Prince Harry and Meghan Markle showed off a new member of their family in their 2024 holiday card.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released the card on Monday, a little over a week before Christmas. In addition to featuring the first photo of their children Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, that the couple have shared since 2022, the festive card also marked the first time the royals have been photographed with the newest addition to their family, their rescue dog Momma Mia.
Harry, 40, and Meghan, 43, adopted the elderly beagle in August 2022 from the Beagle Freedom Project rescue facility in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, just a couple hours away far from their home in Montecito.
Mia was one of 4,000 beagles that the Beagle Freedom Project rescued in July of that year from a Virginia breeding facility owned by a company called Envigo RMS.
Envigo was fined $35 million for violating the Animal Welfare Act on grounds of animal cruelty after the federal government found the company was keeping the dogs in deplorable conditions and selling them for use in pharmaceutical and biotech research.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the most loving, sensitive and caring adopters I have ever met!” Shannon Keith, an animal rights attorney who runs the org, previously told People. “We were so honored that they have been supporting Beagle Freedom Project and chose to adopt a dog who has been abused.”
Keith also praised Harry and Meghan for adopting a senior dog.
“They made a point to adopt a rescue named Mia, who most would overlook because she is older, has health issues and is traumatized by her past,” Keith remarked. “I was so impressed by their commitment to animal welfare! They have been following up letting us know how well Momma Mia is doing in her new, amazing home!”
Momma Mia wasn’t the only fur baby featured on Harry and Meghan’s Christmas card. Their two other dogs, a black Labrador, Pula, and another rescue beagle, Guy — who Markle adopted in 2015 when she was living in Toronto, Canada, where her TV series “Suits” filmed — were also included.
Meghan owned another rescue dog, Bogart, a German Shepherd-Lab mix, at the time she started dating Prince Harry in 2016, but she later re-homed him when she moved to the UK ahead of the couple’s 2018 wedding.
They adopted Pula shortly after getting married.
