While royal fans are delighted to catch the occasional glimpse of Prince George on his best behaviour or Prince Louis being cheeky, they rarely get to see how their cousins Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet act.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex moved to California in 2020, taking their young son Archie with them after they stepped back as senior royals. Living in a sprawling $14 million Montecito home with their little boy and his younger sister Princess Lilibet, they have largely protected their family's privacy – aside from their confessions in Harry's memoir Spare.
© GettyAs he emotionally recalled the death of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, Prince Harry discussed the late monarch's last encounter with her great-grandkids, then aged three and one. The royal admitted that she was "bemused" by their behaviour, with Harry assuming she expected them to be "more American."
© Netflix"For days and days we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight – though I also couldn’t stop picturing them with Granny. The final visit. Archie making deep, chivalrous bows, his baby sister Lilibet cuddling the monarch’s shins.
"'Sweetest children,' Granny said, sounding bemused. She’d expected them to be a bit more...American, I think? Meaning, in her mind, more rambunctious," he wrote.
Harry and Meghan's kids
Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor was born at Portland Hospital on May 6, 2019.
© GettyMeghan reportedly was on a bouncing ball during labour when Harry decided to try nitrous oxide - a gas that slows the brain and body's responses and is used to ease the pain ahead of childbirth.
"When her contractions began to quicken, and deepen, a nurse came and tried to give some laughing gas to Meg.
"There was none left. The nurse looked at the tank, looked at me, and I could see the thought slowly dawning: 'Gracious, the husband's had it all'", he wrote.
Meghan eventually had an epidural, and the family of three secretly left the London hospital and headed to their home Frogmore just two hours after Archie was born.
© NetflixTwo years later, the couple felt "safer and calmer" when welcoming baby Lilibet into the world on 4 June 2021 at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
"When the big day came we were both surer, calmer - steadier. What bliss, we said, not having to worry about timing, protocols, journalists at the front gate.
"We drove calmly, sanely to the hospital, where our bodyguards once again fed us. This time they brought burgers and fries from In-N-Out. And fajitas from a local Mexican restaurant for Meg.
"We ate and ate and then did the Baby Mama dance around the hospital room. Nothing but joy and love in that room," Harry recalled.
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