Yes, it’s Prince Archie’s fourth birthday, and the oldest child of Montecito’s most well-connected couple is expected to have a party with a well-picked guest list and carefully prepared food and entertainment. The same as his grandpa, King Charles. After all, his mother isn’t going to the Coronation, and Harry is flying home three hours after the event ends.
Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor is seventh in line to the British throne and the current monarch’s grandson, although he appears to have a heavy American accent. He is “thriving” in his new Californian existence, according to people close to the couple, and he enjoys running on the beach and playing in his park-sized “backyard.”
It’s a charmed life: sun, acres of grounds to wander, chickens, dogs, a swimming pool, and a tennis court, and the sea is only a 10-minute drive away. Unlike his British relatives, whom he scarcely knows, having last seen them in early 2020 when he was still a baby, Archie dresses in the Californian uniform of jeans, cotton trousers or shorts, and T-shirts, usually with a sunhat plonked on his russet-colored curls, told Daily Mail.
Now when he’s a little older, school – or rather kindergarten – calls. All Saints-by-the-Sea is the most famous preschool in the region, according to a local journalist, and is only a five-minute drive from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s residence. Another option is The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara, which is “committed to providing a healthy, broad, reverent education that honors the head, heart, hands – the whole – of the child”.
First and foremost, the guest list. Doria Ragland, the Duchess’s mother, is expected to be the only family member in attendance. Doria, a hands-on grandma, was featured smiling and playing with Archie and his toy car in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
But, aside from her, Archie knows very nothing about his family. Courtiers have talked of King Charles’ regret at only having met his grandson twice before the Sussexes left Britain, and there was an emotional reunion with the little child at last year’s Jubilee.
Despite the lack of family, plenty of Archie’s friends, their parents, and any local big names with children a similar age are expected.
“In Montecito, celebrities are royalty,” says LA-based author Lisa Gaché, who teaches children’s etiquette classes at the high-end Montecito Club. “It’s Oprah and Ellen but also Serena Williams – pregnant with her second child – and Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, whose daughter Daisy is a year younger than Archie. If there’s any celebrity with a child the same age, it’s safe to assume they’ll be invited.”