Moment beaming Prince Harry excitedly announces birth of his son Archie in footage filmed just months before Megxit - with couple set to celebrate his fifth birthday at home in California
This is the moment Prince Harry beamed as he announced the birth of son Archie five years ago today - just months before Megxit.
Today the Californian-based royals will be celebrating their eldest child's fifth birthday at their Montecito home.
In a gushing video, a very happy Duke of Sussex announced to the world that their little boy had been born at 5.26am on May 6 2019, weighing 7lb 3oz.
Reassuring the public that both mother and baby are 'doing well' he said being at the birth - which he joked was 'his first' was 'absolutely incredible', adding: 'How any woman does that, what they do is beyond comprehension.'
Little did the British public know that only seven months later, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle would step down from their role as senior royals before departing to Canada in March 2020.
This is the moment Prince Harry beamed as he announced the birth of son Archie five years ago today - just months before Megxit
Little did the British public know that only seven months later, Harry and his wife Meghan Markle would step down from their role as senior royals before departing to Canada in March 2020
In the year's that followed, their has been considerable fallout between the couple and the rest of the royal family following on from the couple's bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, their Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan as well as the Duke's memoir Spare.
Despite this, King Charles, who last saw his second son in January after Harry flew over following his father's shocking cancer diagnosis, is set to reach out to Archie to wish him a happy birthday, a royal expert claimed.
Tom Quinn said that despite all the unease between the UK-based royals and the couple, who now permanently live in the Californian enclave with their two young children, the monarch is 'desperate' to have a relationship with Archie and Lilibet.
'If he makes an ordinary telephone call to Harry it means he can have a quick word with Archie without the need to talk to Meghan,' Mr Quinn told the Mirror.
Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born at 5.26am in a room adorned with electric candles and a picture of Princess Diana.
Initial pictures released two days later showed him being introduced to the late Queen and Prince Philip – his great-grandparents - and Doria Ragland, his grandmother.
Speaking from Windsor on the day his son was born, Prince Harry delightedly said that Archie's birth was 'the most amazing experience I could ever have possibly imagined.'
'We're both absolutely thrilled and so grateful to all the love and support of everybody out there, it's been amazing so I just wanted to share this with everybody,' he said five years ago today.
'Still thinking about names but, yeah, the baby is a little overdue so we've had a little bit of time to think about it – but that's the next bit.
Prince Archie, who turns five today, seen with his parents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and his younger sister Lilibet in 2021
Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor weighed 7lb 3oz and was born at 5.26am in a room adorned with electric candles and a picture of Princess Diana
Archie is seen sitting on his father's shoulders in an image that was revealed in Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary
Archie walks along the beach with his mother and their pet beagle, Guy
'We'll be able to see you in two days' time as planned and be able to share it with you as a family and share it with you guys and so everyone can see the baby.'
'I haven't been at many births, this is definitely my first birth – it was amazing, absolutely incredible and as I said, I'm so incredible proud of my wife and as every father and parent would ever say, your baby is absolutely amazing, so this little thing is absolutely to die for so I'm over the moon.'
Because of the royal rift, however, Archie only spent the first five months of his life within the UK, meaning that the US feels like 'home' for the young boy, as his father said previously.
Details of Archie's gilded life with his younger sister Lilibet, two, were revealed in Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary series last year.
He was seen chasing seagulls at the beach, helping his parents pick oranges in the garden and playing with his two beloved family dogs – Labrador Pula and a Beagle called Guy.
Archie was previously revealed to be attending pre-school and is set to start full-time education when he turns six. He could also be enrolled in kindergarten in the autumn now that he is five.
When Meghan was in labour at the private Portland Hospital, Harry revealed that he used the laughing gas meant for his wife to calm his nerves, and said the couple's bodyguards delivered them a takeaway Nando's.
The pair also listened to songs by German artist Deva Premal, who turned Sanskrit mantras into music, during the delivery.
Archie plays with a toy grand piano in an image that was revealed in Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary
Archie with his mother Meghan on his first birthday in 2020. He turned five today
Archie with his mother during her royal tour of South Africa with her husband Prince Harry
When the contractions quickened, Meghan hopped in a bathtub to deliver the baby and had an epidural to help with the pain of labour.
Harry said he held Meghan's hand as she pushed to deliver Archie, and revealed she had a complicated birth, describing his son's head as being 'tangled'.
Once Archie was born, both his parents wept with joy. His first home was Frogmore Cottage near Windsor Castle.
A clip from the Netflix series showed him gazing up to his father from a baby rocker, whilst a photo showed him gazing up at his nanny Lorren Khumalo, who had wrapped him in a yellow and brown cloth – traditional in Zimbabwe.
Another emotive clip of the young royal showed Archie reaching to touch a photo of his late grandmother Princess Diana on his nursery wall in Frogmore Cottage.
Meghan was hear saying: 'Who's that? Hey grandma.'
In October 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan announced that they would be taking six weeks off royal duties for some 'family time' with their newborn.
They travelled to Canada, staying for a period on Vancouver Island.
By January the follow year, however, the pair said they would 'step back as senior members of the Royal Family' splitting their time between the UK and North America.
Harry and Meghan show baby Archie to his great-grandparents, the late Queen and Prince Philip, and his maternal grandmother Doria Ragland
Archie on the day of his christening in July 2019 with his parents and (from left to right) Queen Camilla, King Charles, Doria Ragland, Lady Jane Fellowes, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales
Baby Archie seen in the arms of his grandmother Doria Ragland as she sits alongside Meghan and Harry at Frogmore Cottage
By March 2020, just before the pandemic sent many parts of the world into lockdowns, the couple and their young son had moved to Los Angeles.
In July that year, they moved into their Santa Barbara home, in Montecito, which reportedly cost them $14 million.
The home is close to their celebrity friend Oprah Winfrey, as well as other showbiz stars such as Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom.
Harry and Meghan's 11-bed mansion sprawls over 20 acres of land, between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
On June 4, 2021, the family welcomed Archie's younger sister Lilibet, who will turn three in less than a month.
In an interview with The Cut magazine, Meghan told how Archie enjoyed pretending to be a doctor with a toy stethoscope and said one of his favourite things to eat is a quesadilla.
Other footage from the Netflix series shows the young royal showing off his musical talent, tinkling away on a tiny piano.
He is also seen calling a sunset 'beautiful' and watching a hummingbird with his father.
'We won't get a chance to be this close to hummingbirds ever again,' Prince Harry told his son.
Despite asking his toddler to stay quiet and watch the wildlife, the toddler then exclaimed: 'I've got a dirty foot mama because I was with you!'
When his great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, Archie and Lilibet remained in California and were cared for by their maternal grandmother, Doria Ragland, and their nannies.
Prince Archie is not believed to have spent any birthdays with his British family.
Before Archie's arrival, Meghan had a glitzy New York shower hosted by Serena Williams at The Mark, a plush uptown hotel.
Guests including Amal Clooney and Gayle King enjoyed a flower-arranging class.
The five-day celebration, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, provoked criticism when it emerged that Meghan had flown to New York on a private jet.
