ARCHIE MOUNTBATTEN-WINDSOR

When the Queen met Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor at Windsor Castle, two days after his birth, she was every bit the thrilled great-grandmother, gazing at the tiny bundle in the arms of his mother, the Duchess of Sussex.

Born on 6 May 2019 at London’s Portland Hospital, Archie has had a very different life from his royal cousins. After his first six months living close to his great-grandparents at Frogmore Cottage, on the Windsor estate, he is now growing up in his mother’s native California, where neighbours in the coastal enclave of Montecito include Hollywood royalty such as Meghan’s friend Oprah Winfrey.

Instead of appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony and trips to the polo with his cousins, Archie spends his time cycling, going to the beach and caring for the family’s rescue chickens.

The Sussexes’ decision to give up their roles as senior royals in 2020 was, in part, driven by their desire to give their son privacy and a normal upbringing. And, while their exit from the royal family was troubled, the Queen was at pains to support their decision.

“Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved members of my family,” Her Majesty declared.

ALWAYS IN TOUCH

Living in the US means Archie has not got to know his royal relatives as well as he otherwise might have done – though he and his sister accompanied their parents to the UK in June 2022 for the Platinum Jubilee weekend – but modern technology did allow the Queen to keep in touch with her eighth greatgrandchild.

Prince Harry told how Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed chatting to Archie via video app. “Both my grandparents do Zoom,” said Harry at the time.

Now sixth in line, Archie did not automatically have a title at birth but, with his grandfather now King, he is entitled to be a Prince.

Archie’s July 2019 Windsor christening day (above) with his parents the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and (from left) the then Duchess of Cornwall; grandfather the Prince of Wales; grandmother Doria Ragland; paternal great-aunts Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale; and his uncle and aunt the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge The Queen and Prince Philip meet their eighth greatgrandchild, Archie, in 2019. Meghan cradles the newborn while her mother Doria looks on with Harry. By 2020, the Sussexes had relocated to California (inset)