Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor turned one last week and celebrated in lockdown with his parents Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their home in Los Angeles. There have been various reports lately about where exactly the Sussexes have been staying. A few days ago, the Daily Mail claimed that they’ve been living at Tyler Perry’s Beverly Hills mansion and the subtext, since the place is valued at $18 million, is that somehow this means they’re rich assholes who abandoned England to go live among rich assholes. Which is hilarious to me because, um, the British royal family. Like, if we’re talking about hanging out with rich assholes, Prince Andrew pretty much set the standard for that one.
Harry and Meghan haven’t actually been seen at Tyler Perry’s place but a few days ago, they erected privacy screens along the property line suggesting that whoever’s living there is concerned about people trying to spy, reinforcing the idea that it really could be them. Obviously there’s been no confirmation. And no mention at PEOPLE.com, the preferred outlet of the Sussexes’ PR team, although they’d never compromise their location like that.
What PEOPLE is getting however are details about Archie’s birthday party:
“To celebrate Archie's big milestone on May 6, Meghan baked a smash cake at the family's L.A. home, while Prince Harry took point on the festive decor.
"Meghan made the cake — strawberries and cream," a source tells PEOPLE. "And Harry helped with decorations and blew up balloons."
The small celebration also included video chats with loved ones. "They Zoomed with godparents, friends and family and had a really simple but incredibly joyous day," says the source.
Also among the celebrants: the family's two dogs, Guy the beagle and a black Lab the couple adopted in 2018.
Archie "is best friends with his dogs," says the source. "They make him laugh and are gentle with him."
That’d be a great shot, non? Archie hanging with his best friends? I wonder if we’ll ever see it.
In other Harry news, there are all kinds of headlines today about how he and Prince William are speaking again. Well, you hope for that, for sure. That a reconciliation will be forthcoming. What’s interesting though is that we know where Harry and Meghan have been dropping information that they want out there: PEOPLE.com has been the beneficiary of the move so far. And the Sussexes have been quite clear about which outlets and reporters they will and won’t work with. This did not come from any of the usual preferred sources. And it’s not like you can challenge the legitimacy because neither side is going to come out and say, “Um, yeah, we’re still mad at each other”. But this is probably something we need to hear right now, with the world in crisis, it would be nice to have a story about two famous brothers, the sons of the most famous woman, who grew up with the world watching, somehow finding their way back to each other, as unlikely as that might be. Let’s go with that.
