Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Celebrate Princess Lilibet’s 3rd Birthday with Party at Montecito Home (Exclusive)

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s little princess is turning 3!

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will mark the third birthday of their daughter, Princess Lilibet, on June 4, but they got the festivities started early with pre-birthday bash. The family celebrated over the weekend with a party at home in Montecito, California, PEOPLE confirms. Among the guests were close friends and family as well as some of Lili’s friends.

Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born in California after Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from their royal roles and moved to Meghan’s home state in the U.S. with their son, Prince Archie, now 5, in 2020. Lilibet’s birth announcement, shared on the Archewell Foundation website, said that she was named after Queen Elizabeth’s family nickname while her middle name, Diana, “was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, the Princess of Wales.”

The birth announcement also referred to the newborn as Lili, a nickname that Prince Harry and Meghan have continued to call their daughter.

In March 2023, PEOPLE exclusively revealed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were using their children’s royal titles through the news of their daughter’s christening announcement. Once their grandfather King Charles acceded to the throne in September 2022, Archie and Lilibet were afforded the titles of prince and princess, making them Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Six months later, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex traveled to the U.K. with both of their kids for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee festivities in June 2022. The timing coincided with Princess Lilibet’s first birthday, which Prince Harry and Meghan celebrated with a gathering at Frogmore Cottage, which they used as their home in the U.K. until last year.

The couple released the first portrait of Lili, taken by photographer and friend Misan Harriman, during the birthday party that a spokesperson described as a “casual, intimate backyard picnic.” The photo showed Lilibet smiling in a blue dress with a white bow in her red hair, which she and her brother Archie inherited from dad Harry!

Fans got a further glimpse of the celebration in the docuseries Harry & Meghan, which premiered on Netflix in December 2022.