Prince Archie will today celebrate his seventh birthday more than 5,000 miles away from the Royal Family, who have only met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son a handful of times.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made the unprecedented decision to give up their royal roles in 2020, it was unknown what the future would look like for their son Archie, who at that time did not hold a title.
Yet, according to royal biographer Omid Scobie, it was actually Archie that gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the courage to leave the Royal Family in the first place.
The young royal, then only eight months old, motivated his parents ‘to stand up for what was right for them, regardless of what the consequences,’ he claimed.
Mr Scobie previously told People that both Harry and Meghan had been ‘quite afraid of the consequences of stepping away and challenging the system’.
‘As we have seen, those consequences have been pretty major,’ he added.
In the years that followed the Sussexes’ notorious exit from The Firm, Harry has spoken on numerous occasions about his desire to break the cycle of genetic trauma he suffered as a ‘Spare’, and how he hopes to avoid his parents’ previous ‘mistakes’.
During a candid conversation with Dr Gabor Maté in 2022, the prince revealed: ‘We only know what we know, and for myself and my wife we do the best we can as parents – learning from our own past and overlapping those mistakes, perhaps, and growing… to break that cycle.
‘You certainly don’t make friends in the process, in the short term.’
Prince Archie will today celebrate his seventh birthday more than 5,000 miles away from the Royal Family, who have only met the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son a handful of times
Over the years, Harry and Meghan have shared few details about young Archie’s life in Montecito, with most of the snaps shared by Meghan in particular showing him with his face hidden
King Charles has reportedly only met Archie a few times, and the Sussexes’ four-year-old daughter, Princess Lilibet, once in 2022.
Meanwhile, the late Queen was also said to have been ‘heartbroken’ that she would not get to see Archie grow up – after Harry and Meghan relocated to Montecito, California.
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Charles is, however, said to be keen to rebuild his relationship with Harry’s two young children based across the pond, despite the Duke of Sussex’s estrangement from the Firm.
In 2024, royal commentator Michael Cole told the Daily Mail that Charles feels the ‘lack of closeness with his California grandchildren acutely’, given his own childhood was affected by his parents’ long absences on extensive tours of the Commonwealth.
The former BBC royal correspondent said the King ‘looks as happy and as content as I have ever seen him’ but his ‘only regret is that he does not see Archie and Lilibet’.
He added that the two ‘innocent young children’ are growing up without any ‘real contact’ with the Royal Family in Britain while Charles undergoes treatment for cancer and ‘would welcome the pleasure and comfort of seeing his grandchildren’.
Mr Cole told the Daily Mail: ‘Painfully aware that time is precious, the King regrets that he cannot be closer to his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
‘It is not just the 5,000 miles between Clarence House and California that keeps the monarch at a distance from his youngest grandchildren.
‘The antipathy between Prince Harry and his wife Meghan and the Royal Family has created a deep divide that makes normal family relationships so fraught as to be almost impossible.’
Mr Cole added that Charles plays the loving role of a ‘hands-on’ grandparent with his other grandchildren: Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11 and Prince Louis, eight.
Have Harry and Meghan given Archie freedom – or cost him his royal heritage?
According to royal biographer Omid Scobie, it was actually Archie that gave the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the courage to leave the Royal Family in the first place. Pictured: Members of the Royal Family at Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’s christening
During an event hosted in Melbourne, Australia, in April, Harry explained that he wanted to be the ‘best version’ of himself for his children, Archie and Lilibet, and that being a dad is the most important role a man can occupy.
Reflecting on taking part in therapy before the birth of his children, Harry said: ‘Certainly from a therapy standpoint, you want to be the best version of yourself for your kids.
‘And I knew that I had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with, and therefore prepare myself to basically cleanse myself of the past.’
In a discussion on stage with Movember’s global director of men’s health research Dr Zac Seidler, Harry said: ‘Conversations that are now happening in households between kids and parents that never existed between me and my parents.’
He spoke about the evolving roles of parents, telling the guests: ‘From my perspective, our kids are our upgrade. That’s not how I was taught but that was my take on it – not to say I was an upgrade of my dad or that my kids are an upgrade of me.
‘That’s the approach that I take, to know that with the world the way that it goes, the kids that we bring up in today’s world need to be an upgrade.’
The Duke added: ‘There’s no judgment, there’s no blame, there’s no pointing the finger. The reality is that – however you are parenting – that is a personal experience to you, you are going to want to improve on that.’
He added: ‘Fatherhood is the most important and sort of transformational role that a guy can ever, can ever move into.’
Over the years, Harry and Meghan have shared few details about young Archie’s life in Montecito, with most of the snaps shared by Meghan in particular showing him with his face hidden.
The family moved to California with Archie, who was less than a year old at the time, and their daughter Lilibet was born in 2021.
Meghan and Harry have worked hard to keep their children out of the spotlight by carefully controlling their public image.
While Lilibet was born in the US after the Sussexes had stepped down, Archie began his life in May 2019 while his parents were working royals.
In September and October 2019, he accompanied his parents on a tour of southern African, visiting Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana, and he was photographed with South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
There was some expectation that Harry and Meghan’s children would also be public figures. However, from the beginning the couple have bypassed tradition.
For instance, they delayed Archie’s birth announcement until after they had returned home from the hospital. The usual protocol is for a royal birth to be made public shortly after it has happened.
Archie and Lilibet were not ‘prince’ and ‘princess’ at birth because they were not grandchildren of the monarch at the time. However, they gained the right to these titles when King Charles acceded to the throne in 2022.
Harry and Meghan are understood to be keen to not deny their children, Archie and Lilibet, their birthright, but to allow them the chance to decide for themselves when they are older whether to drop or keep using their titles.
