Archie was a dinosaur and Lili a skunk for Halloween, Meghan reveals

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed how son Archie dressed as a dinosaur for Halloween, while her five-month daughter Lili was a “little skunk like Flower from Bambi”.

In her televised interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Meghan spoke of how she spent the celebration with chat show host DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi – her neighbours in the celebrity enclave of Montecito in California.

But Meghan said two year-old Archie and his baby sister were “not into” Halloween at all, with Archie only staying in his costume for less than five minutes.

The former actress’ high profile appearance comes eight months after the Sussexes’ controversial sit-down with Oprah Winfrey which left the royal family in crisis.

Meghan and Harry have until now remained incredibly private about Lili, who was born in June and was named Lilibet after the royal family’s nickname for the Queen.

They are yet to share a photo publicly of their daughter.

During the interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Meghan also talked about how Lili was teething, saying “Anything to relieve that”, before DeGeneres jokingly suggested tequila.

Meghan replied: “That’s Auntie Ellen for you.”.

The timing of Meghan’s broadcast has taken place just over a week after she apologised to the Court of Appeal for forgetting she authorised an aide to brief the authors of the controversial Finding Freedom biography about her and Harry.

The appeal by the publisher of The Mail On Sunday, Associated Newspapers Limited, over the privacy case surrounding a letter the duchess wrote to her estranged father also heard how in text messages Meghan chose to address Thomas Markle as “Daddy” because it “would pull at the heart strings” if the letter was leaked.

Clips released ahead of the interview on Thursday showed the duchess in a lighthearted mood as she opened up about her children.

Meghan said: “We were home and we saw you guys, which was great.

“But no, we wanted to do something fun for the kids and then the kids were just not into it at all.

“Archie was a dinosaur for maybe five minutes. Not even five minutes.”

DeGeneres told how Harry persuaded Archie to put his dinosaur costume on, saying: “Finally Harry talked him into putting the head on. But Lili was a skunk… it was so cute.”

Meghan replied: “She was a little skunk. Like Flower from Bambi.”

The duchess also revealed how she and Harry once went to a post-apocalypse themed Halloween party disguised in costumes when they were dating to have “one final night on the town” before it was revealed they were a couple.

They were joined by Harry’s cousin Princess Eugenie and her now husband Jack Brooksbank who were visiting them in Toronto, Canada.

“The four of us snuck out in Halloween costumes to just have one fun night on the town before it was out in the world that we were a couple,” Meghan said.

She added: “It was a post-apocalypse theme. So we had all this very bizarre costuming on and we were able to just sort of have one final fun night out.”

The news broke that they were a couple at the end of October in 2016.

The duchess also promoted her children’s book The Bench, which she said she wrote as a poem for Harry on Father’s Day.

“It was about my observation of him and him being a dad, which was the most beautiful thing to watch,” she said.

DeGeneres asked: “Does Archie know he’s in here? Does he know that’s him and what does he think of the book?”

Meghan replied: “He does. On that first page that you open and you see our dogs, he goes, ‘That’s Pula. That’s Guy’.”

The Sussexes have a black Labrador named Pula and a beagle called Guy.

Meghan is also said to have spoken of her and Harry’s happy new life in the US.

The pair quit as senior working royals in 2020 in a bid for personal and financial freedom, and have since signed multi-million pound deals with Netflix and Spotify.

When DeGeneres asked what Harry loves about California, the duchess replied: “We’re just happy.”

DeGeneres first met Meghan by chance at an animal shelter some years ago and encouraged her to adopt her first dog, Bogart.

She has previously described the Sussexes as “the cutest couple, so down to earth” and defended them when they faced criticism after taking a run of flights on private jets.