Princess Lilibet turned three on June 4, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle celebrated their daughter’s birthday with an intimate party from the comfort of the family’s Montecito mansion.
In their attempts to allow Prince Archie (now five) and Princess Lilibet to grow up as private citizens in the United States, Megan and Harry have hosted closed-off birthday celebrations for the baby Sussexes ever since moving to their $14 million California home.
As with Lilibet’s second birthday, she likely enjoyed the company of close family, including Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, who plays a hands-on role in the lives of her grandchildren. The Sussexes’ Montecito neighbours include Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of the family who they trusted to navigate their bombshell interview in 2021, Gywneth Paltrow, and Orlando Bloom. Tyler Perry, Lilibet’s godfather who offered Meghan and Harry use of his home following their move to the States, may also have attended.
There were, though, no British royals present at the party. Since Meghan and Harry stepped away from their roles as working royals, the Royal Family have not publicly celebrated Archie and Lilibet’s birthdays – as is to be expected under royal protocol. The lack of (public) wellwishes for the Sussex children marks a significant change from years earlier, where Lilibet’s first birthday was celebrated by the Prince and Princess of Wales (then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) and King Charles III and Queen Camilla (then Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall) on social media.
The Californian Princess turned one during the Sussexes’ return to the UK in 2022, where the royal family gathered to celebrate the Late Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. Harry and Meghan held an ‘intimate picnic’ in the gardens of Frogmore Cottage, with reported attendees including Zara and Mike Tindall’s children, Mia, Lena and Lucas, as well as Savannah and Isla, daughters of the now-separated Peter and Autumn Phillips. Also in attendance were Charlie and Tom van Straubenzee (considered ‘second family’ to the Sussexes) and photographer Misan Harriman, who celebrated the occasion by taking a joyful photo of Lilibet.
Prince Harry spoke movingly of the similarities between his youngest daughter and her namesake – his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. ‘I see a lot of my wife in Archie and I see a lot of my mum in Lili,’ said the Duke of Sussex in his Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan. ‘She’s very Spencer-like. She’s got the same blue eyes.’
