Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal baby — the aristocrats and A-listers in the running for godparent roles
LITTLE baby Sussex has been born into a world populated by the rich and glamorous.
And we are not just talking about his blue-blooded relatives.
The Sussex set includes not only members of the aristocracy, but Hollywood royalty and a No1 tennis champ.
They are likely to play a big part in Meghan and Harry’s baby’s life, acting as extra aunts and uncles and maybe even godparents.
Kate Jackson takes a look at the impossibly fabulous crowd and the odds of them winning a coveted role.
- Odds provided by Paddy Power
Kate Middleton 4/1
WHILE rumours of fallouts and tensions between the royal couples have been rife, William and Kate are still among the bookies’ favourites for godparent duties to the royal baby.
Earlier this year, the Cambridges and Sussexes formally split their households. But Harry and William, 36, have been very close throughout their lives, supporting each other since their mother Diana died.
Harry first got to know Kate in 2003 when she began dating William and he has called her the “big sister he never had”.
Before meeting Meghan, Harry would reportedly often pop into the Cambridges’ Kensington palace apartment where Kate would cook for him.
Just days before the birth, Harry and Kate, 37, laughed and joked together before attending an Anzac Day service at Westminster Abbey.
Serena Williams 20/1
IT might seem an unlikely pairing, but former Suits actress Meghan and the tennis ace struck up an immediate friendship when they met at a Superbowl party in 2010.
It was reported that when news broke of Meghan’s relationship with Harry she turned to Serena for advice on how to handle the world’s attention.
The former world number one said: “I told her, ‘You’ve got to be who you are, Meghan. You can’t hide’.”
Serena, 37, who is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, organised Meghan’s lavish five-day baby shower in New York in February.
She also generously picked up the bill for the Grand Penthouse Suite at New York’s Mark Hotel, which costs £57,000 a night.
And as a mum to 20-month-old Alexis, Serena is sure to be on hand for any baby advice Meghan might need.
Serena has been very open about her own struggles with post-natal depression and a difficult labour, during which she suffered blood clots on her lungs and nearly died.
Oprah Winfrey 66/1
THE 65-year-old US TV veteran is a friend of Meghan’s and was a guest at the couple’s wedding.
Meghan and Harry will be spending lots of time with her over the next year as Harry makes a documentary series for Netflix with Oprah about mental health, announced earlier this month.
Oprah has been a staunch defender of Meghan, saying: “I feel that if people really knew her they would know that she is not only everything we perceive of her, in being graceful and dynamic in holding that position, but she just has a wonderful, warm, giving, loving heart.”
She has even told how she hangs out with Meghan’s mum Doria and the pair do yoga together.
Winfrey’s best friend, TV host Gayle King, went to Meghan’s New York baby shower.
Zara Tindall 7/1
ZARA is one of Harry’s favourite cousins and they are often spotted sharing a laugh at royal occasions.
Former hellraisers Zara and Harry have always been close.
Zara, 37, asked her “ginger ninge” cousin to be younger daughter Lena’s godfather in March.
The pair regularly see each other at polo events.
Zara’s husband, former rugby player Mike Tindall, 40, has described William and Harry in the past as “the nicest people around”.
Princess Eugenie 12/1
EUGENIE and Prince Harry’s relationship is rumoured to be among the closest of the Queen’s eight grandchildren, despite Harry being five years older than 29-year-old Eugenie.
Fergie and Princess Diana were close pals which no doubt helped forge Harry and Eugenie’s close bond.
Eugenie and her new husband Jack Brooksbank, 33, reportedly joined Harry and Meghan in Toronto when they were dating back in 2016.
The four went to a Halloween party together.
Misha Nonoo 12/1
THE US-based fashion designer was rumoured to be the “mutual friend” who arranged Harry and Meghan’s first blind date.
And when Meghan wore the Husband Shirt from Misha’s range on her first official engagement with Harry in 2017, it seemed to confirm it.
Until 2017, Misha, 31, was married to British socialite Alexander Gilkes, 39, who knows Harry from Eton.
George & Amal Clooney 6/1
BY far the most glamorous of Meghan’s friends, the Clooneys need little introduction.
Amal, a celebrated human rights lawyer, stood out at Meghan and Harry’s wedding for her sunshine yellow dress and matching hat.
Amal and George, 57, were also in the VIP area, in the quire of St George’s Chapel, where only the closest family and friends were invited.
Amal, 41, is such a good friend, she arranged for a private jet to fly Meghan back home from her lavish New York baby shower, at a cost of £172,000.
Both proud feminists and humanitarians, Amal and Meghan landed the world’s most eligible bachelors, and both faced a backlash for doing so.
It was their husbands who introduced them, at a private charity event in London while Harry was dating Meghan.
The Clooneys are parents to 22-month-old twins Ella and Alexander – and no doubt Baby Sussex will be invited to plenty of play dates at their nearby home in Sunningdale, Berkshire and their other place by Lake Como in Italy.
Violet von Westenholz 50/1
PR director Violet, 34, met Meghan while working for Ralph Lauren. She is thought to have told Harry she had the “perfect girl for him” after he told her he was struggling to meet the right woman.
Violet’s father is Baron Piers von Westenholz, a friend of Prince Charles.
She was once linked romantically with singer James Blunt, who also attended Meghan and Harry’s wedding.
Charlie van Straubenzee 1/7
HARRY and rugby-loving Charlie became friends at Ludgrove prep school in Wokingham, Berks.
Investment manager Charlie, 31, has often been pictured with Harry, including at the Rugby World Cup in 2015.
Harry and William were at the funeral of Charlie’s older brother Henry in 2002 after he died in a car crash. And Harry was Charlie’s best man at his wedding last August.
As Charlie’s brother Thomas is godfather to Princess Charlotte, there is a chance Charlie will do likewise for Baby Sussex.
Priyanka Chopra 25/1
IT had been rumoured that Priyanka’s friendship with Meghan was on the rocks after the Duchess of Sussex skipped the Indian movie star’s wedding to US pop singer Nick Jonas last year.
Priyanka was also absent from Meghan’s New York baby shower in February.
But sources have insisted there was no feud and it was Meghan’s pregnancy which kept her from making the long trip to India for the nuptials, while Priyanka skipped the baby shower due to previous work commitments.
Priyanka, 36, and Nick, 26, stayed with Harry and Meghan in the Cotswolds last July and Priyanka has said: “We just became friends, like two girls would. I’ve always thought she was a super- stylish girl. She’s someone that I’ve always looked up to for her style.
“It doesn’t matter what people look at you as or where your world goes, you sort of just stay friends. And I think that’s what we’re like.”
Priyanka also used Meghan and Harry’s wedding photographer Alexi Lubomirski to take her engagement pictures.
Benita Litt 14/1
ONE of Meghan’s oldest pals, Benita keeps a lower profile than some of Meghan’s other starry set.
Meghan is godmother to Benita’s children Remi and Rylan, and they were among her bridesmaids and page boys.
Like Meghan, Benita is heavily involved in charity work and serves on the board of US organisation the Wayfarer Foundation.
Meghan even spent Christmas Day with Benita – who started a kids’ vitamin firm with her husband Darren – the year before she spent her first Christmas with the royals.
Jessica Mulroney 2/1
ONE of Meghan’s best friends and trusted style advisers, Jessica hit it off with her when she lived in Toronto, filming the legal drama Suits.
Jessica, 39, is wed to Ben Mulroney, 43, son of former Canadian PM Brian. All three of their kids were involved in Meghan and Harry’s wedding.
Isabel, then four, was a bridesmaid, while twins Brian and John, seven, were page boys.
Maj Nicholas van Cutsem 16/1
HARRY has known Nicholas since childhood, due to Prince Charles’s friendship with Nicholas’s dad, Norfolk horse breeder Hugh van Cutsem.
Although Nicholas, 41, is seven years older than Harry, they have bonded due to their shared history in the Army.
Nicholas and his wife Alice’s daughter Florence, four, is Harry’s goddaughter and was one of Meghan’s bridesmaids.
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Lindsay Jill Roth 10/1
MEGHAN’S friend from her days at Northwestern University in Illinois now lives in London.
Lindsay is married to British accountant Gavin Jordan.
Meghan was maid of honour at the couple’s wedding in Greece three years ago and organised her friend’s hen do.
Lindsay, 37, is a TV producer who wrote chick-lit novel What Pretty Girls Are Made Of in 2015.
Meghan was even acknowledged in the book, with the author calling her a member of her “core four” and describing their friendship as “rare, deep and overwhelmingly precious”.
The pair have holidayed all over the world. They have even filmed themselves larking about at an Elton John Aids fundraiser in 2014, taking sneaky videos of themselves with the star.
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