Duck! Rabbit! Daddy!

To celebrate their son Archie’s first birthday, Meghan and Harry collaborated on a super-cute fundraising video, writes Juliet Rieden.

As members of the royal family took to Instagram to wish seventh in line to the throne Archie Mountbatten-Windsor a happy first birthday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex proudly released a captivating video of family life in lockdown in California.

It was filmed the previous weekend as part of a savvy celebrity fundraising campaign for Save the Children in the US and UK to support families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prince Harry took on camera duties as

Meghan read one of Archie’s favourite storybooks, Duck! Rabbit!, written by inspirational author and film maker Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who died from ovarian cancer in 2017. The story presents the debate over whether the well-known optical illusion illustration is a duck or a rabbit and teaches the lesson of appreciating different viewpoints.

“Arch”, as Meghan calls him, sits on Mum’s lap for an impressively dramatic rendition of the story, egged on by Harry, who we can hear chuckling in the background. As Archie wriggles and grips the pages tight, he cheekily grabs another book which Meghan deftly slips down the side of their chair, refocusing on the story. The youngster is chuckling and smiling and at one point utters his first words to the world, which sounded like “Dada”, though could also have been “duck”.

At the end the Duchess cuddles her son, kissing him on the head as she declares “good job” and Prince Harry cheers “bravo”.

The initiative asks for donations to @savethestories to support vulnerable families with early learning packs, essential household items, supermarket vouchers, and virus protection. AWW