TL;DR:
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle want their children to “understand their heritage,” according to a royal commentator.
- However, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet may not be eager “to jump into court life.”
- Previously, a royal author said Archie and Lili may find their cousins’ royal lives “alien.”
A royal commentator says Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet may not be very familiar with royal life despite Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s desire for them to “understand their heritage.”
California is home to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children
As pointed out by their father in Netflix’s Harry & Meghan docuseries, Archie and Lili know California as home. After all, Archie, who turned 4 on coronation day, only lived in England as a baby before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex relocated to the U.S. by way of Canada.
As for Lili, the soon-to-be 2-year-old joined the Sussex family on June 4, 2021, a year after Harry and Meghan moved stateside. Unlike the Duke of Sussex, Archie and his younger sister may not grow up to have childhood memories of playing at royal estates such as Balmoral or Sandringham.
Rather, they’re more likely to remember dipping their toes in the Pacific Ocean or frolicking in the grass at their family home in Montecito, California.
June 2022’s Platinum Jubilee weekend marked Lili’s first visit to the U.K. as well as Archie’s first return in years. (The kids stayed home with Meghan while Harry attended King Charles III’s crowning.)
The family of four stayed at Frogmore Cottage, their former U.K. residence. During their stay, Harry and Meghan celebrated Lili’s birthday, commemorating the occasion with a party and a new photo.
Archie and Lili may not share Harry and Meghan’s desire for them ‘to know and understand their heritage’
As royal commentator Jennie Bond told OK!, Archie and Lili may not see eye to eye with their parents on all things royal life.
“I assume, since they’ve chosen to give their children titles, they do want them to know and understand their heritage,” Bond said of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Harry and Meghan announced in March 2023 they’d decided to use Archie and Lili’s “prince” and “princess” stylings the children became entitled to at birth.
“Any responsible parent would give their children the chance to make up their own minds in the future about what they want to do,” the commentator continued. “But I can’t see two children or young adults with broad American accents, who have been immersed in American culture, wanting to jump into court life.”
Royal activities ‘will be an alien thing’ for Archie and Lili, according to author
Indeed royal life and everything that comes with it may be altogether unfamiliar to Archie and Lili. As Tom Quinn, author of Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up, said, they’re not necessarily going to grow up taking part in royal traditions like their cousins, Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.
Archie and Lili are “not over here [in Britain] stalking in the highlands or shooting pheasants at Sandringham,” Quinn said in The Royal Report’s March 1 episode. “That will be an alien thing for them.”
“And I think it’s extremely unlikely,” the author continued, “they’ll suddenly come back and take part in the sort of activities that younger royals take part in over here. They’re going to be American through and through, and I think that’s the way Meghan wants it.”
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