What to expect when you’re a royal expecting
As the Duchess of Sussex announces her pregnancy, Anna Tyzack looks at where this new journey may take her
There was a baby elephant in the room last Friday as Princess Eugenie walked down the aisle beside her father, the Duke of York. Though the Duke and Duchess of Sussex apparently were congratulated by close relatives at the celebration, they duly kept things from the rest of the world until the big day was over, and the bride safely on honeymoon.
As ecstatic future parents, we can forgive them for wanting to share; 12 weeks, any expectant parent will attest, is an excruciatingly long time to keep a secret. Unlike her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge, Meghan has not been suffering severe morning sickness to give the game away. The only hint at her expectant state has been her increasingly conservative choices of outfit.
Now the news is out – announced on the same day as her first royal tour, no less – Meghan can start enjoying her pregnancy. As a senior member of the Royal family, she will have the very best medical care, fitness advice and labels queuing up to dress her bump. Meanwhile, Kate will be a fountain of information on yoga teachers, obstetricians and baby kit.
No doubt Meghan will keep a respectful eye on tradition but, given her LA roots and A-list friends, she will carry off motherhood in her own style.
The outfits
While Kate favoured bump-skimming dresses from Séraphine or her favourites, LK Bennett and Boden, Meghan will no doubt be cooler, opting for dungarees, slip dresses and jumpsuits from trendy US label Hatch. For formal occasions, she will go billowy rather than show off her bump; pregnant socialite Alice Naylor-leyland exemplified this look with her floral La Doublej dress at Princess Eugenie’s wedding.
That said, we probably won’t see Meghan in actual maternity wear anytime soon – she will adopt the modern attitude of finding pieces she’d wear anyway that work with her new figure (and have Givenchy on speed dial to create more bump-friendly couture). In terms of footwear, there will be no frumpy pumps or orthopaedic maternity shoes: one thing she has in common with her sister-in-law is a dedication to high heels.
The nursery
The Cambridges have a Peter-rabbitthemed nursery, styled by Dragons of Walton Street in Knightsbridge, the same company that created nurseries for Harry, William, Beatrice and Eugenie. We can expect Meghan to go for something more contemporary: her friend Amal Clooney commissioned interior designer Vicky Charles, formerly of Soho House, to style her twins’ nursery, and included pieces from minimalist French boutique Baudou. The Scandinavian brand mokee is in keeping with this look, with cribs in teal, peach and grey, as is the French brand Smallable.
As for the royal highchair, if the Sussexes are to keep up with the Cambridges, they’ll commission a handmade piece crafted from English oak by furniture maker Katie Walker.
If cravings wreak havoc with her plant-based diet, she will have a nutritionist to hand
The preparation
Even if pregnancy cravings are wreaking havoc with her largely plant-based diet, Meghan will probably have already hired a pregnancy nutritionist for guidance on plotting her nutritional needs, monitoring appropriate weight gain and undertaking safe exercise.
A devoted yogi, Meghan will be likely to follow in Kate’s footsteps and take private pregnancy yoga sessions at Kensington Palace. She might also take Pilates and barre classes as per Kate’s pregnant sister, Pippa Matthews. As well as her LED phototherapy facials, Meghan can indulge in calf massage and reflexology at private members’ club Grace Belgravia, which has a dedicated pregnancy spa.
The birth
Meghan will presumably want a natural birth – Kate can recommend a hypnobirthing teacher, having used the Mongan Method during all three of her labours. A home birth will likely be her first choice, although she will probably be persuaded to give birth at the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, which was where the Cambridge babies were born, with royal doctors Guy Thorpebeeston and Alan Farthing overseeing the birth of Prince Louis there earlier this year.
The help
Every new mum needs her own mother after having a baby. Kate fled to her parents’ place in Berkshire after Prince George’s birth, and we will likely see Meghan’s mother, Doria, arriving from the US to be with her grandchild, if not sometime before. If their place in the Cotswolds is ready in time, the Sussex family will probably escape there. While Harry and Meghan will want to be hands-on parents, there might well be a maternity nurse on standby when she arrives home from hospital. As a career woman, Meghan may well choose to return to her royal duties as quickly as possible, taking no more than the six months Kate took after Prince George. Chances are Harry and Meghan will go for a Norland-trained nanny like Maria Borallo, the Cambridges’ Spanish home help, who will have been taught how to behave at high-profile events and will have received security training from the special forces.
The parenting style
There will be nothing stiff upper lip about Meghan’s approach to motherhood. It would be in her nature to explore aspects of attachment parenting, such as cosleeping and on-demand breastfeeding, especially during the first few weeks, and we can expect to see Baby Sussex accompanying mummy to royal engagements from an early age.
The every day wardrobe is likely to be less traditional than the Cambridges’: Meghan could look to Caramel for more contemporary designs in British heritage fabrics. When the day dawns for preschool, Harry and Meghan need look no further than the end of their estate in the Cotswolds. The Willow on the Farm is a Montessori and forest school on a working farm, with dogs, ducks and ponies for the children of the Soho Farmhouse set.
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