Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were born three years, 5,000 miles and a world apart with very different upbringings
THE nation rejoiced as its favourite young royal, Prince Harry, became a dad for the first time.
The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to a boy weighing 7lbs 3oz. He is seventh in line to the throne after his father.
T hey were born 5,000 miles from each other – and a whole world apart in social standing.
Huge, cheering crowds and the global media gathered outside St Mary’s Hospital in London on the day Prince Harry was born.
But when Rachel Meghan Markle arrived into the world in the early hours of the Queen Mother’s 81st birthday, only her father Thomas had been there to celebrate.
Meghan’s mum Doria was still anaesthetised from giving birth by caesarean to a healthy baby girl who would later make history as the first American to become Her Royal Highness.
But that morning — August 4, 1981, — as he cradled his tiny daughter in the austere delivery room at Canoga Park Hospital in Los Angeles, Thomas Markle could scarcely imagine the life that lay ahead for her.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Thomas, then 37 and a successful Hollywood lighting director, recalled: “I was the first person in the world to hold Meghan.
“When they handed her to me and I held her in my arms for the first time it was love at first sight. She was the most beautiful baby.
“Meghan winked at me and I fell in love and have never stopped loving her from that day forward.”
Fast forward to September 15, 1984, and in the private Lindo Wing at St Mary’s in Paddington where Princess Diana, the world’s most famous woman, gave birth to her second son.
When they handed her to me and I held her in my arms for the first time it was love at first sight. She was the most beautiful baby.
Thomas Markle
He was spare to the heir and third in line to the British throne.
According to Diana, when Prince Charles was handed his newborn child he took one look at the baby and said: “Oh, God, it’s a boy — and he’s even got red hair!”
The Prince of Wales had secretly wished for a girl.
Diana later revealed: “I knew Harry was going to be a boy because I saw on the scan. Charles wanted a girl.”
In the street outside the Lindo Wing, the Sun’s royal photographer Arthur Edwards was on a 12-rung ladder to see over the heads of the throng waiting for news of the birth.
Buckingham Palace press secretary Vic Chapman came out and shouted so everyone could hear: “The baby’s name is Prince Henry of Wales but he is going to be known as Harry.”
Arthur says: “When Prince William was born we’d had to wait ten days to find out his name, and with Princess Beatrice it was almost two weeks before the official announcement.”
WILD ABOUT HARRY
Just 22 hours after giving birth, Diana stood on the hospital steps with baby Harry in her arms.
He was wrapped in a shawl that hid his ginger hair.
When Arthur’s pictures of Diana and her boy were printed in the next day’s Sun, the headline read: “Wild About Harry”.
Arthur says: “It’s a name that fitted him perfectly and the world has been wild about him ever since.”
In contrast, when Meghan’s mum was well enough, Thomas and Doria, then 23, slipped almost unnoticed out of the hospital and drove their baby to her new home in the LA suburb of Woodland Hills.
Thomas recalls: “My greatest joy was coming home from work, picking her up and just walking back and forth in the kitchen, holding her in my arms.
“She would listen to the hum of the refrigerator and it would lull her to sleep.
“My other favourite memory is of walking outside with her in the garden. I would point to the moon and say: ‘That’s Meggie’s moon’.
My greatest joy was coming home from work, picking her up and just walking back and forth in the kitchen, holding her in my arms.
Thomas Markle
“I did it for so long that eventually she was able to look up at the sky, point and say ‘Meggie’s moon’.”
Harry and older brother William spent much of their early childhood in the apartments in Kensington Palace and at Highgrove House, the Gloucestershire estate Charles bought in 1980.
'HOW LUCKY YOU ARE'
At Harry’s christening, Diana claimed Charles told the Queen: “We were so disappointed — we thought it would be a girl.”
But his mother told him: “You should realise how lucky you are to have a child that is normal.”
Arthur Edwards says: “Diana was very protective of Harry, more so than with William.
“I remember being invited twice to go to Kensington Palace to photograph William but never once with Harry. To this day I don’t know why that was.”
Diana had threatened to boycott a five-week official tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1983 unless William — then less than a year old — accompanied them.
But the next time they went Down Under in 1985, the boys did not join them.
Ahead of the tour Harry, then just over a year old, posed for a set of cute pictures, including playing the piano, which hit the right note with fans all over the world.
A few months earlier, Harry had been the star of the show when in May 1985, the princes travelled on the Royal Yacht Britannia to Venice to meet Charles and Diana at the end of a 17-day tour of Italy.
Arthur says: “Harry never went on an official tour as a baby like William. But they did a photocall on the deck of Britannia where Diana looked delighted to be reunited with her baby son.
“It was the first time we really saw Harry’s red hair, which runs in his mother’s family, the Spencers.
“A couple of days after Diana had gone home with the baby, I was covering a story with Princess Michael of Kent and she said: “Oh, I’ve seen the baby. He’s ginger’.
“Apparently Diana was upset by that and said, ‘He’s not ginger, he’s fair’. But Princess Michael was spot-on. There were always requests for pictures of Harry when he was little.
"But demand was easily satisfied because every term when they started nursery or school we would go along. When Harry first went to nursery, one of the other boys said to the teacher, ‘Why can’t I bring my dad to school like Harry’s dad?’
Apparently Diana was upset by that and said, ‘He’s not ginger, he’s fair’.
Arthur Edwards
“Of course, it was Harry’s royal protection officer. Bulletproof glass was put in the school for protection but other than that he led a relatively normal life as a boy.”
MARRIAGE BREAKDOWNS
Diana always claimed that after Harry was born, her marriage began to fall apart and Charles drifted back to his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles — now his second wife.
By the age of eight, Harry’s parents’ marriage was over when the Queen ordered the warring Waleses to divorce.
In Los Angeles, Doria Markle quickly returned to work as a make-up artist after the birth to help the family’s finances and Meghan spent her early years brought up by her doting grandmother, Jeanette Ragland, who lived close by.
Family members say Thomas Markle’s marriage to Doria was already under strain when Meghan was born. By the time Meghan was three, her parents had split and she was six years old when they divorced.
After the split, Meghan’s now-estranged dad Thomas remained part of her life.
He says: “I would see her all the time. I had her every weekend. We lived close and Meghan went between the two homes happily.”
As an adolescent, Meghan moved in with her dad when she attended an all-girls’ Catholic school. After school, he would pick her up and take her to the set of the sitcom where he worked as a lighting director.
But her uncle Joseph Johnson says his half-sister Doria, who will be closely involved in bringing up Meghan’s baby, was the biggest influence, teaching her daughter that whatever happens in life she will always know she is truly loved.
He says: “I think she’ll be a great grandmother, if she helps raise that child anything like Meghan was raised. Meghan was never hit or hollered at.”
For ten years, Carolyn Robb worked as chef to Charles and Diana and was close to Harry as he was growing up.
She says: “Harry’s very caring and gentle. Even as a little boy, he’d always want to know how you were.
“He’s also a lot of fun. There was mischief in there as well. I think he’ll be a fantastic father.”
Their first date to a baby in 34 months
JULY 2016: Prince Harry and Meghan meet at club Soho House in London after introduction by a mutual pal.
OCT 7: News breaks that the couple are dating.
DEC 14: Meghan and Harry are spotted for the first time, at a West End theatre, watching The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.
JAN 6, 2017: They take their first holiday, in Norway, to catch the Northern Lights.
MAY 7: Photographed kissing at Coworth Park polo club in Berkshire.
MAY 20: Meghan joins Harry at Pippa Middleton’s wedding but stays away from the church service.
SEPT 3: Harry takes Meghan to meet the Queen, whose permission they need to marry.
SEPT 25: The first official appearance together, at the Invictus Games in Toronto.
NOV 27: Clarence House announces the engagement. There are official pictures at Kensington Palace and a TV interview.
NOV 28: The wedding venue – St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle – is confirmed.
DEC 1: Harry and Meghan’s first joint official engagement in Nottingham.
MAR 12, 2018: Meghan attends her first official event with the Queen, at the Commonwealth Day service held in Westminster Abbey, London.
MAY 19: Harry and Meghan marry at St George’s Chapel and become the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
JUN 18: Thomas Markle says he expects his daughter and Harry will try for children soon.
OCT 15: Kensington Palace announces the couple are expecting a baby in spring.
OCT 16: Harry and Meghan embark on their first official overseas tour of Australia, Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand.
FEB 24, 2019: Harry and seven-months pregnant Meghan start their most recent foreign tour, with three days in Morocco.
MAR 11: Couple once again go to Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, their last joint engagement before the birth of their son.
APR 11: Kensington Palace announces that details surrounding the arrival of the baby will be kept private.
MAY 6: Baby Sussex arrives at 5.26am.
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