The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are now in the midst of their royal tour of southern Africa, and they’ve already attended many an engagement as part of their packed itinerary. And today, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son Archie made his first public appearance of the busy trip.
Prince Harry and Meghan brought their four-month-old to a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in the Granary Building in Cape Town, where baby Sussex stole the show in a blue-and-white striped romper that happened to coordinate with his mom’s blue-and-white printed Club Monaco dress.
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Prince Harry and Meghan had tea with Archbishop Tutu and his daughter Thandeka during the private visit, and a few videos on the Sussex Instagram show Meghan saying her son is an “old soul,” and Prince Harry adding he already wants to stand. The Duchess of Sussex joked about her actress past when she told Thandeka that her son will get used to all the people snapping photos and videos around him, as she said, “I have cameras in my genes.” There were also plenty of jokes about “Arch meets Archie,” so really this was the perfect engagement for Prince Harry and Meghan’s son.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex originally weren’t sure when Archie would be make his (highly anticipated!) first appearance of the tour since he’s so young, though they knew they wanted to include him in the programming in some way. On Sunday, Prince Harry told an excited bystander that Archie was “exhausted” from the long flight, but it seems the littlest Sussex managed to get in some rest in time to meet Archbishop Tutu.
Prince Harry previously met the Archbishop when he presented him with an award in 2015. Archbishop Tutu had many a gift ready for the Sussex family during this get together, including hand-made beaded bracelets, children’s books and two framed pictures of Princess Diana during her meeting with Nelson Mandela in 1997—there’s one for Prince Harry and one for Prince William.
Prince Harry and Meghan are going in separate directions tomorrow, as the Duke of Sussex is off to Botswana, Angola and Malawi solo, though he’ll be back in Johnannesburg to finish out the tour. Sadly, it seems Archie won’t be making too many more appearances, as royal expert Katie Nicholl told ET Online that this is a different kind of trip than when Prince William and Kate Middleton took a then eight-month-old Prince George on their royal tour of Australia and New Zealand. Not only is Archie a bit younger than his cousin was, but Nicholl points out that it’s a different set-up. Who knows, though—Meghan is staying put in South Africa for the next few days, so perhaps we’ll get a few more coordinating mother-son appearances before the tour comes to an end.
