of the three episodes of their television series, which landed on Netflix at 8am today.
In the first episode, the couple shared a touching home video of their son – who was just a few months old at the time – reaching out to touch a photo of Princess Diana hanging up on his nursery wall.
The footage – which appears to have been filmed on an iPhone in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Frogmore Cottage home – shows Archie babbling away as Meghan says: ‘Who’s that? Hey grandma!’
An intimate moment in the second episode shows Meghan Markle pictured giving Archie a kiss
After her baby son reaches out to touch the black-and-white portrait, Meghan said: ‘Yeah – that’s your Grandma Diana.’
Later on in the episode, the mother-and-son are seen holding hands and running through what looks like the garden of their Montecito home together.
New never-before-seen images of the couple’s son feature throughout the first episodes, including a selfie Meghan took with her newborn in what appears to be the Frogmore Cottage nursery and another black-and-white image of her reading Archie a story as he sits in her lap.
What’s more, Meghan also shared a heartwarming photo from when she was pregnant with Lili, who was born in June 2021.
Prince Harry and Meghan shared a snap from their son Archie’s first birthday in their explosive Netflix documentary today
Left: Meghan Markle shows Archie a photo of Diana on display in his nursery in the first episode. Right: The couple shared an undated photo of Archie on Prince Harry’s shoulders
Left: Meghan Markle pictured holding baby Archie during a holiday to Canada in 2019 – just one month before quitting the Royal Family. Right: Meghan pictured reading her three-year-old a story
Meghan Markle and Archie hold hands as they run through the garden in what looks like their Montecito garden
The three-year-old is pictured throughout the first three episodes of the Netflix series- including this undated black-and-white shot of him holding an American flag
Meghan shared a photo of her son lying on her bump when she was pregnant with daughter Lili
The phone selfies shows Meghan lying back on a bed in what appears to be their Montecito home as Archie rests against her growing baby bump.
In the second episode, the couple then shared a strikingly intimate moment of the mother-of-two appearing visibly emotional as she gives her son a kiss on the lips.
The footage – which appears to have been taken after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as working royals in January 2020 – shows Meghan cuddling her son in a new nursery.
The Duchess is then heard speaking about being the ‘product of divorce’ as the heartwarming clip plays in the background.
Moments later, Prince Harry is seen taking his son for a walk in an area that appears to be near their home in Montecito.
Prince Harry and his son Archie are seen watching hummingbirds on what appears to be the patio of their Montecito home
One snap shows Prince Harry snuggling up with their son beneath an umbrella
In another shot, the toddler can be seen running along as the couple walk around the grounds of their $14million mansion in California
Left: Undated video of Prince Harry playing with Archie on a suitcase. Right: Prince Harry reads Lili and Archie a story
As his three-year-old son walks ahead of him, Prince Harry is heard singing Heigh-Ho from Snow White.
Elsewhere, the toddler is seen happily walking along a path with the family’s black labrador before telling his dad: ‘Archie is running away!’
It then jumps to a clip of the father and son back at their home in Montecito, where Prince Harry is admiring some hummingbirds.
‘We won’t get a chance to be this close to hummningbirds 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.’
The docu-series then jumps to a clip of Prince Harry reading the their son a storybook on the sofa.
Earlier on in the episode, Prince Harry says off-camera: ‘My son, my daughter, my children are mixed race and I’m really proud of that.
‘When my kids grow up and they back look at this moment and they turn to me, they say, “what did you do in this moment?” I want to be able to give them an answer.’
The image of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrating their little boy’s big day is among the first royal fans have seen of Archie as the couple have been notoriously private about him.
However in the first episode of their new £100million Netflix documentary, they shared a series of photographs and clips of Archie, including him seeing snow for the first time.
Highly personal clips show him running on the beach, at their home and the couple snuggling up with the toddler.
In one clip, the little boy described a sunset as ‘beautiful’.
In another moment, he can be seen running along as the couple walk around the grounds of their $14million mansion in California.
Meghan said: ‘We’ve been really conscious about protecting our kids as best we can and also understanding the role they play in this really historical family.’
Another clip shows a baby Archie being rolled around on a suitcase at home, while in another Meghan discusses putting him and his sister Lilibet down for the night.
In the bombshell documentary:
Harry claims he was ‘brought up by friends in Africa’ in fresh attack on Charles
Meghan and Harry shared pictures from Archie’s first birthday party
The couple revealed what really happened on their first date
The Sussexes shared unseen photos with their beloved dogs
Meghan lifts the lid on her ‘amazing’ first Christmas at Sandringham
Netflix show is branded a ‘TV bomb’ for the royal family
The couple had been reported to have tried to push the series back to 2023 despite the streaming giant paying them a rumoured $100million (£88million) for the fly-on-the-wall documentary.
There have been mixed reports, with the couple reportedly ‘at odds’ with the production staff on their Netflix docuseries because the ‘panicked’ pair want to make ‘such extensive edits’ that the team believe the project could be ‘shelved indefinitely’.
King Charles and Prince William are poised to issue a ‘swift and robust’ response to any unjust claims in Harry and Meghan’s series – but William and his wife Kate are not likely to watch it themselves, sources have said.
Senior royals are said to be bracing for the worst and will be prepared to address any unfounded accusations as the new series dropped on the streaming service at 8am.
Ahead of the release, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex already made a number of claims in two trailers released by Netflix in recent days, saying they had no protection from the palace and accused aides of actively leaking and ‘planting’ stories against them as part of a ‘dirty game’.
But the Royal Family believe the series will actually be slim on new revelations.
A source told The Mirror: ‘There’s a real feeling in the camp that Harry and Meghan are making a lot of noise and there isn’t much more to say.
‘But preparations are being made for all outcomes, especially if there are unjust accusations being made.’
Members of the Sussexes’ now defunct household are also said to be ‘seething with rage’ over trailers for the six-part documentary.
Officials from both Buckingham and Kensington Palace will watch the first three episodes of the series this morning.
But it is understood that the Prince and Princess of Wales will refuse to watch the first three episodes of the documentary.
An insider also told The Sun that the royals are reluctant to engage in a tit-for-tat battle over the series.
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