Welcome to The Royalist—all the latest royal news and gossip with Tom Sykes and Tim Teeman. For Beast Inside members only.
Boy oh Boy?
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could be having a boy named Arthur, James or Alexander, internet sleuths have deduced. Journalists at Britain’s Daily Star engaged in some fearless investigative journalism by tapping various potential names for the new baby into the Buckingham Palace website, using formats already employed by the palace (a bit like the old game of guess-the-email when your friend moves job).
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For example, if you want to find the dedicated pages for Prince Louis or Prince George its www.royal.uk/prince-firstname, for Princess Charlotte it’s www.royal.uk/princess-firstname.
But if you tap in any of the fancied female names in this format, such as Diana, Elizabeth or Victoria, the website says “Page not found.” This means pages with these titles have simply not been created. However, when trying to access the pages www.royal.uk/prince-arthur, www.royal.uk/prince-james and www.royal.uk/prince-alexander, the site does something quite different; it bounces you back to the royal family home page. At the very least, this means someone has created an html page in these name formats and added an automatic link/redirect.
Meghan and Harry have said they have opted not to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl, but the reserved male name pages strongly suggest that the baby’s gender may in fact be known to a tight inner circle (and the palace webmaster).
Aced
There has of course been a lot of speculation that Meghan is having a girl. Serena Williams has been accused of accidentally letting the cat out of the bag after she appeared to talk about a close friend expecting a girl, then corrected herself. But it’s worth remembering that in the run-up to the birth of Prince George, the world somehow decided Kate was expecting a girl. Could Serena have played an ace dummy shot?
When Oh When
Meghan is believed to now be past her due date and Meghan’s mum, Doria Ragland, has been staying with her at Frogmore Cottage for more than a week, so it is presumably safe to say the baby is due soon. A source told The Sun: “It won’t be long now. Meghan’s really excited. Of course she’s nervous like any first-time mum but she and Harry can’t wait. “She’s been preparing for the birth—she wants it to be as natural as possible—and so has been practising hypnobirthing and breathing techniques with Harry.”
The Sun adds that the Queen has also visited them in their new home, saying, “Her Majesty wanted to formally welcome the Sussexes to their new home so she was their first visitor.”
One would have though that a visit from the Monarch might have brought on labor, but Meghan is clearly made of sterner stuff.
Nanny Knows Best (and Everything)
With journalists’ nails being bitten down to the quick, minds have turned to post-birth, with Newsweek taking readers inside the rigorous training of Norland nannies, who rich folk with a thing about Mary Poppins employ to take care of their children.
“As well as practical skills, nannies-in-training learn about everything from emotion coaching—a psychological strategy that advocates say helps children build resilience and emotional intelligence—to early brain development,” Newsweek reports.
The piece also makes clear Norland nannies are well-trained in dealing with all the nuttiness, privilege, and demands of the super-rich—and received a commensurate high salary for doing so. Newsweek describes the Norland uniform as “iconic”; well, it’s brown and distinctive.
No official Baby Sussex merch
The royal family has confirmed that there will be no official royal merchandise for Baby Sussex. Don't panic, royal baby memorabilia gatherers; you can still, as The Scotsman reported, find the usual babygros, dish towels, and of course various items featuring corgis. But there will be nothing, as yet at least, being produced and distributed by the Palace itself—in keeping with Meghan and Harry's desire to keep the birth of their first child as private as possible.
