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INGRID SEWARD
Prince Harry was a free spirit who enjoys breaking convention — he’ll want the same for his son
Harry has spent the last ten years trying to keep some normality in his life
PRINCE Harry was the most popular young member of the royal family.
He roared around town on his motorbike. He smoked. He went clubbing. He enjoyed a drink. And when the attention became too much he even tried to thump photographers. He was an unconventional royal. A free spirit.
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“Harry is just Harry,” his friends said.
And when he married the divorced American bi-racial beauty Meghan Markle less than a year ago, no one was surprised. Harry was never going to do things the way they had been done before. He always enjoyed breaking convention. What he didn’t enjoy, so he said, was being a Prince.
There was a poignant moment after he returned from Afghanistan when he said with feeling: “It’s very nice to be a normal person for once.”
He has spent the last ten years trying to keep some normality in his life. Now he is a father he must desperately want to give his son that opportunity too.
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Meghan and Harry have already bucked the royal birthing traditions. Meghan, as an ardent feminist, decided she wasn’t going to pose on any hospital steps. It was an example she wasn’t prepared to set for other mothers.
The announcement of the birth was put on their Instagram page: “It’s A Boy.” There was no mention of where the baby was born.
Later, when the easel was put up in the forecourt of Buckingham Place, there was no mention of the medical team who assisted.
It was discovered that Meghan was taken into hospital on Sunday and gave birth early on Monday with her mum Doria Ragland and Harry by her side.
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Harry smoking with ex Chelsy Davy by his side - he's always been unconventional
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When it comes to keeping the rest of his son’s childhood private, Harry will argue he is only seventh in the line of succession. And, as his brother’s children grow and marry, he will be pushed down the line in the same way Prince Andrew has been.
Twenty years ago, Andrew was second in line after Charles. Now he is eighth after Baby Sussex.
If Harry and Meghan want a title for their son, it will almost certainly be the subsidiary “Earl of Dumbarton”, which goes with the Dukedom of Sussex.
But unless great-grandmother the Queen steps in fairly quickly — as she did with George and Charlotte — and issues Letters Patent, the infant won’t be an HRH or a Prince.
Before the First World War, it was decided by King George V that there were too many royal titles in Europe — and not nearly enough money to go with the lifestyle.
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So he ruled only the children of sons of a sovereign and their spouses would carry the HRH.
Of course, King George VI had to tweak that when Prince Charles was born in 1948 and his mum — then Princess Elizabeth — was not a son.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s offspring will eventually get their royal titles as when Charles becomes King.
His grandchildren, where necessary, will be upgraded to Royal Highnesses and Princes or Princesses. If — indeed — that is what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decide would be a good idea.
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Meanwhile the infant could just be “Master” Mountbatten Windsor.
As they have with everything else, Harry and Meghan are likely to break the royal mould with their parenting style. They will be hands-on parents and resist having a nanny as long as grandma Doria is around.
As modern parenting dictates, the new arrival will doubtless spend a great deal of time strapped in a baby carrier to one of his parents for bonding.
And as is the rich American way, they will take him on their travels but keep him well away from the cameras. Meghan is also unlikely to employ a maternity nurse for night feeds as Diana did. Meghan’s upbringing was far more relaxed than Harry’s, and on one occasion she was chucking peas out of her high chair while her dad, Thomas Markle, encouraged her.
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In America children don’t start school until much later and are encouraged to be kids and swing on their chairs and “explore their own minds” even if that means destroying the surroundings.
Not so with Harry. When he first came down to breakfast with Prince Charles, naughty Harry managed to push his boiled egg over the edge of his tray so it splattered at Charles’s feet.
The Prince immediately rang for the butler and said: “I think that is the end of this little experiment.”
American families seldom send their young children away to school, considering it pretty cruel and old fashioned. Meghan and Harry, pictured inset on his first day at school, will probably start their son’s education at home, using all the latest child educational tools. I doubt he will later go to Eton College, like his dad, who didn’t enjoy his time there.
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Baby Sussex will also only do royal engagements when they are absolutely necessary — such as waving from the balcony on very big occasions. It has been suggested he may not enter into official duties at all and work for a living, in a similar vein to Peter and Zara Phillips.
But I suspect when the time comes, he will share the load with his royal cousins George, Charlotte and Louis.
Nannies used to be the bedrock around which royal parenting existed, but both have evolved. Meghan and Harry will have clear ideas on the approach they want any nanny to take and will not let a caregiver be in the driving seat.
Godparents were always chosen from the extended family — but I am sure Harry will let Meghan choose her friends, such as George and Amal Clooney, Serena Williams and Canadian Jessica Mulroney, whose twins were page boys at their wedding.
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Even Oprah Winfrey is a possibility now she has teamed with Harry to make a TV series about mental health. Harry might also persuade Meghan to ask the Duchess of Cambridge, as she has always been close to him.
It remains to be seen if the idea of the Sussexes moving to Africa comes to fruition, but if it doesn’t, their son will be no stranger to global travel. He is sure to spend time in his mum’s birthplace, where she has a network of friends with children.
The couple may invest in a holiday home in LA or the affluent Hamptons outside New York, like Gwyneth Paltrow and other stars.
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Fashion-wise, I imagine Meghan will opt for cool, smart styles for her son, in an American East Coast, preppy kind of way. He won’t be forced into long socks and short trousers like cousin George.
And I can’t see Meghan recreating replicas of Harry’s old clothes as Kate did for a while. Baby Sussex will never look like a little old man.
He will be a cashmere jumper, chinos and collarless shirt kind of boy, and Meghan will be looking in some of the exclusive children’s boutiques dotted around London.
Her son will undoubtedly be raised on organic groceries straight from Frogmore Cottage’s vegetable patch and other foods produced in line with his parents’ trendy “woke” beliefs about social justice.
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As he gets older, he will almost certainly be an influencer and follow in the couple’s progressive footsteps.
But for the meanwhile he is going to have an idyllic childhood and — after his first photocall — he will be kept away from prying eyes in the leafy Berkshire countryside. It couldn’t be better.
Meghan Markle’s pal Sophie Ellis-Bextor says she knows Baby Sussex’s name but is keeping quiet
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