Happy birthday Archie! As the young royal turns five today – how Harry and Meghan’s son enjoys a gilded life helping to pick oranges and chasing seagulls near his parents’ California mansion

When he was born a week late five years ago today in an exclusive London hospital, he was ‘absolutely to die for’, according to his beaming father.

Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor weighed 3 pounds and was born at 5:26 a.m. in a room decorated with electric candles and a photo of Princess Diana.

The first photos released two days later showed him being introduced to the late Queen and Prince Philip – his great-grandparents – and Doria Ragland, his grandmother.

Speaking from Windsor on the day his son was born, Prince Harry said Archie’s birth was “the most amazing experience I could have ever imagined.”

But due to the royal rift that led to his and Meghan’s move to California, he only spent the first five months of his life in Britain.

It has meant that, as the Duke said previously, the US feels like ‘home’ to him.

Details of Archie’s gilded life with his younger sister Lilibet, two, were revealed in Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary series last year.

We saw him chasing seagulls on the beach, helping his parents pick oranges in the garden and playing with his two beloved family dogs: Labrador Pula and a Beagle named Guy.

It was previously revealed that Archie will be attending nursery school and will start full-time education when he turns six. He could also start kindergarten in the fall, now that he’s five.

When Meghan was in labor at the private Portland Hospital, Harry revealed he used the laughing gas meant for his wife to calm his nerves, and said the couple’s bodyguards got them a Nando’s takeaway.

The pair also listened to songs by German artist Deva Premal, who turned Sanskrit mantras into music, during labor.

When the contractions accelerated, Meghan jumped into a bathtub to deliver the baby and was given an epidural to ease the pain of labor.

Harry said he held Meghan’s hand as she pushed to deliver Archie, and revealed she had a complicated birth, describing his son’s head as “entrapped.”

Once Archie was born, both his parents cried with joy. His first home was Frogmore Cottage near Windsor Castle.

A clip from the Netflix series showed him staring at his father from a rocking chair, while a photo showed him looking at his nanny Lorren Khumalo, who had wrapped him in a yellow and brown cloth – traditional in Zimbabwe.

Another emotional clip from the young royal showed Archie wanting to touch a photo of his late grandmother, Princess Diana, on the wall of his nursery at Frogmore Cottage.

Meghan was heard saying: ‘Who is that? Hey grandma.”

In October 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan announced they would be taking six weeks off from royal duties for some “family time” with their newborn.

They traveled to Canada and stayed on Vancouver Island for a while.

However, in January the following year, the couple said they would “step back as senior members of the Royal Family” and divide their time between Britain and North America.

In March 2020, just before the pandemic sent many parts of the world into lockdown, the couple and their young son had moved to Los Angeles.

In July of that year, they moved to their Santa Barbara home in Montecito, which reportedly cost them $14 million.

The house is close to their famous friend Oprah Winfrey, as well as other showbiz stars such as Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry and her husband Orlando Bloom.

Harry and Meghan’s 11-bed mansion sprawls across 50 acres of land, between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

On June 4, 2021, the family welcomed Archie’s younger sister Lilibet, who turns three in less than a month.

In an interview with The Cut magazine, Meghan talked about how Archie enjoyed pretending to be a doctor with a toy stethoscope and said one of his favorite things to eat is a quesadilla.

Other footage from the Netflix series shows the young royal showing off his musical talent as he tinkles on a small piano.

He is also seen calling a sunset “beautiful” and watching a hummingbird with his father.

“We will never have the opportunity to be this close to hummingbirds again,” Prince Harry told his son.

Despite asking his toddler to stay quiet and watch the wildlife, the toddler then exclaimed, “I have a dirty foot mommy because I was with you!”

When his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September 2022, Archie and Lilibet remained in California and were cared for by their maternal grandmother, Doria Ragland, and their nannies.

Prince Archie is said not to have spent a single birthday with his British family.

Before Archie arrived, Meghan had a glitzy shower in New York hosted by Serena Williams at The Mark, a luxurious uptown hotel.

Guests, including Amal Clooney and Gayle King, enjoyed a flower arranging class.

The five-day party, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, sparked criticism when it emerged that Meghan had flown to New York on a private jet.