Meghan Markle's Halloween Video Of Archie & Lili Paints A Lonely Picture Of Their Childhood

Being part of the royal family sounds like it would be a dream, but when your father leaves the family business and blasts everyone's dirty laundry in both book and Netflix form, it's a little less idyllic. That's the situation Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet seem to be in, growing up in California, over 5,000 miles away from Kensington Palace, where Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, grew up.

On October 26, 2025, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, shared a video on her Instagram that showed her kids having a very autumn afternoon. The two red-headed kids were seen running around what looked to be a corn maze, riding in a wagon, and decorating pumpkins with their parents. At first glance, the video seemed sweet, but taking a closer look, it had a darker undertone.

One person on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointed out how "staged" the clip seemed, something Meghan has been accused of doing in the past. "What a sad and lonely video – No other families? No other kids running around?" the user asked. In response to that tweet, someone else wrote, "The whole thing gives me the shudders. There is nothing normal about this at all." Granted, Archie and Lilibet's parents are celebrities, which comes with its own added security concerns, but couldn't Meghan and Harry have invited some of their kids' friends (assuming they have any) along for the day of fun? Only getting to play with your parents, sibling, and staff isn't nearly as great as hanging out with kids your own age.

The lack of other children in the video really highlights how isolated Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his family are. Of course, that was by their own doing, but it's a bummer to see their kids seemingly have to pay the price. When Harry was growing up, he spent time with his cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and was surrounded by family.

Now, his own children are thousands of miles away from their cousins: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis of Wales. They don't really have a relationship with each other, though Harry did arrange at least one Zoom call back in 2022 so Archie and Lilibet could connect with the Wales children (via Us Weekly).

However, thanks to Harry's feud with William, Prince of Wales, the disgraced royal now has a limited role in his niece and nephews' lives, and, by design, William isn't in Archie and Lilibet's lives. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like Archie and Lilibet have zero contact with their extended family. There are several signs they aren't as estranged from certain royals as once believed, though that doesn't include the Wales bunch. In 2024, royal author Phil Dampier told The Sun's Fabulous, "It's so sad that the Wales' kids basically know very little about their cousins across the pond and are never likely to be close to them."