The ongoing pandemic has afforded Meghan Markle and Prince Harry “family time” their son Archie Harrison. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex feel “fortunate” to have been present for a number of their one-year-old son’s milestones, including his first steps, while quarantining at home amid the health crisis. “We were both there for his first steps, his first run, his first fall, his first everything,” proud dad Harry told Malala Yousafzai during a conversation in honor of International Day of the Girl.

©The Duke of Sussex/@SaveChildrenUK via Getty Images

Meghan added, “And it’s just fantastic because I think in so many ways, we are fortunate to be able to have this time to watch him grow. And in the absence of COVID, we would be traveling and working more externally and we’d miss a lot of those moments. So I think it’s been a lot of really good family time.”

The Duke called the moments “really special.” “But at the same time as Meghan says we’ve been working really, really hard and completely understand and get how challenging this is for absolutely everyone. And I think the longer it goes on for, the more it’s going to be felt obviously, especially from a mental health aspect,” Harry said. “This is a really unifying moment to bring everybody together and just acknowledge what everyone has been through, this traumatic experience, wherever you are in the world.”

Earlier this month, Meghan revealed that Archie has been keeping her and Prince Harry on their toes. “We are doing well,” the mom of one told the Evening Standard. “We are very lucky with our little one. He’s just so busy. He’s all over the place. He keeps us on our toes. But we really are just so lucky.”

The Duke and Duchess, who stepped back as senior members of the royal family earlier this year, moved into a lavish $14.65 million mansion in Santa Barbara, California back in July. A source told Page Six at the time, “This is where they want to bring Archie up, where they hope he can have as normal a life as possible.”