Entertainment

In an interview with "Time" magazine's CEO, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry discussed how they're emb...
Pool/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Gush About Getting To Soak Up Extra Time With Archie

by Morgan Brinlee

Like most other parents working from home during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are finding they have a lot more time to spend with their son. In a conversation with Edward Felsenthal, the CEO and editor-in-chief of TIME, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry framed time with Archie as the pandemic's silver lining. The parents revealed that while they — like many of us — are grappling with the impacts of the current health pandemic, they've embraced the extra time it has allotted them with 1-year-old Archie.

"I think, all things considered, everyone is grappling with a different version of the same thing," Markle told Felsenthal during one of TIME's Time100 Talks. "For us, we are just trying to embrace all of the quality time we get with our son right now and to not miss a single moment of his growth and development, which has been really special."

"There's a lot of stuff to be focused on, a lot of work," Prince Harry added. "But, as Meghan quite rightly said, this is an opportunity to spend more time as a family than we probably would otherwise."

As any parent knows, there are a lot of exciting milestones in a child's first year — and the Sussexes are soaking them up. Earlier this month, the couple revealed they'd both been in the room to see Archie take his first steps — and his first fall. "We were both there for his first steps," Prince Harry told female education activist Malala Yousafzai in a virtual interview marking International Day of the Girl on Oct. 11. "His first run, his first fall, his first everything."

Markle noted in that same interview that she and Prince Harry were well aware of how fortunate they were to have this extra bit of time. "It's just fantastic because, I think in so many ways, we are fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow," Markle told Yousafzai. "And in the absence of COVID, we would be traveling and working more externally and we'd miss a lot of those moments, so, I think, it's been a lot of really good family time."

Archie celebrated his first birthday in May, a month after it was reported he had started teething. Physical developments aside, it's been a busy year for young Archie. In his first year of life, he's experienced two international moves, snow in Canada (which his father reported he found to be "bloody brilliant"), the sunshine of California, and a handful of his parents' Zoom calls.

But while Archie's rambunctious antics may make it slightly more difficult for his parents to conduct business over Zoom, it seems as if both Markle and Prince Harry are cherishing the added time they're getting to spend at home with their son.