LONDON: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate were spending their first day at home with their newborn son on Wednesday, a day after the world got its first glimpse of the little boy destined to become king.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent the night at Kensington Palace after emerging from St Mary’s Hospital in London with the unnamed baby boy in their arms, to huge cheers and a roar from the massed ranks of international media.
Wearing a cornflower-blue polka-dot dress, a beaming Kate said the couple were “very emotional” to have welcomed their son, who is third-in-line to the British throne.
William, meanwhile, said they were still choosing a name for the child dubbed Baby Cambridge, and revealed that he had already changed his first nappies.
The new heir raised a tiny hand above his white blankets — his first royal wave of a lifetime that will be spent in the public eye.
He remained peaceful, despite deafening cheers from well-wishers and shouts from journalists who had camped for three weeks outside the hospital.
“It’s a special time,” said 31-year-old Kate, who wore her long brown hair loose. “I think any new parent would know what this feeling feels like.”
Wearing jeans and a casual blue shirt, her 31-year-old husband told reporters: “He’s got her looks, thankfully,” as Kate giggled and interjected, “No, no, no, I’m not sure about that.”
Their son was born at 4:24 pm (15:24 GMT) on Monday weighing a healthy eight pounds six ounces (3.8 kilogrammes), and William described him as “a big boy, he’s quite heavy”. “He’s got a good pair of lungs on him, that’s for sure,” William joked.
After speaking briefly to the media, the couple returned to the hospital before re-emerging a few minutes later with the baby in a car-seat.
William secured the seat deftly in the back of a black Land Rover parked outside the entrance, and drove his new family himself towards Kensington Palace, where family members were reportedly waiting. William will now take two weeks of paternity leave from his job as a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot.
Royal aides said the couple had no immediate plans to hire a nanny.
The first public appearance by the new family caused a storm on social media, with Twitter counting more than 18,000 tweets a minute — a testament to the global fascination with the couple since their fairytale wedding in 2011.
The first photographs of Britain’s new prince dominated newspaper front pages on Wednesday, with the sapphire engagement ring that belonged to William’s late mother Diana conspicuous on the hand of new mother Kate. Kate’s empire-line dress, a bespoke design by Jenny Packham, also drew strong comparisons with that worn by Diana when, in 1982, she stood on the same steps with Prince Charles and presented the newborn William to the world. (AFP)