Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet: Everything you need to know about Meghan and Harry’s children
The couple welcomed their son in 2019 and their daughter in 2021
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Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle share two children, Archie, three and Lilibet, one.
Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born on 6 May 2019 to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Archie is sixth in line to the throne, behind his uncle Prince William, his cousins and his father. He was born at Portland Hospital in London.
He is the grandson of King Charles III and great-grandson of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
His three godparents are businessman Charlie van Straubenzee,Tiggy Pettifer, who was a former nanny to Harry, and former Welsh Guard’s officer Mark Dyer, who reportedly became a “mentor and close friend” to both Harry and his brother Prince William.
"We’re absolutely thrilled – welcome to the Sleep Deprivation Society!" William and Kate Middleton said of their delight at the birth of Harry and Meghan’s son.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip were introduced to their eighth great-grandchild at Windsor Castle on 8 May 2019. Meghan’s mother Dora Ragland was also present at the time.
An easel was placed on the forecourt at Buckingham Palace to announce the birth.
In September and October 2019, Archie accompanied his parents in a southern African tour of Malawi, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. During the tour, he met retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe.
In early 2020, the Sussexes stepped down from their roles as working royals and moved to Montecito, California, where they currently reside.
In a 2021 television special with Oprah Winfrey, the duchess said that while she was pregnant with Archie that there were “concerns and conversations” from an unnamed member of the royal family “about how dark his skin might be when born”.
However, the Sussexes have not revealed which family member made the comment. In early 2023, while promoting his memoir Spare, Harry denied accusing the royal family of racism over the comment and suggested that unconscious bias was to blame for his relative’s worry about how Black his unborn child would be.
Archie’s younger sister Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on 4 June 2021 in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California.
She was born during the reign of her late great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, whose childhood nickname was Lilibet. She is the second child of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Lilibet met her great-grandmother and grandfather King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, in-person for the first time when the family travelled to London for the Queen’s platinum jubilee of Elizabeth II in June 2022.
Her godfather is the American actor and comedian Tyler Perry, who appeared in the Sussexes’ Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
She was christened in the Episcopal Church, a province in the Anglican Communion, in a private ceremony at her parents’ home on 3 March 2023 by John H Taylor, the Bishop of Los Angeles.
Upon the accession of King Charles III, following the death of the children’s grandmother in September 2022, Archie received the royal title of Prince, while Lilibetreceived the title of Princess.
The official British website of the royal family was updated to refer to “Prince Archie of Sussex” and “Princess Lilibet of Sussex” on 9 March 2023. It was reported that any titles would be used in formal settings, but not in everyday conversations.
On the day of King Charles’s coronation, Archie will turn four. His father will fly to London to attend the coronation, but Meghan will remain in California with Archie and Lilibet.
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