At 6 years old, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is leading a pretty normal life.
For your basic celebrity kid, that is.
He's seen three continents and lived in three countries. Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe are among his neighbors. His vicarious social media presence is carefully curated. His first public words came on a podcast. And he has already inspired a children's book.
A book he loved, according to the author, his mom Meghan Markle.
But while this existence is what Archie knows, having settled in Southern California with his parents when he was barely 9 months old, Meghan and Prince Harry upended their lives to get their family to this place, both geographically and existentially.
So, if one day Archie is ever especially curious about his earliest years, before he started having memories, let's just say they're well-documented. Though he's old enough to know that's not the family kitchen his mom is cooking in on her Netflix series With Love, Megan.
"When people say, ‘Why didn’t you [use] your house?'" Meghan explained at the Time 100 Summit last month, "it's like, well, my kids are coming home for their nap, and 80 people in the kitchen isn’t really the childhood memory I would love for them to have."
And making sure that Archie was more familiar with cozy moments at home with his family than mob scenes with countless photographers was a priority from day one.
Born May 6, 2019 at Portland Hospital in London, less than two weeks shy of his parents' first wedding anniversary, the infant then only publicly known as Baby Sussex appeared in his first news footage when he was 2 days old, cradled in his dad's arms outside Windsor Castle.
Soon his full name would be revealed, along with a photo of Queen Elizabeth II meeting her seventh great-grandchild. It was widely assumed at the time that Meghan and Harry were the ones who decided to pass on their son having a royal title at birth, preferring a semblance of normalcy to fancy honorifics.
"It's magic," Meghan said about becoming a mum. "It's pretty amazing and, I mean, I have the two best guys in the world, so I'm really happy."
Behind closed doors, at least, life with Archie at Frogmore Cottage, near Windsor Castle, was delightful. "He has the sweetest temperament, he's really calm," Meghan told reporters when introducing her son to the world. Added Harry, holding what was widely agreed to be his mini-me in his arms, "His looks are changing every single day."
So far, parenting was "amazing," he continued. "We've only been at it two and a half, three days, but we're just so thrilled to have our own little bundle of joy, to be able to spend some precious times with him as he slowly starts to grow up." As they slightly angled Archie so the photographers could get a clearer glimpse, Harry quipped, "He's already got a little bit of facial hair as well."
His first public Dad joke.
Archie became a big brother on June 4, 2021, when his sister Lilibet Diana was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in California, her arrival coming long after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex realized being working royals just wasn't working out for them.
When journalist Tom Bradby checked in with Harry and Meghan during their September 2019 trip to Africa with then-5-month-old Archie, "happy" wasn't the word anyone would use to describe the couple.
In what turned out to be their first unprecedentedly raw interview, Meghan talked about how the pressure she felt amid the relentless media scrutiny of every move she made had affected her physical and mental health.
"I would say—look, any woman, especially when they're pregnant, you're really vulnerable and...so that was made really challenging," she said. "And then when you have a newborn..." She sighed out a laugh. "You know."
Asked if it would be fair to say she'd been struggling, she replied, "Yes."
The chat, part of the ITV special Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, got even more intense when Harry admitted that seeing a horde of camera flashes couldn't help but still remind him of his own mother, Princess Diana, who was hounded by the press from the moment she entered the royal realm as then-Prince Charles' 19-year-old fiancée until she died in 1997.
When Meghan told Bradby that she had brushed aside her friends' warnings that the British tabloids would "destroy [her] life" if she got involved with the U.K.'s most eligible bachelor, her regular critics (and some new ones who didn't like being lumped in with the repeat offenders) had a field day explaining all the ways she had flubbed being a royal and was dragging Harry down with her.
And while there were plenty of defenders who championed Meghan's decision to speak so candidly about what it was like as a new mom living the fishbowl existence, it was the beginning of the end of their attempt to go with the working-royal flow.
Harry and Meghan kicked off 2020 by announcing they planned to become financially independent from the crown and start splitting their time between the U.K. and North America, destination unknown at the time.
"It was never walking away—it was stepping back, rather than stepping down," Harry clarified to pal James Corden when he joined the Late Late Show host for a bit featuring the British transplants touring L.A. (and failing to enjoy high tea) aboard a double-decker bus. "It was a really difficult environment, as I think a lot of people saw. We all know what the British press can be like, and it was destroying my mental health.
"I was like, This is toxic. So I did what any husband and what any father would do, is like, I need to get my family out of here."
Which most people—some approving, some viciously disapproving—interpreted as stepping down.
His grandmother, father and brother Prince William had been aware that Harry was increasingly unhappy—though, according to Harry's 2023 memoir Spare, they didn't particularly understand why—but the couple's announcement came before all the details of their exit had been hashed out.
Harry and Meghan spent New Year's Eve of 2019 with Archie in a massive waterfront estate on Vancouver Island, Canada having been Meghan's adopted home while she filmed six seasons of the USA drama Suits. That's where Meghan stayed with Archie as talks began between Harry, William, Charles and the queen about what, exactly, this break from the Firm would really look like. And it's where Archie stayed when Meghan flew back to England to participate in her last handful of engagements as a senior royal.
As it turned out, there was no such thing as part-time. Instead it was decided that as of March 31, 2020, they would sponge the term "royal" from their future business and charitable endeavors, and would not lose but could no longer use their HRH titles or present themselves as (or directly profit from being) the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in public life.
They were back in California by the onset of the pandemic and settled into a $14.7 million gated home in Montecito that August after riding out the first few months of quarantine at Tyler Perry's house in Beverly Hills, the Atlanta-based actor and studio head offering the space to ease their transition into their new lives.
Meghan and Harry also established their charitable organization, Archewell, the Greek word Arche meaning "sources of action." And the name obviously reminded them of Archie.
Harry wouldn't return to England until April 2021, for his grandfather Prince Philip's funeral. (Meghan, pregnant with Lili and advised not to fly, stayed at home with her son.)
Though cousin Peter Phillips walked between William and Harry in the funeral procession to St. George's Chapel, Harry organically gravitated toward William and Kate after the service, what was widely viewed as a welcome thaw between the brothers after months of tension, including the royal family's strong reaction to Harry and Meghan's bombshell sit-down with Oprah.
Harry recalled in Spare hoping that he and his father and brother could really have a conversation, finally, about everything that had gone down before he and Meghan left. But neither Charles nor William seemed to think there was anything to talk about, according to the spare heir.
All the while, he and Meghan—who already had ticked off royal watchers by not allowing any media access to Archie's christening and not publicly naming his godparents (we now know Perry is one of them)—had been doing royal parenthood differently on their opposing side of the pond.
They released a rare video of Archie for his first birthday, so it seemed like perhaps they'd fall into the traditional line at least as far as marking family milestones with new photographs, but they don't keep a set schedule.
"Even after lockdown is lifted they plan to keep [Archie] away from the cameras," a source told royal biographer Katie Nicholl at the time. "They want him to have an ordinary childhood away from the cameras."
Which didn't mean his public presence wasn't being carefully curated. Case in point: the Rockwellian rendering of the family that was featured on their 2020 Christmas card, after which he was heard speaking for the first time on the first (and last) episode of their Spotify podcast Archewell Audio, when Meghan asked her little boy, "Archie, is it fun?"
"Fun?" he echoed.
She should have brought up reptiles, "crocodile" having been Archie's first word according to Harry, who told Corden, "He's already putting three, four words together. He's already singing songs."
The toddler was also well-versed in breakfast, Harry explaining, "Meg makes up a beautiful organic mix, in the waffle maker, flip it, out it comes. He loves it. And now I have waffles for breakfast, bit of yogurt, bit of jam on top—I don't know if that's the right thing to do—bit of berries maybe, a little honey, maybe some syrup. Archie wakes up in the morning, and he just goes, 'Waffle?'"
Overall, his son was "hysterical," with "the most amazing personality."
In a chat with members of the Rugby Football League, Harry mentioned that he couldn't find child-size rugby balls anywhere, but he definitely hoped his son would be a fan of the sport, which is especially popular in the U.K. and Australia. "So, I need to get him playing some Rugby League."
When Lili was still on the way, Harry told Oprah, "We've got our family. We've got, you know, the four of us and our two dogs, and it's great."
He was "just grateful, like, to have any child, any one or any two would have been amazing. But to have a boy and then a girl, you know, what more can you ask for?"
Bittersweetly, both of their kids now have titles and are known on the royal family website as Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex, sixth and seventh in line to the throne, the elevation coming after the Sept. 8, 2022, death of their great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II—which made them grandchildren of the reigning monarch, King Charles III.
And kids in that position get titles, unless their parents expressly say no, as Charles' sister Princess Anne did for son Peter and daughter Zara Tindall (née Phillips) when they were born.
But the Sussex kids' subtle promotion within the family didn't make Harry and Meghan more inclined to stop doing what they were already doing. Which was continue to shake things up.
The smash-hit Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan—which came out in November 2022—featured their side of the story of how the schism between Harry and the rest of his immediate family came about, and included a host of family photos and home movies.
Then Spare came out the following January, and the world found out that the rift with his brother hadn't healed at all between the time Harry left the U.K. and more than two years later, when he and Meghan reunite with William and Kate Middleton to go through the rituals of mourning the late queen.
"I've said before that I've wanted a family, not an institution—so of course, I would love nothing more than for our children to have relationships with members of my family," he told People in an interview timed to the book's release. "And they do with some, which brings me great joy.
Unsurprisingly, Harry flew solo to England for his father's May 6, 2023, coronation, then jetted right back to California to reunite with his family for Archie's fourth birthday that same day. A bicycle shop owned by a fellow Brit not far from the family's home in Montecito, Calif., presented the littlest prince in their midst with some new wheels for the occasion.
But while Harry and Meghan have done some serious airing of their own feelings—Harry told BBC News days ago that he remains estranged from the royal family, including his father—they're doing parenting extremely close to the vest.
"The kids are doing great," he told Good Morning America on Feb. 16, 2024, sharing a rare update on his family world after he made a quick visit to the U.K. to see his dad after Charles shared he'd been diagnosed with cancer. "The kids are growing up like all kids do—very, very fast."
Harry added, "They both have got an incredible sense of humor and make us laugh and keep us grounded every single day like most kids do. I'm just very grateful to be a dad."
And though they're keeping their private world exactly that, Harry and Meghan have shared some photos of Archie and Lili:
Beach Day
Meghan Markle posted a series of photos from her "summer holiday" with Prince Harry and their kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in July 2026, including this one from their family trip to the beach.
Captain Archie
This adorable snap will have your heart soaring. In the same photo series, the Duchess of Sussex shared a photo of her firstborn sitting with pilots in the cockpit of a plane.
Hugs All Around
To celebrate Father's Day, Meghan shared a precious pic of Harry getting some sweet squeezes from Archie and Lili.
"They’re so lucky to have you," she wrote on Instagram in June 2026. "We all are. Happy Father’s Day to our one and only."
Having a Ball
While "springing into summer" in June 2026, the mom of two scored this cute shot of Archie and his dad playing with a giant soccer ball.
Favorite Stylist
If the former Suits star doesn't know what to wear, she proved in this May 2026 post she can always call on "mama’s little helper" Lili.
Disney Days
Meghan, Harry, Archie, Lili and Meghan's mom Doria Ragland had a magical day at Disneyland in May 2026, where the young princess got to meet Disney royalty like Cinderella.
Easter 2026
Somebunny had a fun Easter in April 2026 that included an egg hunt and coloring eggs.
Ski Trip
In April 2026, Meghan posted a video of Archie and Harry hitting the slopes.
"My boys," she captioned the clip. "Quick learner, Archie! So proud."
International Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day, the As Ever founder shared a photo of her and her daughter that was snapped by "Papa Sussex."
"For the woman she will one day be…" Meghan captioned the March 2026 post with Lili. "Happy International Women’s Day."
Valentine's Day 2026
Your heart will inflate with joy after seeing this loving photo Meghan posted of Lili and Harry with red balloons on Valentine's Day 2026, noting, "These two + Archie = my forever Valentines."
Fall Fun
Just days before Halloween 2025, Meghan posted a video featuring her, Harry and their two little pumpkins visiting the patch.
International Day of the Girl
For International Day of the Girl 2025, Meghan posted a photo of her holding Lili's hand.
"All the girls - this world is yours," she captioned the October 2025 tribute. "Do everything you can to protect your rights, use your voice, support each other. We will do the same for you. It’s your right and our responsibility. Go get ‘em girl! Happy International Day of the Girl."
Lights, Camera, Action
While giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at season two of her Emmy-nominated show With Love, Meghan in September 2025, the host shared a snap of her two kids watching the footage.
Celebrating Dad
For Father's Day 2025, Meghan posted a video montage of Harry with their kids from over the years, including clips of him dancing with Archie, teaching him how to ride a bike and cuddling with him and Lili on a porch swing.
"The best," Meghan wrote in the June 2025 post. "Happy Father’s Day to our favorite guy."
Magical Moments
In June 2025, Meghan gave fans a glimpse at the Sussex family's trip to Disneyland—showing clips of them going on the rides, meeting characters and celebrating Lili's 4th birthday.
Princess Lilibet's Birthday
On the day of her daughter's 4th birthday, Meghan reflected on how quickly time has flown by sharing photos of Lili as a newborn and as a young girl.
"Happy birthday to our beautiful girl!" she captioned the June 2025 post. "Four years ago today she came into our lives - and each day is brighter and better because of it. Thanks to all of those sending love and celebrating her special day!"
Meghan also posted a few snaps of Harry and their youngest.
"The sweetest bond to watch unfold," she added. "Daddy’s little girl and favorite adventurer. Happy birthday Lili!"
Her "Little Honey"
Can you bee-lieve this adorable video? Fans were buzzing with excitement after the former actress posted a clip of her and Lili harvesting honey.
"Look at all of that fresh honeycomb!" Meghan captioned the May 2025 footage. "Harvesting honey with my little honey. (Like mother, like daughter; she’s even wearing my gloves)."
Mother's Day 2025
Posting a photo of Lili and Archie in each arm, Meghan celebrated Mother's Day by writing "cheers to juggling it all with joy."
"And to these two gems - who still attempt to climb 'mama mountain,' smother me with kisses, and make every day the most memorable adventure….being your mom is the greatest privilege of my life," she continued her May 2025 post. "I, too, 'love you more than all the stars in all the sky, all the raindrops, and all the salt on all the french fries in all the world.'"
The Rise of a New Year
Meghan was beaming with pride as she celebrated Archie's 6th birthday.
"Our son. Our sun," she captioned a photo of her firstborn looking out at a sunset in May 2025. "Happy 6th birthday to Archie!"
Thanking supporters "for all of the love, prayers, and warm wishes for our sweet boy," she added, "He’s six! Where did the time go?"
Mom & Daughter
Meghan and Princess Lilibet enjoyed some time in the garden in April 2025.
Smelling the Roses
Prince Archie also had fun examining the roses in a garden in April 2025.
Cookie Time
What's even sweeter than Meghan's baked goods? The video she posted in March 2025 "when making thumbprint cookies at home becomes a family affair!"
Dad & Daughter
Harry and Princess Lilibet shared a sweet moment on a boat ride in March 2025.
Valentine's Day 2025
Prince Archie enjoyed the holiday celebration with fresh strawberries to boot.
Auntie Serena Williams
Princess Lilibet played a game with her mom's friend in early 2025.
Archie and His Papa
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex included this image of their "2019 in review" Instagram video on New Year's Eve.
South Africa Tour
In 2019, the couple brought Archie, then 3 months old, on their Royal tour of South Africa, during which they met Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Birthday Story Time
Meghan was seen reading the book Duck! Rabbit!" to Archie on his first birthday, May 6, 2021.
Royal Baby
Meghan and Harry present their newborn son Prince Archie, then known as Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England in May 2021.
(This story was originally published Tuesday, May 2, 2020, at 11 p.m. PT)