Do Princess Lilibet & Prince Archie Even Know They Are Royals?

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's son and daughter are literal royalty. But they don't know it — at least not fully. When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK for the US in 2020, they made it a priority to raise Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet away from the spotlight. That reportedly included shielding them from information about their royal status. "The truth is they don't really have any concept about who they (the royal family) are, their parents are very good at keeping them away from it all so they live as normal little kids," a family friend told Hello! in July 2026.

The years-long feud between Harry and Prince William has influenced Archie and Lilibet's relationship with the royals, so they've had little contact with the reality of the royal family. While the distance might make things easier now, there will come a time when Lilibet and Archie will inevitably learn about who they are and the reasons for the estrangement. "This is the saddest part of their exile," former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told OK! in 2024.

Bond continued, "At the moment, the children don't know any difference, but as they grow up Harry and Meghan will have some delicate maneuvering to negotiate to explain the situation. It must be something that troubles Harry as a dad." When Archie and Lilibet had their much-awaited visit with King Charles III in July 2026, they were 7 and 5. While young, they will surely begin to understand they are prince and princess soon enough. 

It couldn't have been an easy decision for Prince Harry to raise his children away from his family, but he reportedly wants them to have the childhood of which he'd been deprived. "I'm sure the insecurity of his own childhood has made him all the more determined to give his kids the perfect upbringing and to have them wrapped in a bubble of love and awareness of the love between their parents," Jennie Bond told OK!

Princess Diana and King Charles' tumultuous marriage had a profound impact on Harry, who was only 8 they his parents separated in 1992. The experience was exacerbated by his public life. Besides, his title as a royal defined who he was destined to be from the day he was born. Harry wanted to protect Lilibet and Archie from the difficulties he experienced. "They give their kids space to be themselves — for their different personalities to flourish," a source told People in May 2026. "After growing up so publicly, that was really important to Harry."

Harry and Meghan Markle established that they wanted their kids to have as normal an upbringing as possible long before they started their family and broke ties with the royals. "[Harry and Meghan's] children are expected to one day have regular jobs, and will be raised to appreciate the differences in society," a source told Entertainment Tonight in 2018, when Meghan was pregnant with Archie.