CrownsOfBritain

On Monday 6th May 2019, the great baby wait came to an end – the news broke that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed a son at 5:26am, weighing a healthy 7lbs 30z. (Congrats, I guess).

Of course as some of you may know, back in March, I penned a blog where I laid out my list of predictions for the birth of Baby Sussex– and now that the child is here and the media tide shows no current signs of receding, as promised, I am looking back and reflecting on just how much of it I got correct. So without further ado, let’s take a look…

“She’ll give birth at home”

Ok, so due to Harry’s birth announcement taking place outside Frogmore Cottage on Monday afternoon, it did appear that Meghan had delivered at home. After all, it was widely publicised that this is what she wanted all along, so we had no reason to believe that she had deviated from this.

However, this morning rolls around and the Daily Mail (and several others) report that Meghan had actually given birth on Monday morning at The Portland Hospital here in London, after going into labour on Sunday afternoon.

Now hang on a minute – Buckingham Palace’s official statement told us that Meghan had gone into labour ‘in the early hours of Monday morning’, so why this was now pushed back to Sunday afternoon, I don’t know.

Also, a number of reporters claimed that a home birth was the plan and that this had ‘been dashed’ at the last minute, hence Meghan’s admission to hospital.
In these circumstances, this would indicate that there had been an unforeseen complication.. Now admittedly, I’ve never had a baby, but I’m at a loss to understand how she gave birth and was discharged and home with a cuppa a mere 8-9 hours later if there had been a problem?
She’s also a first-time mother, and no disrespect to anyone reading this, but a fairly old one too by biological standards – how was she skipping out of hospital just a few hours later?

But putting all that aside for one second, because we should also entertain the possibility that Markle is probably Superwoman– how did nobody see her?

I mean, come on – she’s one of the most watched women in the world at the moment and Windsor has been staked out for the last two months at the very least in preparation for this child’s arrival; you’re really telling me that nobody saw her leave Frogmore Cottage (complete with security vehicles), nobody saw her arrive at the hospital (in the bloody capital, no less) with Harry and their royal protection officers, and nobody was aware of her being there overnight while in labour?
And nobody saw her leave the hospital either? Because the news that she was “in labour” broke around lunchtime, and all eyes were very much on Windsor, so somebody would’ve seen her come back, surely? It just doesn’t add up.

I mean come on guys, it’s a maternity ward in Britain in the spring – it’s hardly deserted. Somebody would’ve seen her. So no, I’m not buying that Baby Boy Sussex was born at any hospital at all, least of all Portland.

“None of the Queen’s medical staff will be present”

Well, I may have been right on this one – because with them keeping hush-hush about who delivered the boy, it certainly doesn’t look like any of the Queen’s medical team were a part of it.

I have to be honest, I’m not buying this “privacy” rubbish from them; they’ve told us the gender, weight, time of arrival, the fact that Harry was present for the birth and that Doria is in England at the moment – yet they’re suddenly coy when it comes to telling us who delivered the baby and where? I cannot think of a single logical reason to hide that information.
(Well, I can – but I’ll let you read between the lines on that one).

To quote my original prediction post:

The Queen’s physician, John Cunningham, was part of the team that delivered William and Kate’s children, so it will be interesting to see if his name comes up this time, or if indeed the medical staff for baby Sussex are named at all – my guess is not. And it will be very telling if they aren’t.

So far, we don’t have any names at all and I do think one of the most telling items is the fact that the formal announcement placed on the Buckingham Palace easel yesterday did not have a sign-off from the medical staff like Kate’s did with her three children.
This is usually done to verify a royal birth and confirm the medical personnel who delivered the child, to prove the legitimacy of the baby’s arrival.

Let’s be real here, if the boy was born at home, especially for a royal baby, there’d still be a doctor to sign off the birth – I can’t imagine it was just one doula, Harry and Doria present for it, with nobody else to confirm the arrival of the seventh in line to the throne. They had twelve hours from the time of the birth to the time it went up on the easel to get the official notice signed off and ferried to London – but they didn’t, which is interesting.

I also really appreciated royal reporter Richard Palmer’s not-so-subtle shade that he threw at the Sussexes today:

“There’ll be an appearance”

Yep, looks like this one is happening too. Just reaching for a quote from my original post:

And today’s announcement that Meghan actually gave birth in a London hospital rather than at home has, put bluntly, dumped them in even deeper shit.
If she gave birth in a hospital, it goes without saying that there was definitely a full medical team present, and there would definitely have been an official sign-off. And given the fact The Portland Hospital is literally only a fifteen minute drive from Buckingham Palace, there is no reason why they couldn’t have had this signed off for the easel display within the twelve-hour window. Something just doesn’t add up.

Not one to miss a photo opportunity, I’m convinced there’ll be a “post-baby appearance” for Meghan and Sussex Spawn, likely outside Frogmore Cottage if she decides to “deliver” at home, and assuming that’s where they are going to be living by then. Some people are speculating they’ll just release a photo of the three of them, but I doubt it; do we really think Meghan’s going to pass up the chance to have the cameras and world’s media on her while she presents her mealticket to everyone? Doubtful. Anything Kate does, she has to do better.

Ok, so it’s not on the steps of a hospital, but a photocall with Meghan, Harry and Baby Sussex is due to take place tomorrow in Windsor – and it’s looking likely it’ll be within the grounds of Windsor Castle with ‘just a few photographers and reporters’.

So I wasn’t totally wrong; even if it’s only a few camera men, it’s obviously going to be streamed live on national television and news outlets around the world, so it’s basically the same as standing on the steps of the hospital anyway. In this instance, it’s just bought Meghan a couple of extra days to make herself look decent for the cameras. Otherwise, there’s really no difference.

“They won’t give the baby a Victorian name”

Obviously, we don’t know what his name is yet to check this, but I do predict it’ll be more of a “modern but royally acceptable name”, like Alexander or something. ‘Charles’ will almost certainly be a middle name too, in my opinion at the very least. I don’t suspect they’ll name him ‘James’ – given the jokes about Harry, Diana and James Hewitt over the years, this’d be a very stupid move on their part.

The pair of them clearly like their grand announcements, so I think it’s likely they’ll inform everyone of what his name is tomorrow during the photocall/interview. Or in true “celebrity fashion”, as they so clearly think they fit this trend, they will drag it out for another few days to maximise press attention and coverage, and won’t announce it until the end of this week/early next week.

I’m not buying he doesn’t have a name yet; I’m sure they were aware during the pregnancy that they were expecting a boy (hardly anyone leaves it as a surprise anymore), and when William and Catherine spoke to some well-wishers today, it looked like Catherine almost let a name slip… She quickly said “him” with a lot of emphasis, followed by a giggle, so there’s no doubt in my mind they’ve named him already, they’re just playing the long game. All will be revealed shortly.

“The child won’t be a Prince or Princess“

Nope, doesn’t look like he’s being titled a Prince – sucks to be you, Markle.

Of course, I expect this to be officially confirmed tomorrow or whenever the name is announced, but I don’t believe the Queen has changed the letters patent, nor does she intend to – and quite frankly, she bloody better not.

When Charles ascends the throne (which we now have new reason to hope is a million years away), the boy will be eligible for an “HRH Prince” title, but for now, it’ll be plain old “Lord [name] Mounbatten-Windsor, Earl of Dumbarton”.

But considering Harry and Meghan wanted their son to lead as private life as possible, I’m sure they won’t mind.

I left out a couple of my other points from my original blog, such as there being celebrity godparents and Meghan carting the kid everywhere with her for the photo ops on royal engagements, but these things are a bit of a way off into the future, so we’ll just have to see what happens with those.

In short, they’re a fairly predictable couple. Another thing I said quite a lot in the last few weeks, and if you follow me on Twitter you’d probably have seen it, was that they’d pull a fast one on the press – and technically, they did.

Their “labour announcement” at 1pm, followed by Harry’s birth announcement to the press at around 2:30pm was rather farcical, and quite rightly, left a lot of royal reporters rather angry.
They’d spent weeks telling us all that the palace would contact them first when Meghan went into labour, only not to be told a bloody thing in the end – apart from the fact she’d “gone into labour” some eight hours after the baby had actually arrived. I bet Meghan, Harry and Doria had a good laugh back at the cottage over that, cups of coffee in hand, as they watched the media scramble to get to Windsor over what was technically a false announcement.

I have to be honest, I think was quite cruel. Yesterday was a Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom, and royal reporters were kept in the dark over everything and then ran to cover a story where there wasn’t one. It was a slight waste of time for them.

They were all given access to the ‘Long Walk’ on Windsor Castle grounds to set up camp and provide coverage while Meghan was in labour, and then Harry goes and makes a controlled announcement to just a few reporters who were allowed onto Frogmore Cottage grounds, effectively leaving the rest of the media in the dark?
The rest of them must’ve heard the news the same time we did – as Harry announced it live on TV. What a burn.

Richard said it best – the handling of the announcement was shambolic.

Whether this was because Meghan and Harry couldn’t control their own press and PR properly, or because them trying to look like “celebrities” with all this cloak and dagger bullshit backfired spectacularly, I don’t know; but once again, they’ve bitten the hand that feeds when it comes to the press– and should they have another child in the future, I don’t expect they will be getting the same support from the media and royal reporters that they did initially this time around.

I remember Will and Kate being vilified for keeping Prince George’s arrival quiet for four hours before they broke the news to the press – yet Meghan and Harry put out something of a fake announcement, take nine hours to declare the birth and dupe the press completely, yet nobody complains? It doesn’t seem fair to me.
They owe the press standing around in the cold for hours on end the common courtesy of informing them what is happening with the birth, and they owe the public truthful information in regards to the baby – after all, he is property of the Crown and we pay to support you.

But leaving all that to one side for now, there’s still so much to come; so let’s sit back, relax and wait for tomorrow’s photocall, possible interview– and the first glimpse of the seventh in line to the British throne. I, for one, think it will be very interesting.