Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are the parents to two children – son Prince Archie, 5, and daughter Princess Lilibet, 3, both of whom are sixth and seventh in line to the throne. However, allegations of the former actress using surrogacy for her kids may have Buckingham Palace remove them from the UK’s royal line of succession – accusations that neither Markle nor Harry have officially confirmed or denied.
Earlier this year, in January, reports started surfacing that both Markle’s kids were born via surrogacy. Per what a high-level palace courtier claimed to RadarOnline.com, “Speculation about the children has been simmering for years,” both of whom have been “under cloak-and-dagger secrecy” since their birth. This royal birth was not only challenged by Royal author Lady Colin Campbell, but even by Markle’s estranged half-sister and father as well.
For one, Campbell called out the silence surrounding the royal births, saying,
I think the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Meghan has created a situation that has caused people to believe the children were born by surrogacy. Clear it up once and for all. There should be no mystery as to who is legitimately in the line of succession.
Then Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, added fuel to the fire, claiming to journalist Dan Wootton that if they had indeed used surrogacy for their children, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex must “admit it.” She also revealed, “My father said nine months before Archie was allegedly born that [Meghan] picked up her frozen eggs.”
This had her making sense of the situation by speculating that there would be a surrogate involved. As for her argument on why the pair could have possibly used a surrogate and chosen to keep it a secret: “That would mean the child would be removed from the line of succession because an heir has to be born from a titled royal mother.” Neither of the parents in concern has commented on these allegations.
The birth time and location reports of Meghan Markle’s kids raised further speculation
Meghan Markle with her two children, Archie and Lilbet. | Credit: @meghan / IG.While the accusations were one, what further fueled speculation around the birth of Archie and Lilibet was the time and location of their birth.
Per his official date of birth, the prince was born on May 6, 2019, at Portland Hospital, London – 20 miles from the Duke and Duchess’ then-residence, Frogmore Cottage, where Meghan Markle had initially been expected to have a home birth. However, in Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, it was mentioned that “Within two hours of our son being born, we were back at Frogmore.”
This, of course, raised questions, because it’s not normal for a woman to give birth and then be back home in two hours – unless Markle didn’t deliver the baby herself. Plus, the palace announced that the media personality was in labor seven hours after Archie’s delivery, which further clouded the situation.
Additionally, as opposed to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children’s faces being publicized promptly after their birth, Markle and Harry waited for over two days before showing their son’s face to the public. Then there are the reports that Markle even amended her son’s birth certificate after 11 days to show his mother’s name as the Duchess of Sussex.
Lilibet, on the other hand, was born on June 4, 2021, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry stepped down from their royal duties and moved to their $14 million Montecito Mansion.
All of this had Lady Colin Campbell demanding “absolute proof that Meghan bore those children” – which Markle seems to have given her with her quiet yet powerful message.
Meghan Markle seemingly gave a quiet yet powerful response to these allegations
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in their docuseries Harry & Meghan. | Credit: Netflix.Months after all these allegations first surfaced, Meghan Markle appeared to finally deliver her response to all these persistent accusations against the birth of her children. This she did through a quiet yet powerful message on her Instagram.
In a clip she shared to her page on June 4, 2025, Markle and Harry were seen playfully dancing together in a hospital room, with her sporting a huge baby bump – though her haters and conspiracy theorists went ahead to even claim it looked like a prosthetic belly known as a ‘moonbump’. The same was posted with the caption:
Four years ago today, this also happened. Both of our children were a week past their due dates… so when spicy food, all that walking, and acupuncture didn’t work – there was only one thing left to do! 😂
This was inevitably meant to quell all those surrogacy rumors. However, some viewers instead ended up claiming that Markle’s bump was ‘too high’ or ‘the wrong shape’, and that her ability to dance that way at nine months possibly meant she was either a ‘superhuman’ or ‘not pregnant at all’ (per The Sun).
Either way, as of now, both Markle and Harry continue to be under speculation of having chosen surrogacy for their children – yes, even after all that has been said and done.