The moment that everyone had been waiting for finally arrived on September 25 when the world got the first good look of baby Archie as he smiled for the cameras while having tea with his parents, Britain’s Prince Harry and Meghan, along with Nobel Peace Prize veteran winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are currently on tour of Africa, with their royal visit taking them to Cape Town on Wednesday where they stopped for tea with the retired archbishop Tutu and his wife at their foundation in Cape Town, the third day of their African tour.
This the first public engagement that baby Archie has attended after spending the first four months of his life in relative privacy after his parents chose to keep their firstborn from the limelight, breaking royal tradition.
In a video posted on the Sussex Royal Instagram account, Archie appeared to be beaming for the cameras while cradled by his mother, Meghan as they are greeted by Tutu and his daughter, Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe.
Meghan reportedly joked with Tutu-Gxashe that the little royal would have to get used to the cameras in his life, while Tutu-Gxashe gushed that little Archie was ‘going to be a ladies man’.
A day earlier, the royal couple danced with a group of mentors who teach vulnerable youngsters from townships to swim and surf, before visiting South Africa’s oldest mosque in the mainly Muslim suburb of Bo-Kaap, all part of their 10-day tour of the continent.
The royals visited the 225-year-old Auwal Mosque in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, on South Africa’s Heritage Day — a public holiday celebrating national culture.
Earlier, the couple visited a charity that works with surfers to provide mental health support for youngsters.
Ahead of the visit with Tutu, his wife Leah, said they viewed the interaction with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as a “rare privilege and honour”.
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Tutu, who used the pulpit to preach against the injustices of white minority rule during apartheid, has battled prostate cancer for years and has largely withdrawn from public life.
Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson and sixth in line to the throne, has been visiting southern Africa for two decades for holidays and conservation work.
He is set to travel alone on September 26 to Botswana, where he and Meghan holidayed shortly after they began dating in July 2016 and returned to in 2017 for a romantic getaway.
Prince Harry then heads to Angola, visiting the landmine clearance project where famous photographs of his late mother, Princess Diana, were taken during her campaign to ban landmines.
He ends the solo section of his tour in Malawi, where he will meet President Peter Mutharika.
— With staff inputs
