An adorable moment between Prince Archie, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has gone viral after footage from his royal tour debut in 2019 resurfaced on TikTok.
Archie is Harry and Meghan's elder child, born in London in 2019, and he celebrated his fifth birthday on May 6. Increased attention has been drawn to the prince and his younger sister, Princess Lilibet, since the accession of their grandfather, King Charles III, to the throne in 2022.
The siblings visited Britain with their parents for the first time as a family in the summer of 2022, where they celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 70th year on the throne. Since the monarch's death, Archie is sixth, and Lilibet seventh, in the line of succession to inherit the British throne.
For the majority of the first year of his life, Prince Archie lived in Britain while his parents were still working members of the monarchy, based at their former residence of Frogmore Cottage in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
In the Fall of 2019, when Archie was just four months old, Harry and Meghan embarked on an official royal tour of South Africa on behalf of Queen Elizabeth and the U.K. government. The couple took their infant son with them.
Since the births of their children, Harry and Meghan have prioritized keeping them out of the public eye, only releasing limited images of them and shielding them from the paparazzi. Archie's inclusion on the royal tour created great excitement, with royal fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the monarchy's then-newest member.
Throughout their lengthy visit, Harry and Meghan only appeared with their son in public once, for a special meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.
Uploaded to TikTok by user princess__jo on May 9, footage of the couple proudly holding their infant son in front of the press cameras assembled to cover their tour has gone viral, gaining over 1.4 million views on the platform so far.
Dressed in an elegant print wrap-dress, Meghan matched Archie in shades of blue, while Harry walked alongside cooing at his son.
The footage has received in excess of 30,000 likes and over 1,000 comments, many of which praised the young prince and his parents.
"The world's royals👑. They are loved all over the world," one TikTok user wrote of the family.
"Beautiful baby, he's so much like Harry, adorable," posted another, with a further comment reading: "You can feel the love! they such a beautiful family and Arch is in sync with his parents...."
Despite the tour winning Harry and Meghan waves of positive media coverage, Meghan does not remember it fondly, telling Serena Williams in a 2022 podcast discussion that a fire broke out in Archie's nursery while they were at an event.
The duchess said she felt pressured to carry on with royal duties while she wanted to be with her son, who thankfully wasn't in the room at the time of the alleged incident.
When Harry and Meghan returned to Britain after the tour in late 2019 they soon left again, traveling to Canada for a family vacation. It was there they later revealed they decided to seek a part-time working arrangement with the monarchy which ultimately led to their split from the institution in 2020 and their move to the U.S.
The Sussex family currently lives in Montecito, California. They have not visited Britain together since 2022.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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