When the Sussexes departed from the royal family and stepped down from the royal duties, settling in sunny California, they tried to remove their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, from the public sphere. Of course, had their parents decided to continue living in Britain, this wouldn’t be the case.
However, while Harry and Meghan navigated their transition to a more private lifestyle, their numerous interviews and Harry’s book, Spare, have kept them in the spotlight.
Harry and Meghan have adamantly protected their children’s privacy, limiting access to photographs, but the public still caught a glimpse of the young prince and princess in the Netflix documentary about the couple released in December 2022.
The decision to give Archie and Lilibet royal titles confused many as one of the reasons why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the Firm was to lead quieter lives.
Additionally, they initially thought these titles would be a burden to their children, but later changed their minds because they wanted Archie and Lilibet to decide whether to keep or drop their titles when they get older.
Speaking of the royal titles Archie and Lilibet received, royal expert Angela Levin told Sky at the time, “It will take a long time for little Lilibet to realize the extent of the burden her parents have placed on her young shoulders.” By giving their daughter a royal title, Harry and Meghan “glued her to the British Royal Family,” the establishment they have criticized heavily over the years.
Why on earth would you want your daughter to experience such anguish?” Levin asked. “Little girls obviously love being a princess at parties, but if Lilibet is the only one in the class who is a real princess, it could lead to jealousy that could easily be avoided,” she concluded.
Archie and Lilibet have little to no contact with their father’s side of the family.
At the same time, they have never met their mother’s father, Thomas Markle, whose relationship with his daughter remains strained since before Meghan tied the knot to Harry.
“They are getting to the age where they will start to ask questions, as all kids do,” Markle told New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, as per The Sun.
“I find myself wondering how Archie and Lilbet will feel in a few years’ time when they realise all the things they have missed out on,” he added.
A source close to the couple spoke to Us Weekly and said that Harry and Meghan will have “those conversations in due time” regarding their kids’ royal heritage, but for now, traveling to the UK to visit their royal relatives is not an option.
With their decision to step down from their duties, Harry and Meghan lost the right to protection.
According to the Daily Mail, Harry had sought a judicial review of a Home Office decision not to allow him to pay for protection from the police when in the UK. His legal representatives claimed in a statement they issued that he “inherited a security risk at birth, for life.”
Further, the statement read, “While his role within the Institution has changed, his profile as a member of the Royal Family has not. Nor has the threat to him and his family.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex personally fund a private security team for their family, yet that security cannot replicate the necessary police protection needed while in the UK. In the absence of such protection, Prince Harry and his family are unable to return to his home.”
According to royal expert and author Hugo Vickers, it is Meghan who stands by the decision of her children not traveling to Britain any time soon.
Speaking to The Sun, Vickers argued that the Duchess wants to raise her children as Americans.
“I mean, I’m sure [Meghan just] wants to be in control,” Vickers said. “I think the problem for the children, as I see it, is that yes they’re probably having a very nice time being brought up in California. I’m sure it’s a lovely place to be brought up.
“But there’s going to come a point when they realise that they are actually cousins to the British Royal Family, and that they could have taken part in all the sort of things that Prince William’s children take part in. And you know they don’t, even, as far as I can see, know, their cousins at all, and that surely must be quite tricky and disappointing really, for them.”
Royal expert Charles Rae believes that Harry’s separate working engagements from his wife are “interesting.”
He argues that Meghan won’t ever return to UK, and the same goes for Archie and Lilibet.
“In terms of Meghan, I’m of the school that does not believe that Meghan will ever return to this country,” Charles Rae told GB News. “And by implication, it means that the children, unless they’re much older, will not be back in this country for the foreseeable future.”
Meghan had plenty of opportunities to accompany her husband to Britain since their departure from the royal family, but she deliberately chose not to.
