Prince Harry wanted to keep the details surrounding son Archie's birth private, writes royal expert Katie Nicholl in her new book. "One source described Harry as being 'almost morbidly obsessed' with keeping Archie's birth as secret as possible," Nicholl writes in her new book titled "The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown."
However, Harry couldn't maintain the secrecy. This comes as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle flew black to their home in California, a day after Queen Elizabeth II's funeral. The Duke and Duchess were seen along with King Charles III and Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton during the mourning period and at the funeral but it seems that even the Queen's death could bring them closer to the other royals.
Shocking Revelations
Nicholl in her new book writes that Harry made every effort to keep things surrounding Archie's birth a secret, a thing that is against the Palace's tradition. The public was ready and expecting to learn all the information about the new royal baby as soon as Meghan Markle gave birth, and this search for concealment supposedly violated an "unwritten contract between the royals and the public."
According to Page Six, Rebecca English, royal editor of the Daily Mail, said, "Behind the scenes, matters were so fraught that more than one official — as I know from personal experience — was reduced to tears of frustration and despair."
The tradition after a royal birth is for the father, mother, and new baby to pose on the hospital steps in front of admirers and photographers, answer a few questions, and then leave.
However, Nicholl claims in her book that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wished to alter everything. When Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was actually born on May 6, 2019, the pair was able to bamboozle the media.
"Harry had always enjoyed outfoxing the media," Nicholl writes. "He and Meghan were thrilled to be safely delivered of their son in London's private Portland hospital even before the palace press office had confirmed the duchess was in labor."
Changing Royal Traditions?
The couple, however, took part in a little photo op two days later with a single reporter to answer questions. At the time, the "Suits" alum had a worn-out appearance.
Similar to Kate Middleton, Prince William's wife, the post-natal photo shoots were challenging for her as well. Nicholl noted that the Princess of Wales "acquiesced because she will one day be queen and the mother of a king, so there was a legitimate public interest."
Harry and Meghan's photo shoot looked quite fake. "But it all felt stage-managed, with pre-approved questions, one journalist, and one photographer," Nicholl continues. "It demonstrated the growing gulf between public expectations of Harry and what he felt obliged to give."
Additionally, Markle, 41, and Harry, 38, kept the identity of Archie's godparents a secret and conducted a private christening as well.
The Sussexes may have "served an ace in their quest for privacy and tore another page out of the royal notebook," but according to Nicholl, they also hurt the Crown's standing with "the press, the broadcasters, and by extension the public, who felt duped by the experience – whether that was a fair expectation or not."
