When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle formally stepped back from their roles as senior royal family members in March 2020, it also signalled another ending.
While we’re accustomed to regular, albeit fleeting glimpses of Prince William and Princess Catherine’s three children, Harry and Meghan’s son Archie would henceforth be protected from the constant gaze of a camera lens.
Throughout 2020, we got all but two glimpses of the little royal – the first on his birthday in May when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared a cute video from story time, and the second in the Christmas card in the following December.
In 2021 we saw a few more rare snaps, including some home footage that was shared during Harry and Meghan’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
And again at the end of 2022, we saw more of Archie and his sister Lilibet with the rare pictures in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
We didn’t see anything throughout all of 2023 and 2024 until December, when Harry and Meghan released their Christmas card.
In this sweet snap of the Sussex family, Archie’s red hair is on full display, and he looks so grown up and tall!
The young royal is now five years old and getting so big.
Archie apparently loves of Elton John’s music. (Credit: Netflix)
A beautiful moment between father and son in this snap that was seen for the first time in the first volume of the Netflix docuseries. (Credit: Netflix)
This flashback image was shared for Archie’s birthday. (Credit: Twitter)
In the first volume of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell Netflix documentary, released on December 8, 2022, royal watchers were shown the little family celebrating Archie’s first birthday.
Archie was born in the United Kingdom May 6, 2019. But his birthday isn’t the only important milestone celebrated on May 6, as his grandfather, King Charles was officially appointed the new monarch during his coronation ceremony.
However, the young royal did not attend the coronation and instead stayed in his Montecito home with Meghan and sister, Princess Lilibet while his father attended the coronation.
On the day of Archie’s fourth birthday, the royal family did not address his birthday celebration. However, photographer Misan Harriman – the longtime friend of Meghan – took to social media to wish him a happy birthday.
“Wishing you the happiest of birthdays Archie,” they wrote on Twitter alongside a picture of baby Archie grabbing at a picture of Princess Diana.
Archie turned three in May 2022. (Credit: Netflix)
How cute is this father-and-son duo! (Credit: Netflix)
Archie has spent a majority of his life in the United States and in the “intimate” documentary, he was seen holding an America flag while being cradled in his mother’s arms.
Sadly, Archie’s “mixed race” parents was a highly talked about conversation. In the documentary, the father-of-two said: “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.”
So cute! (Credit: Netflix)
While the world debates who Archie is starting to look like, a leaked image shared to Twitter in December 2022, proved Archie is the spitting image of his father. Archie, sitting on his mother’s lap – which seems to be his favourite spot – was also joined by grandmother, Doria Ragland.
The three were seated for a web call with a number of women who specialised in social impact, feminism and political strategy according to The Sun.
A black and white image featuring Meghan reading to Archie, with their family dog sound asleep in the back, showed off Archie’s beautiful curls even more.
Archie looks like his dad, Harry! (Credit: Twitter)
Although we didn’t get to see any images of Archie, Meghan’s 2022 profile with The Cut provided more insight into how her eldest son is growing up and how his ginger curls were identical to that of his father’s.
When asked why there were few images of Archie, Meghan confessed: “Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?”
In the same year, Meghan revealed Archie loved the kids television series, Octonauts.
”Lilli is only one so she doesn’t watch TV but Archie, he’s loved Octonauts for a really long time,” she told Variety.
”It’s amazing because he’s getting into more throwback shows like The Magic School Bus, who would’ve though. He thinks it’s great, so that’s been pretty fun to see it again through his eyes.”
Can’t go past the curls. (Credit: Instagram)
To mark Christmas 2021, Harry and Meghan delighted fans by sharing their family Christmas card that featured the first official picture of baby Lilibet, who was born in June that year.
Little Lili may have stolen the show in the snap, but Archie, dressed in jeans and a smart white shirt, was the spitting image of his red-headed dad.
Just a few months later his parents revealed they almost gave Archie a much more traditional royal name, “Harrison”, but settled on Archie and used Harrison for a middle name instead.
“Harry and Meghan couldn’t decide between Archie and Harrison for the first name,” a mother who spoke with Meghan at the 2022 Invictus Games told PA.
Archie could be Harry’s mini me! (Credit: Alexi Lubomirski)
During her TV interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2021, Meghan shared a new photo of her and Harry’s son, which featured the youngster in their Montecito backyard.
Dressed in jeans, gumboots, a long sleeved shirt and basket in hand, the little red-head appeared to be feeding the family’s chickens.
Meghan also revealed that Archie wasn’t a fan of Halloween, telling Ellen: “Archie was a dinosaur for maybe five minutes.”
We hope after all this time, Archie has grown more accustomed to Halloween.
Meghan shared this photo of Archie during her 2021 interview with Ellen DeGeneres. (Credit: The Ellen DeGeneres Show)
Archie also made a cameo during Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, when the pair opened up on a wide-ranging of heartbreaking topics like the palaces’ troubling concerns over Archie’s skin colour, Duchess Meghan’s mental health battle and Prince Harry and older brother Prince William’s fraught relationship.
Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan shared a snippet of never-before-seen footage of their son running on the beach.
Beach bliss: Archie races between his mum and dad on the shoreline. (Credit: CBS via The Duke and Duchess of Sussex)
In the home video, a delighted Archie dashes between his mother and father as he explores the shoreline with a stick in hand – a touching moment of unbridled joy for the family-of-three. Archie looks adorable in the footage, dressed in a buttoned-up cardigan, long trousers and a pair of trainers.
“This year has been crazy for everybody. But to have outdoor space where I can go for walks with Archie and we can go for walks as a family and with the dogs or have a hike or go down to the beach, which is so close,” Harry reflected of the grounding impact his son has on him and their low-key lifestyle in Santa Barbara.
“The highlight for me is sticking him on the back of the bicycle in his little baby seat and taking him on these bike rides, which is something I was never able to do when I was young. I can see him on the back and he’s got his arms out and he’s going ‘Woooo!’ Chatting, chatting, chatting, and he’s going, Palm tree! house!” and all this stuff,” he added of the sweet way he bonds with his son.
Meghan and Archie on the beach. (Credit: CBS via The Duke and Duchess of Sussex)
Oprah also asked the couple what their chatterbox son’s favourite word to say was, to which Meghan replied: “Oh my gosh, he’s on a roll. In the past couple weeks, it’s been ‘hydrate,’ which is just hysterical.”
“But also, any time anyone leaves the house, he’s like ‘Drive safe!'” Harry pointed out.
“‘Drive safe!’ He’s not even two yet,” Meghan laughed.
Harry previously revealed to James Corden his son’s first word was ‘crocodile’ so we’re not surprised he’s already talking about road safety!
The perfect mix of both his parents! Archie’s dark red hair definitely comes from Harry’s side. (Credit: Twitter)
Then, in May 2021, Prince Harry released his new docuseries The Me You Can’t See alongside Oprah Winfrey.
In one searing episode where Harry details his mental health struggles over the years, a beautiful clip of Archie playing in a backyard tree swing is over-layed. Immediately, fans were enthralled by his uncanny similarity to his mum.
With big doe eyes and round cheeks, Archie’s features are just like his mum’s when she was also a baby. There’s also no mistaking his similarities to Meghan now – we all know those eyes from a mile away!
A brief clip from Harry’s new docuseries. (Credit: Apple TV)
Meghan as a young tot – can you see the similarities? (Credit: The Tig)
Royal watchers were also given another close-up glimpse of Archie in March 2021 when Duchess Meghan’s long-time close friend Silver Tree, who is a director, shared a gorgeous series of images along with a stirring caption as she defended Meghan in the lead up to the Oprah interview.
In the candid, personal images from Silver Tree, one included little Archie – fans immediately flocked to the picture in awe of how much he’s grown.
He also looks like the perfect mix of his parents – with Harry’s dark red hair, and Meghan’s unmistakable eyes.
Meghan and her son read a book together to celebrate Archie’s first birthday. (Credit: Save The Children via The Duke of Sussex)
