A special occasion! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s eldest child, son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, turned 3 with plenty of fanfare from the royal family.
“Wishing Archie a very happy 3rd Birthday today 🎈 🎂,” Prince William and Duchess Kate wrote via their official Twitter account on Friday, May 6.
The BetterUp CIO, 37, and the Suits alum, 40, announced in May 2019 that they welcomed their first child together nearly one year before they stepped back from their roles as senior royals. Harry and the Northwestern University grad — who also share 10-month-old daughter Lilibet — eventually settled in Montecito, California, but a familial connection remains of steadfast importance.
“[We] very much so [talk about my mother, Princess Diana],” the former military pilot told Hoda Kotb in a broadcast interview that aired last month. “I don’t tell him all the stuff that happened but certainly, ‘This is Grandma Diana.’ We’ve got pictures up in the house.”
The Duke of Sussex continued: “It’s almost as if she’s done her bit with my brother, and now she’s very much helping me. … He’s got his kids [Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and] I’ve got my kids. The circumstances are obviously different, but I feel her presence almost daily. She’s watching over us.”
Harry and the California native have settled into their new lives on the West Coast away from royal life, though they recently visited his native country together for the first time since their departure.
Us Weekly confirmed last month that the couple — who wed in May 2018 — secretly visited his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle ahead of their joint appearance at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands. A source told Us that the pair were “very excited” to catch up with the 96-year-old sovereign.
“She had plenty of messages for Team U.K., which I have already passed on to most of them,” Harry told BBC One reporters in an April 18 TV special about their visit. “So, it was great to see her. I’m sure she would love to be here if she could.”
The visit marked the first time that the former actress visited the U.K. since the pair stepped down from their royal position. Harry, for his part, previously returned home to attend the April 2021 funeral of his late grandfather, Prince Philip, and a statue unveiling honoring his mother that July.
Harry applied for judicial review of a Home Office decision earlier this year so he could bring his children across the pond with the necessary police protection to keep them safe.
“Prince Harry inherited a security risk at birth, for life. He remains sixth in line to the throne, served two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, and in recent years his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats,” his legal spokesperson explained in a January statement. “While his role within the Institution has changed, his profile as a member of the royal family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.”
Us confirmed on Friday that Harry and Meghan plan to bring both Archie and Lilibet with them to the U.K. for EElizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations next month.
Scroll below for more of the royal family’s birthday wishes for Archie:
