Meghan and Harry Take Archie and Lilibet to Disneyland

Meghan Markle gave the internet exactly what it didn’t know it needed this week — rare, candid photos of her kids at Disneyland, complete with princess hugs, boat rides, and a Mickey Mouse moment that honestly should have been the whole post.

The Duchess of Sussex shared an Instagram carousel on Monday, May 11, captioned with nothing but a red heart emoji. Inside: a full family day at the Anaheim theme park with Prince Harry, son Prince Archie, daughter Princess Lilibet, and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland. A source told People the outing was a combined birthday celebration. “They were celebrating the kids’ birthdays together,” the source said. “The kids did lots of rides, and it was a special way to extend Mother’s Day for Meghan and her mom.”

Archie turned 7 on May 6. Lilibet hits the big 5 on June 4. So Disneyland, it seems, was the perfect midpoint.

The carousel opened with Meghan planting a kiss on Doria’s cheek, both of them in Mickey ears, while the kids played behind them with a cluster of mouse-ear balloons. From there: a shot of the whole family walking through California Adventure, Lilibet getting a tight squeeze from Cinderella, a meeting with Sleeping Beauty’s Princess Aurora, the siblings sharing a boat on the Storybook Land Canal Boats, and the whole crew wandering through Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with a Stormtrooper looking on. Archie, in a very relatable move, was spotted hiding behind a pillar in one photo. On his father’s head? A grey trucker cap, because Harry has apparently opted out of the Mickey ears tradition.

Meghan also posted to her Instagram Stories a video of Mickey Mouse dropping to one knee to kiss Doria’s hand while Meghan watched alongside Minnie Mouse and Lilibet. It is genuinely charming.

A Disneyland Family, Through and Through

This isn’t the first time the Sussexes have made Disneyland their celebration spot of choice. Last June, Meghan shared an Instagram reel from a trip they took for Lilibet’s fourth birthday, writing, “Thank you @disneyland for giving our family two days of pure joy!” And in September, Harry and Meghan appeared on The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland — A Special Edition of 20/20 to talk about just how much the park means to their family.

“It’s just so magical,” Meghan said during that interview. “I’m a Southern California girl, so being able to go to Disneyland is a lot more accessible than it is for most people, but it’s still the biggest treat in the world.”

Harry, who visited as a child and reportedly rode Space Mountain “10, maybe 12 times,” described watching Archie and Lilibet discover it for the first time. “They’re like, ‘This is amazing!’ Like, ‘Guys, this isn’t even the front of it. Prepare yourself. You’re about to be blown away,’” he recalled. “To see the kids throw themselves into these experiences when they have no idea what they’re walking into — it was amazing. And it brings out the kid in you again.”

Meghan also revealed during that special that Archie had already been eyeing his own Disneyland birthday moment. “For us to be able to have our own childhood memories and then watch that play out through our daughter’s birthday — Archie said, ‘When’s my birthday?’” she said. This trip looks very much like the answer.

Archie’s Birthday, and What Came With It

Just days before the Disneyland photos dropped, Meghan marked Archie’s seventh birthday with a quiet but touching Instagram post. “7 years later…happy birthday to our sweet boy 🤍” she wrote alongside two photos — one of a newborn Archie asleep on Harry’s chest, and another of Archie and Lilibet walking hand-in-hand along a beach near their Montecito home, shot carefully from behind.

That post, like so many Sussex family moments, took on a life of its own online. Some eagle-eyed followers noticed Harry appeared to be wearing the same shirt in the newborn photo that Meghan posted for Lilibet’s birth announcement, which sent a corner of the internet into full detective mode. Others questioned whether Harry’s hair had been edited. (It had not — the photo was taken in 2019, years before the ongoing commentary about his hairline became a sport.) The beach photo, framed from behind so neither child’s face was visible, drew both appreciation and the familiar criticism that the Sussexes are simultaneously too public and not public enough — a no-win dynamic they’ve navigated since leaving royal life in 2020.

As Meghan has explained before, the goal isn’t to hide her kids entirely — it’s to protect them. “All you want to do as parents is protect them,” she said in a 2024 conversation about children and social media, adding that sharing a family photo shouldn’t give the public “all-access permission” to her children. Harry has been even more direct about his reasoning, famously comparing his royal upbringing to “living in a zoo” during a 2021 appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast and saying he wanted to “break the cycle” for Archie and Lilibet.

The Internet, Doing What the Internet Does

The Disneyland post was sweet. The comment sections were… less so, in places.

Some online observers claimed Meghan appeared to be wearing the same outfit from last year’s Disneyland trip and questioned whether the photos were from a previous visit. Others noted that no bystanders seemed to have captured a candid shot of the family, which they found suspicious. “I’m confused — they were at Disneyland and no one took a sneaky pic? Rightio!!” one person wrote. A few framed the whole thing as belated Mother’s Day content, pointing out that Meghan hadn’t posted publicly for Doria on the actual holiday. “Mother’s Day Damage Control,” one commenter declared.

Worth noting: Disneyland is a well-known celebrity haven, and high-profile guests typically access the park through VIP tours that include private entrances and backstage routes. Security teams actively discourage strangers from photographing famous families. California law also puts photographing minors without consent in a legal and ethical gray area — so the absence of paparazzi snaps isn’t exactly a mystery.

For their part, Meghan and Harry have been consistent about what they want their California life to look like. “Being part of a community means you put effort into it,” Meghan told People in an earlier interview about life in Montecito. “Once you know us, I think you want us to have the same normalcy as parents and for our children as they do, despite however unique our situation is. We go to a lot of dinners, and not just in people’s homes or private rooms; we just go into the restaurant. I really love that we can just have fun.”

A family at Disneyland, celebrating birthdays, wearing Mickey ears. That’s what Monday’s post was. Whether the internet lets it be that simple is, as always, a different story entirely.

Lilibet’s actual birthday is still a few weeks away — June 4. Something tells us there might be more magic to come.