The first sign Prince Harry didn't want his son Prince Archie to grow up with royal restrictions and learn one pretty royal thing the Queen did regularly, has been revealed in a new book.
Raising a child has many worries already without adding extra restrictions through royal protocol and aside from 15 royal baby traditions that Prince Harry might have wanted to avoid, he revealed to a family friend that he didn't want his son to follow in the Queen's footsteps, even before he and wife Meghan Markle left the Royal Family in 2020.
They moved to the US to set up a home for themselves and went on to welcome daughter Princess Lilibet, two, but the Duke of Sussex made his intentions clear before they stepped back as senior working members of the royal family, a royal author has claimed.
Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers claimed that during a conversation with close friend Dr Jane Goodall, who is an anthropologist and conversationalist, she was allowed to hold Archie after the interview. Dr Goodall had visited the Sussexes and their newborn son at Frogmore Cottage to be interviewed for a special Forces for CHANGE edition of Vogue magazine.
“Meghan came into the room as the interview drew to a close. She was holding the newborn Archie tenderly in her arms and she offered the baby to the 85-year-old Goodall,” he wrote in his biography.
And Dr Woodall recalled the moment in the book, she noted the blunt response Prince Harry gave to her joke about Archie needing to be taught the royal way of life. "He was very tiny and very sleepy. I think I was one of the first to cuddle him outside the family. I made Archie do the Queen’s Wave saying, ‘I suppose he’ll have to learn this. Harry’s reaction brooked no doubt, ‘No! He’s not growing up like that,’” she shared.
The upbringing of Prince Archie and Lilibet is very different to their royal cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis - for a start Meghan and Harry do not use Norland Nannies, with childcare usually juggled between them and Meghan's mum Doria.
But Archie will still have to follow one royal protocol and that is by asking permission from the monarch before he marries. Archie as sixth in line to the throne in royal succession, will have to ask permission from King Charles III or his successor before getting engaged.
And it's not just his son who has been living a non-royal life, Prince Harry has started to put his wife above his love for the Royal Family, as a body language expert reveals they've never been stronger.
But it's not just since leaving the Royal Family that the Sussexes have broken the royal rule book.
In other royal news, a body language expert reveals what Prince Harry’s ‘love language’ is and it’s so obvious when you look at how he acts with his kids and 'The best parenting in the world cannot keep children safe’, Prince Harry and Meghan call for change to online child safety.
