The day a world-famous anthropologist met baby Archie – and the rather sharp exchange that followed…
- Prince Harry has been critical of the way royal life is led in Great Britain
Dr. Jane Goodall is known around the world as an expert on chimpanzee behavior.
But it didn't take an anthropologist to interpret Harry and Meghan's very direct signals when Dr. Goodall visited them shortly after the birth of their first child, Archie.
As royal author Robert Lacey tells it, Dr. Goodall held the newborn and cuddled him, one of the first outside the family to do so.
But when Dr. Good pretended to make baby Archie do 'the Queen's wave', she had a rather sharp reaction.
The Duke of Sussex hugs Dr. Jane Goodall as he attends her Roots & Shoots Global Leadership Meeting at Windsor Castle in 2019
Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward wave to the crowd from the balcony of Buckingham Palace
The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex hold their infant son Archie during a visit to the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town in 2019
This was May 2019 when, according to Lacey, the Duchess of Sussex was juggling the new duties of motherhood with work on a special edition of Vogue magazine, which she had been asked to guest edit.
Harry would make his own contribution to her 'Forces for CHANGE' edition by Dr. Goodall – so she had joined them at the newly renovated Frogmore Cottage, their home for short, near Windsor Castle.
“Meghan entered the room as the interview was ending,” Lacey writes in his best-selling biography, Battle of Brothers.
“She tenderly held newborn Archie in her arms and offered the baby to 85-year-old Goodall,” who continues the story.
“He was very small and very sleepy,” she remembers. 'I think I was one of the first to hug him outside the family. I had Archie do “The Queen's Wave” and said, “I guess he's going to have to learn this.”
Harry's response left no doubt:
'No! He doesn't grow up like this.'
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pose with their newborn son Archie in Windsor, 2019
World-renowned anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall
Frogmore Cottage – made up of a number of properties joined into one – was briefly home to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex
Princess Elizabeth demonstrating the royal wave in 1951. Pictured, she arrives at the Norwegian Embassy for a dinner hosted by King Haakon VII of Norway
Prince Harry greets a crowd of admirers from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in 2011 after his brother William's wedding to Catherine
A young Prince Harry shows that he has learned to wave. He is pictured with his mother as they arrive at Mrs Mynors' nursery school in 1987
Just a few months later, in January 2020, the Sussexes announced they would be taking a step back from frontline royal duties and spending more time in North America.
In June 2021, Archie was joined by a little sister named Lilibet – the pet name for Harry's late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Sussexes have understandably been protective of their children's privacy.
Harry made his views on royal life abundantly clear in his explosive memoir Spare, published in early 2022, in which he railed against the conventions and restrictions of the British royal family.