Hello!<\/a>. The couple\u2019s staff were taken aback by William and Kate\u2019s \u201cincredibly relaxed\u201d demeanors around the whole situation, and courtiers felt pressure to make a perfect announcement about the pair\u2019s first child and heir to the throne. According to Myers\u2019s new book William and Catherine: The Monarchy\u2019s New Era: The Inside Story, after William and Kate were nonchalant about everything, staff turned to historical clippings for inspiration on what to do.\n<\/p>\n Prince George one day after his birth.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the surface, they were both incredibly relaxed, which actually made us all slightly more nervous,\u201d a former courtier said. \u201cWe genuinely had no idea how the birth should be announced, so we proceeded to get some old documents and newspaper cuttings from the archives, which only complicated matters.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe weight of expectation was extraordinary,\u201d the courtier continued. \u201cThere was no doubt in our minds that this would be a global event, so everything had to be right.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
In addition to figuring out how to announce George\u2019s birth, the press office was fielding hundreds of calls from journalists around the globe looking for information. Myers added that only four people knew of the security plans for George\u2019s birth.\n<\/p>\n
The new family of three on July 23, 2013.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
The easel announcing Prince George’s 2013 birth.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
Though William and Kate\u2019s staff turned to the archives for inspiration, the couple ultimately broke traditional protocol by announcing George\u2019s birth via email and social media rather than the typical easel placed outside of Buckingham Palace (though the easel was put out afterwards). George Alexander Louis was ultimately born at 4:24 p.m. at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary\u2019s Hospital, and his arrival was celebrated with gun salutes. Bells at Westminster Abbey\u2014where his parents had married over two years prior\u2014tolled continuously for three hours in celebration.\n<\/p>\n
Around 24 hours after his birth, William and Kate debuted George on the famous steps of the Lindo Wing, loading him up in their waiting Range Rover to take their boy home. The couple had not finalized George\u2019s name yet, so at that time, William said, \u201cHe\u2019s got a good pair of lungs on him, that\u2019s for sure. He\u2019s a big boy\u2014he\u2019s quite heavy. We are still working on a name, so we will have that as soon as we can.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Prince William loading Prince George in the Range Rover.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
Kate Middleton, Prince George, and Prince William on July 23, 2013.<\/p>\n
Getty<\/p>\n
Years later, Kate told host Giovanna Fletcher of George\u2019s birth, \u201cIt is extraordinary, as I\u2019ve said. How can the human body do that? It\u2019s utterly extraordinary, actually. And he was very sweet. And [I was] also sort of relieved that he was a happy, healthy boy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed their first child, Prince George Alexander Louis, on July 22, 2013.The couple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-326154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}