For centuries, monarchs and their families have cared for animals of all shapes and sizes.
Princess Anne has a pack of English Bull Terriers, the Wales Family have a beloved black Cocker Spaniel called Orla, and the late Queen Elizabeth II famously kept corgis as her companions.
And although she stepped down as a working royal in 2020, Meghan Markle is no exception to this animal-loving trend. Her menagerie is made up of two dogs, a coop full of chickens, 100,000 bees and most recently, a flock of adorable ducklings.
Posting a video on Easter Sunday, Meghan looked overjoyed to welcome a mother duck and seven ducklings to her $15 million Montecito mansion.
Dressed in an elegant white sleeveless midi frock, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, is seen clasping a hand over her mouth as she observes the duck waiting for its young.
She captioned the post, ‘An Easter weekend surprise’, and added the message, ‘Wishing you a Happy Easter full of love….and surprises!’
Thankfully there is more than enough room for the ducks on Harry and Meghan’s sprawling estate. Their 5.4 acres of land includes sweeping lawns, tiered rose gardens, tall Italian cypress trees, blooming lavender and century-old olive trees.
The idyllic plot is also home to several beehives that Meghan works to maintain alongside her master beekeeper Branden Aroyan.
Meghan Markle (pictured) looks visibly surprised as she witnesses a duck and her ducklings crossing a road on Easter Sunday
The Duchess couldn’t contain her excitement as she saw the flock walk in quick succession
Speaking to MailOnline, Aroyan said: ‘Meghan has a couple of hives and she loves them.
‘She’s giggling. She’s just like, “Wow, that’s so amazing! Look at them! Oh my gosh, look at all those bees walking around, crawling around! This one has orange pollen in its pocket! Oh, that one has yellow! Look how big this one is! What are these guys doing?”
‘Just asking questions, and continuous “Wow!” The entire time she’s like a giddy teenager.’
Her passion for beekeeping is on display in her Netflix series ‘With Love, Meghan,’ which debuted on March 4.
Aroyan also revealed that beekeeping has become somewhat of a ‘family affair’ with the Duchess buying special-masked suits for Prince Harry, 40, Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three.
‘Harry loves it,’ Aroyan confirmed. ‘And Archie and Lilibet are into it too. It’s a whole family affair. They all have their own beekeeper suits. They’re just all super-fascinated by it.’
Meghan follows in a long line of Royal beekeepers. The late Queen Elizabeth had hives at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle and Sandringham.
King Charles maintains those hives, and also has several at his Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire. He has previously shared beekeeping tips with David Beckham.
Meghan and the whole family have their own beekeeper suits and are all fascinated by the bees
Branden Aroyan, Beekeeper from Pacific Coast Pollinators who helped set up Meghan’s hives in 2023
Beekeeping is understood to have been a long-time hobby of the Princess of Wales, who tends hives at her Norfolk country home Anmer Hall on the Sandringham Estate.
Queen Camilla has also kept bees on her Ray Mill estate in Wiltshire since 2015.
As well as helping to maintain the beehives across the pond in California, five-year-old Archie is not afraid to get his hands dirty in the family’s chicken coop.
Affectionately named ‘Archie’s Chick Inn’ after the little prince, the coop has become a sanctuary for rescued hens.
The couple first showcased their chicken haven during their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021.
During the segment, viewers were treated to a tour of the coop, which houses hens who were destined to die at a factory farm.
‘Hi, girls! I just love rescuing,’ Meghan said as she interacted with the chickens, emphasising the couple’s commitment to animal welfare.
The Duchess of Sussex recently expanded her fowl family by welcoming a new chicken, Sinkie, from her ex-neighbour Ellen DeGeneres.
The couple showed off the hens they rescued from a factory farm where hens are usually gassed once they pass their egg-laying peak
A plaque on the side of the hut reads ‘Archie’s Chick Inn. Established 2021’
Meghan Markle revealed an image of her son Archie feeding chickens in the garden of his home in Montecito, California
Meghan holds a chicken during an episode of With Love, Meghan
The picture of Sinkie, which was posted on Ellen’s Instagram, appeared to be taken outside the Sussex’s large wooden coop
Sinkie suffered a fibula injury and was struggling to reintegrate with her flock, so Meghan offered to take the chicken under her wing.
Posting on Instagram in January 2024, Ellen said: ‘Sinkie’s leg is fixed but our chickens were still picking on her, so she had to be re-homed.
‘Luckily our friends Harry and Meghan’s coop had room for one more,’ DeGeneres posted, adding humorously, ‘Not sure yet what her royal title will be.’
Meghan also has two dogs in her pack – a black Labrador named Pula and a rescue beagle called Mamma Mia.
And although it is not advisable to choose favourites, there is one pet who will always have a special place in the Duchess’s heart – a rescue beagle called Guy.
Guy’s life was truly a ‘rags to riches’ tale. He was found abandoned deep in the woods in Kentucky without food or water in 2015, before being placed in a ‘kill shelter’ until Meghan finally rescued him.
The beagle was Meghan’s constant companion, with her at every milestone in her life, from Hollywood celebrity to royal and back again.
Guy lived with her in a trendy Toronto neighbourhood while she starred in legal drama Suits, before making the trip with her to Kensington Palace after her relationship with Harry started, and then moving to California following Megxit.
For Meghan Markle, 43, there has been one pet who has always had a special place in her heart – a beagle called Guy (pictured together in 2015)
Since he was adopted by Meghan, Guy has been her constant companion (pictured together in 2016), attending every milestone in her life, from Hollywood celebrity to royal and back again
In a heartbreaking tribute on Instagram, the Duchess of Sussex announced his death on Tuesday with a touching video montage of his life
Described as her ‘absolute world’, Guy was there when Harry proposed in 2017, rode in a car alongside the late Queen on the day of Meghan’s wedding in 2018, and was the Duchess’s source of comfort during the pandemic.
But in a heartbreaking post on Instagram in January of this year, the Duchess announced his death and admitted crying ‘too many tears to count’.
She penned: ‘In 2015, I adopted a beagle from a dog rescue in Canada. He had been at a kill shelter in Kentucky and given a few days to live. I swooped him up….and fell in love.
‘They referred to him as “the little guy” because he was so small and frail, so I named him “Guy”. And he was the best guy any girl could have asked for.
‘If you followed me on Instagram back in the day, you saw a lot of him – and on The Tig too. He was with me at Suits, when I got engaged, (and then married), when I became a mom….he was with me for everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort.
‘He endured a terrible accident shortly before I moved to the UK which had him undergoing surgeries for several months and unable to leave the clinic. Doctors said he would never walk again, but Dr Noel Fitzpatrick said he could do it.
‘H and I would drive late at night, after hours, to see Guy as he recovered in Surrey for months on end.’
Meghan expressed her gratitude to Dr Noel as well as ‘the team at Queen West Animal Hospital in TO, our vets now, and my friends and community’.
One clip showed Prince Harry and Archie walking Guy on the lead around a horse stable
In another clip in the video montage, Meghan and Lilibet are seen having a picnic with the pooches
Harry and Guy sharing an intimate moment together at home
Meghan posted this picture in 2016 with the caption ‘after a long day of shooting it is date night with my boys’
‘Thank you for loving him so,’ she said. ‘Because many of you will now see Guy in this new series, I hope you’ll come to understand why I am so devastated by his loss. I think you may fall a little bit in love too.
‘I have cried too many tears to count – the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they’re not there. But they are. And that’s okay too.
‘Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy. You filled my life in ways you’ll never know. As ever, Meghan.’
Despite being filled with a menagerie of dogs, chickens, bees and ducklings, Meghan’s Montecito mansion is sure to feel slightly emptier without the presence of Guy the Beagle.
