Netflix Harry & Megan makes for plenty of royal headlines, from bombings to Meghan Markle’s extended family to Prince Harry’s acceptance of the notorious mother panorama Interview. But the documentaries are more than a scathing exposure of a toxic relationship between the press and the royals. It’s also an intimate look at the private lives of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. For the first time ever, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are sharing personal photos from their courtship and footage of their family life in Montecito, California. While the couple was hesitant to trott out their young children Archie and Lilibet for the paparazzi, they are delighted to share these carefully curated pictures of their children with the world. And boy are Harry and Meghan’s kids cute!
In the first episode of Harry & Megan, Prince Harry opens up on the trauma of growing up in the public eye. We see harrowing footage of the young prince trying to dodge the paparazzi and an approved photo op in Switzerland going awry. (Seeing an extremely young Princess Eugenie stumble in the snow, being taunted and then forced to grin for photos is a compelling argument against forcing young children to do so work as “working royals.”) Both Harry and Meghan talk about threading the needle by making sure they protect their children from these exploitative experiences and respecting the fact that, thanks to their historical family, there is a public interest in the children.
Harry & Megan seems to be having success with it. Most of the footage of Archie and Lilibet, known as Lili, is shot so the camera isn’t in the children’s faces. In fact, many of the images only show the kids from behind, maintaining an air of privacy, and everything Prince Harry and Meghan Markle share is the kind of sweet, candid content you’d expect to see curated on your friends Instagram accounts for their newborns. Choosing which images of your children to share with the world is normal, healthy behavior. and Harry & Megan gives us some cute photos of the kids that we’ve never seen before…none of them were taken with a paparazzi’s long-lens camera.
But my personal favorite Archie and Lili moments are here Harry & Megan were the scenes that the children’s burgeoning personalities shared with the world. Archie gets the lion’s share of screen time, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children make an appearance in the Netflix series.
Here are seven of our favorite Archie and Lilibet cute moments on Netflix Harry & Megan…
1
Archie is a nature lover!
If there’s a takeaway about the lives of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Harry & Megan, it’s that they basically live in an idyllic paradise. We see beautiful sunsets, tons of live animals and plenty of pastoral luxuries. Someone who really seems to love this lifestyle? son Archie. The first thing we hear the little boy say on the show is his description of the aforementioned sunset. “It’s all beautifully done,” he whistles. We also get numerous shots like the one above of Archie strolling towards the goat pen and up green hills.
Archie and sister Lili may not grow up in a palace, but life on their Southern California estate certainly looks good.
2
Lilibet comes with Mama to feed the chickens
Since there isn’t a lot of Lilibet content in the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan – we’re guessing because she’s still a baby and likely doesn’t have much to say – we need to celebrate what we’ve got. We learn that Meghan ties Lili to herself in a carrier while she feeds chickens. We don’t hear any crying or fuss, so we have to assume this is something baby Lili enjoys doing.
3
“Grandma Diana” watches over her
Princess Diana’s legacy looms over Prince Harry Harry & Megan, which inspired him to leave the royal family behind to ensure history didn’t repeat itself with his wife and children. We see Harry and Meghan impart knowledge about the icon to their children. There is a beautiful framed portrait of Princess Diana that they show baby Archie and tell him it’s “Grandma Diana”. We may know her as the people’s princess, but these kids will grow up with her as their grandma.
4
Archie is not (yet) a great bird watcher
One of the sweetest private moments Harry & Megan share with us has to do with hummingbirds fluttering around a bird feeder. Prince Harry whispers to little Archie that they may never get that close to hummingbirds again. He explains to the curious toddler that hummingbirds are usually afraid of humans. The child is…not impressed. In fact, he ducks out of view to complain about his…dirty foot.
He complains to Meghan or “Mom” that his foot is dirty from spending time with her. Meghan chuckles at the absurdity of her little boy getting annoyed at dirt between his toes while “Dad” freaks out about hummingbirds.
Not only is this a sweet scene of domestic bliss, but we also learn that Meghan has decided to split the difference between the UK mother and the US mother to go from mom. And Harry is dad. And an avid bird watcher?? Did we know? (Someone will comment on this, yes we did.)
5
Lilibet’s baby steps
As we said, there’s a lot more footage of Archie than Lili Harry & Megan, but the pair share an important update about the littlest member of their family in the show’s opening sequence. Between shots of the royals and photos of young Harry and Meghan, we have a shot of the couple helping little Lili walk. It appears that while Lilibet is camera shy, she is making important early developmental milestones off screen.
6
Archie is an Elton fan
While most parents of young children have to struggle through repeated Disney soundtracks and Baby Beluga, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children have far more discerning tastes in music. At least Archie does. When Meghan H asks to be “DJ,” the Duke of Sussex spins Sir Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets.” We soon learn that the reason this is a favorite song for the couple is because Archie’s favorite song. Meghan gushes over how fun it is to hear a toddler belt: “Bennie!” Knowing how close Sir Elton and Princess Diana are, we have to be wondering… are there any Zoom singalongs featuring the rock titan?
7
Story time with dad: A family event
In a skilful edit, Harry & Megan Director Liz Garbus sneaks into one of the cutest tableaus of the entire documentary series: Prince Harry reads a story book to Archie and Lili. In case you missed this moment, it’s from a sequence where the camera focuses on the celebrity couple’s two puppies sleeping on their couch. If you zoom past the puppies, you can see that Archie is sitting next to his father while Lilibet is on his lap. The family that reads together rules together.
Part 2 of Harry & Megan Premieres on Netflix on Thursday, December 15.