Are Meghan and Harry's dogs the real stars of the Netflix series?

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the focus of the new Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan." But are they the stars of the show? The couple's two children, Archie and Lilibet Mountatten-Windsor, and their three dogs raise stiff competition.

While the birth of Archie and Lilibet made international headlines, this might be the first you're seeing of the Sussexes' dogs.

Both Harry and the former Meghan Markle are avowed animal lovers. Harry has done extensive work in the conservation space; Meghan was a patron for the Mayhew Animal Home & Humane Education Centre, an animal welfare organization.

“I’ll tell you what, we all need a dog that keeps us calm,” Harry told winners of the Inspirational WellChild Award in October. “We have three in this house now, so we basically have five children.”

Harry went on to describe his brood of animals.

“I’ve got a black Labrador called Pula, a rescue beagle called Guy and we’ve got another rescue beagle called Mia. Between the three of them, they drudged around chasing the squirrels every day, but they are also emotional support dogs when they’re behaving,” he said.

Below, find out more about their rescue dogs.

Pula the Labrador

Meghan and Harry adopted their first dog, a black lab named Pula, after their wedding in 2018.

Within minutes of the documentary's opening, Meghan is pictured standing in the snow with Pula and one of her kids. Pula arrives again in Episode Two, running beside three-year-old Archie.

In Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand share the meaning behind the dog's name. Pula is the official currency of Botswana and means "rain" in Setswana, one of the country's national languages.

Harry and Meghan describe Botswana as a turning point in their relationship. They traveled to the country after only meeting each other twice, as they recall in the documentary.

Guy the beagle

When Meghan started dating Harry, she had two rescue dogs: Guy, a beagle, and Labrador-shepherd mix named Bogart.

In Episode Three, Harry shares how the beagle factored into the couple's engagement story at Kensington Palace in 2017. Harry was confident Meghan would accept his proposal because she had already shown her commitment by moving Guy across the pond.

"It wasn't that I knew she was going to say yes, but she'd already moved Guy over, so I had Guy as a hostage," Harry says.

Bogart stayed behind, with Harry’s communication’s secretary Jason Knauf saying he was living “with friends" of Meghan's, per the BBC.

A picture of the proposal shows Harry's hand petting Guy while down on one knee. In another picture from their engagement evening, Meghan and Harry are smiling next to the dog, who has casts on both of his front legs (an explanation is not given in the documentary).

Momma Mia the beagle

Since Harry and Meghan moved to California, they've added more dogs to their family. In August 2022, the family adopted Momma Mia, another beagle rescue dog.

Seven-year-old Momma Mia was one of 4,000 beagles rescued from a breeding facility in Virginia over the summer.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Shannon Keith, who runs the Beagle Freedom Project, recalled hearing from Meghan about the adoptable dogs. “She calls on my cell with no caller ID and says, ‘Hey Shannon, this is Meghan.’ We talked for 30 minutes, and I thought, ‘Is this Megan Fox?’”

She elaborated in an interview with Buzzfeed News “(Harry and Meghan) really impressed me. Their energy was so loving and sweet.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com