Meghan Markle has shared a rare insight into her family life to celebrate Prince Archie’s seventh birthday. Archie, Meghan and Prince Harry’s eldest child, was born in May 2019, then the couple welcomed their daughter, Princess Lilibet, now 4, in June 2021. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have largely kept their children out of the public eye since moving to California.It was taken by the Duchess of Sussex Instagram on May 6, to celebrate her eldest child’s milestone, posting two photos that offered an unusually personal look at the Sussex family.“7 years later… Congratulations to our sweet boy,” Meghan captioned the post.
Newborn throwback and sweet sibling moment
The first image is a previously unseen throwback showing Harry cradling a newborn Archie on the couch, the baby sleeping on his chest and wrapped in a blanket. In the second, more recent photo, Archie and Lilibet walk side by side on a beach near their Montecito home, with Archie holding a cane and the two children’s red hair catching the light.The post is one of the few times Meghan has publicly shared images of her children. Since joining Instagram in 2025, she’s been offering occasional glimpses of Archie and Lilibet on both her personal and ‘As Ever’ brand pages, although the couple continues to keep their children out of the spotlight.
Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s famous red hair
One detail that fans were quick to notice in the birthday photos was the children’s striking red hair, a trait that Archie and Lilibet have inherited from their father. Harry has previously spoken about where his ginger gene comes from, crediting his mother Princess Diana’s side of the family.“Definitely, my mother. The ginger gene is strong!” Harry said on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in 2023, “The Spencer gene is very, very strong.”He also admitted that he didn’t expect the genes to come through. “I really, really thought at the beginning of my relationship with Meghan that this should go further and that if we have children there is no way that the ginger gene will go against my wife’s genes, but I was wrong. Go ginger,” he said.
Life in Montecito and Prince Archie’s ‘Date of the Day’
Since stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Meghan and Harry have been raising their children in Montecito, California, with Meghan describing her aim to create a sense of normalcy for the family. She told the outlet that when people meet them, they want the normal experiences of any other parent.That daily family life, she shared, includes some alone time with Archie. “Archie and I like to go out for lunch, share a burger and a Caesar salad and have an ice cream with two cherries on top,” she said.As Archie turns seven, the birthday post serves as a reminder of how much the Sussex family has grown since their infancy, and how Meghan and Harry have deliberately chosen to raise their children away from the glare of public life.
