“To have a boy and then a girl, you know, what more can you ask for?”

So Prince Harry said a few months before Meghan Markle gave birth to their daughter, 

Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor on June 4, 2021, making their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor a big brother and seeing their plan to fruition.

“We’ve got our family,” Harry told Oprah Winfrey in one of the less eyebrow-raising and more aww-inspiring moments of his and Meghan’s bombshell-packed sit-down 

with their Montecito, Calif., neighbor. “We’ve got the four of us and our two dogs, and it’s great.”

Added then-pregnant Meghan, “Two is it.”

So when Harry pulled their “precious daughter from that world into this,” as he described the moment Lili was born in his 2023 memoir Spare, their family was, indeed, complete.

Back home, he noted, the “sacred airspace” near the kitchen reserved for her playpen, toys and stuffed animals was christened “Lili Land.”

And that could have been the and-they-lived-happily-ever-after capper for the branch of the royal family 

that moved to California rather than be increasingly unhappy living in a fish bowl in the U.K.

Instead, Harry and Meghan went on to divulge much more about what led to their decision to relocate, even opening their 18,000-square-foot home to cameras for a 2022 Netflix docuseries that, in addition to providing them a global platform to air their grievances, gave a glimpse into their life as parents.

But just a glimpse, because—while their kids remain unwitting celebrities as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex, now sixth and seventh in line to the British throne since their paternal grandfather became King Charles III—the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have not gone the route that would have been expected of them as senior royals.

“We’ve been really conscious of protecting our kids as best as we can,” Meghan said in the series, “and also understanding the role that they play in this really historic family.”

Welcoming Archie into the world their way proved controversial enough—some longtime royal watchers were scandalized by their refusal to share a birth plan and their desire for a relatively private christening—but since he was born in London while his mum and dad were still senior royals, they pretty much played ball. Archie even went on his first royal tour to Africa at 4 months old.

But there was no one to cater to, other than general inquiring minds, when Lili was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital three years ago. And, brief foray into a six-episode docuseries aside, they’ve stuck to their intent to raise their babies out of the spotlight.

Which meant their May tour of Nigeria was a kids-free trip, though the children were there in spirit.

“That’s Lili’s favorite class,” Meghan, who apparently has a budding performer back home, told a class of kindergartners at Lightway Academy in Abuja who danced and sang for the VIP visitors.

Speaking to a group of older children, Meghan applauded the inner strength the kids exhibited just by showing up when the going got tough.

“Our daughter, Lili, she’s much, much tinier than you guys,” she noted. “She’s about to turn 3. And a few weeks ago she looked at me and she would just see the reflection in my eyes. And she said, ‘Mama, I see me in you.'”

Of course, Lili literally was seeing tiny images of herself in her mom’s retina. “But I hung onto those words in a very different way,” Meghan added. “And I thought, yes, I do see me and you, and you see me and you, but as I look around this room, I see myself in all of you as well.” 

Meghan also lamented not being home for Mother’s Day on May 12 (which was far less eventful for the royals than U.K. Mother’s Day March 10), telling an audience at the State Governor House in Lagos that “of course we are missing our children.” 

They returned home a few days later. Where, Meghan acknowledged, there really isn’t such a thing as balance when it comes to the whole work-life conversation.

“What I think that to mean now is that that balance will always change for you,” she reflected during a Women in Leadership event during the trip. “That balance, what seems balanced 10 years ago is going to shift. And so being a mom has always been a dream of mine. And I’m so fortunate that we have two beautiful, healthy, very chatty sweet children.”

His son and daughter were “doing great,” Harry said on Good Morning America in February. “They both have got an incredible sense of humor and make us laugh and keep us grounded every single day, like most kids do.”

So, private as they may be, it’s hard to not talk about your kids at all when you’re bursting with pride.

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Source: Los Angeles Times