The Duke of Sussex is a devoted father to his children, Archie, three, and one-year-old Lilibet.
Prince Harry, who has previously said he has always wanted to be a dad, released his long-awaited memoir, Spare, earlier this month.
In the final chapters of the book, Harry speaks about fatherhood and establishing his new life in Montecito with his wife, Meghan.
Here’s everything Harry has written about his daughter, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in his memoir.
Lilibet’s birth
Harry shared the emotional moment he helped to bring his daughter into the world during her birth at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in June 2021.
He wrote: “When the doctor said it was a matter of minutes, I told Meg that I wanted mine to be the first face our little girl saw.”
The Duke later added: “I slid my hands under the tiny back and neck. Gently, but firmly, as I’d seen in films, I pulled our precious daughter from that world into this, and cradled her just a moment, trying to smile at her, to see her, but honestly, I couldn’t see anything. I wanted to say: Hello. I wanted to say: Where have you come from? I wanted to say: Is it better there? Is it peaceful? Are you frightened? Don’t be, don’t be, all will be well. I’ll keep you safe.”
Lilibet’s first meeting with her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II
Harry and Meghan’s daughter was named after the late Queen Elizabeth II’s family nickname, and the pair got to meet when the Sussexes traveled to the UK for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022.
Recalling the moment, he and Meghan arrived home to their two young children after bidding farewell to the Queen, Harry wrote of that special meeting.
“For days and days, we couldn’t stop hugging the children, couldn’t let them out of our sight—though I also couldn’t stop picturing them with Granny. The final visit. Archie making deep, chivalrous bows, his baby sister Lilibet cuddling the monarch’s shins. Sweetest children, Granny said, sounding bemused. She’d expected them to be a bit more…American, I think? Meaning, in her mind, more rambunctious.”
Prince Harry’s dedication to his children
Archie and Lilibet are among those named in the acknowledgments in Spare. Harry wrote: “Above all my deepest and adoring thanks to Archie and Lili, for letting Papa go off to read and think and reflect, to my mother-in-law (aka Grandma), and to my incredible wife, for too many millions of gifts and sacrifices, great and small, to ever enumerate.”
While Archie and Lilibet are rarely seen publicly, Harry and Meghan shared several unseen photographs and video footage of their children in their Netflix docuseries, which aired in December 2022.
In episode six, the Prince revealed which side of the family his children take after.
“I think, at the moment, I see a lot of my wife in Archie and I see a lot of my mum [Princess Diana] in Lili. She’s very Spencer-like. She’s got the same blue eyes…” he said.
“Blue, blue, blue eyes,” Meghan emphasized.
“Sort of like golden reddish hair,” Harry added of his daughter, as home footage showed Lilibet wearing a floral romper and crawling across the Sussexes’ garden in Montecito.
