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It was a royal baby announcement – but it wasn’t the one we’d all been waiting for.
Last week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told the world that they would be keeping the imminent birth of their baby – due any day now – secret, until they have had a chance to ‘celebrate privately as a family’.
Learn all about the royal kids… who are normal kids. Post continues after video.
We’d known for some time, if rumours were to be believed, that the royal couple had toyed with the idea of breaking royal protocol by shunning the Lindo Wing, where both Kate Middleton and Princess Diana gave birth.
But when the news was confirmed via a statement from Buckingham Palace, people were… disappointed.
For the Sun, journalist Lauren Clark wrote: “Wanting to shut out the adoring British – not to mention US – public from the birth seems a little churlish given the adoration they have received.”
If Meghan wanted privacy, Clark pondered, why on earth did she marry into the royal family?
And for some royal fans and haters alike, it was less a feeling of disappointment, and one more of… anger.
According to the Express, guests on British TV show, Good Morning Britain clashed over the announcement.
While singer Jamelia said it was “inhumane” for Meghan to appear on the steps of the Lindo Wing mere hours after giving birth, author and broadcaster Anna May Magdan said: “The country needs some joy and she’s depriving us of that.”
Meghan has been dubbed a hypocrite for enjoying the trappings of royal life – her tax-funded fairytale wedding and newly-renovated 10-bedroom home included – while refusing to share the joy of the arrival of her first born, as is tradition.
But aren’t the real hypocrites those who expect her to do that after the hostile and toxic treatment she has received from a large majority of the press and the public over the past six months?
Let’s not forget how abruptly the tide turned on the Duchess not long after she announced she was expecting.
First the news broke that Meghan and Harry were moving out of Kensington Palace, shortly before rumours began to leak from the palace that she was a ‘difficult’ woman.
There were accusations of demanding 5am text messages to staff, causing many of them to quit. ‘Hurricane Meghan’, they called her. We’d better watch out.
In January of this year, The Daily Mail decided Meghan’s choice of breakfast made her single-handedly responsible for drought, murder and environmental devastation.
The poor woman couldn’t even put her hands on her blooming bump without the press and the public having something to say about it. “It’s all very Baby Bump Barbie,” British magazine editor Jo Elvin told MailOnline, suggesting the Duchess’ “rigid” pose was entirely contrived for the most flattering photographs.
There were even those that refused to believe she was pregnant at all, suggesting she was faking it.
And maybe that’s when Meghan snapped. Maybe that’s when she decided that her bump, her baby, her body, is not anyone’s property to be possessed with an extreme sense of entitlement.
Perhaps if people had been a little bit nicer to her, she would have wanted the share the moment with all of us.
Top Comments
Me-Gain marrying into the royal family and being allowed on the civil list which means the taxpayers are obliged to fund her for “royal duties”,not for lifestyle choices. It makes her a PUBLIC SERVANT. It is also a violation of UK law for her to sell baby photos to the highest bidder, deny the press access, brand under her name, her and Harry’s titles or even the term Sussex. Being photographed when leaving the hospital isn’t demeaning, and it’s a joke for her to scream privacy when she has pushed herself in front of the cameras and paid the media to hype her as well as to publish lies about William and Kate. Me-again lost the public’s support when she started grossly overspending more than the queen and every other royal put together at a time when Britain has been suffering economic austerity. People are suffering and her attitude has been let them eat cake while she puts on her fake humanitarian, “look at meeee!” floor show
Some of these comments! I don't care who these people are, all women who have given birth have a right to choose when they are exposed to the world.
The fact is that most new mothers don't just walk out of the hospital looking as great as Kate Middleton. With my first baby I couldn't even walk for the first few days!
If you think your right to be a gossip is greater than the rights of a new mother, you are a very sad and screwed up person.
Whenever I think of human rights though, I follow the UN definitions rather than how a pregnant Royal is treated or expected to behave by the media and blogs for gossip.
It seems clear we are talking about totally different things here.
Much of the discussion around this is focussing on the wrong thing. If they truly want privacy - something that I agree they're within their rights to seek - then they're going about it the wrong way by creating intrigue and drama by playing cat-and-mouse with the press. A planned formal announcement of going into labour, followed by a literal sit-in by the press, isn't any more "private" than the orchestrated pap-walking baby shower was. A true bid for privacy would simply be an announcement that the baby has arrived, with the requisite (but fully controlled and palace-approved) photographs released thereafter. No need to create a circus in so doing.
Well, I'm not a royalist so I actually haven't followed anything they've done. I only clicked on this article as I thought the discussion was surrounding privacy in childbirth - I never read anything about the royals so I guess I don't understand all the outrage. It seems silly to me that people are so worked up and to be honest it seems like people need to get on with their own lives. Maybe if you guys didn't lap up all the "drama and intrigue" and create such a demand for it, the fact you aren't getting what you want from her pregnancy wouldn't bother you so much?
All I'm saying is every new mother should have a right to choose when she and her newborn are exposed to the world.
Considering that suicide is the number one cause of death of women in the Western world, and that all new mothers are now routinely screened for depression - I don't think you can disregard a woman's need for privacy and respect post partum. Yes there are other human rights which may be more pressing, but that's a different topic.
Being a royal doesnt make you immune to that fact.