Parents are keen to instantly try to bond with their baby shortly after birth in a variety of different ways, but Prince Harry has opened up about how he interacted with his son straight after his birth, detailing the move in his memoir, Spare.
The Duke of Sussex admitted that he and his wife, Meghan Markle, began talking to their son just seconds after he was born on May 9, 2019, at London’s Portland Hospital.
The royal couple followed the recommendation of their ayurvedic doctor, a professional who focuses on a holistic approach health.
Harry recalled: “A nurse swept the baby into a towel and placed him on Meg’s chest and we both cried to see him, meet him…”
He penned: “Our ayurvedic doctor had advised us that, in the first minute of life, a baby absorbs everything said to them. So whisper to the baby, tell the baby your wish for him, your love. Tell. We told.”
Although it has not been detailed the exact words Harry and Meghan whispered to their newborn son, one can imagine they would have done the same with their daughter, Lilibet, who was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital two years later on June 4, 2021.
Harry also recounted the day his daughter was born. He described the moment: “I slid my hands under the tiny back and neck. Gently, but firmly, as I’d seen in films, I pulled our precious daughter from that world into this, and cradled her just a moment, trying to smile at her, to see her, but honestly, I couldn’t see anything.
“I wanted to say: ‘Hello.’ I wanted to say: ‘Where have you come from?’ I wanted to say: ‘Is it better there? Is it peaceful? Are you frightened? Don’t be, don’t be, all will be well. I’ll keep you safe.'”
Harry then handed her over to Meghan – who later told him that she had “never been as in love with him as she was in that moment”.
Harry’s memoir Spare was released in hardback in January 2023, with paperback editions released this year, in October 2024.
Publisher Penguin Random House has called it “a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief”.
After quitting royal duties in 2020 and eventually relocating to Montecito, California, where the couple live with their two young children, the Sussexes have talked about why they decided to give up royal duties and move to the US, criticising the British press and the inner workings of the royal institution.
This has been through a series of media platforms including TV interviews, a headling-hitting Netflix docuseries, and a bombshell memoir, detailing the couple’s lives as members of the Royal Family.
After hitting the shelves on January 10, 2023, the explosive memoir sold a staggering six million copies globally.
The publication reported that Harry was understood to have clinched a £16million ($20million) advance as part of a £32million ($40million) four-book deal in 2021 following a bidding war.
