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| Duchess of Cambridge Gives Birth to a Boy | Duchess of Cambridge Gives Birth to a Boy |
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| LONDON — With royal fanfare tweeted instantly around the world, Buckingham Palace on Monday announced the birth of a boy to Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, placing a framed proclamation on an easel at the palace gates. | LONDON — With royal fanfare tweeted instantly around the world, Buckingham Palace on Monday announced the birth of a boy to Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, placing a framed proclamation on an easel at the palace gates. |
| “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4:24 today,” the statement proclaimed, more than four hours after the birth. “Her royal highness and the child are both doing well.” | “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4:24 today,” the statement proclaimed, more than four hours after the birth. “Her royal highness and the child are both doing well.” |
| A palace statement said the child weighed eight pounds six ounces and that William had been present. Mother and baby would remain in the hospital overnight. | A palace statement said the child weighed eight pounds six ounces and that William had been present. Mother and baby would remain in the hospital overnight. |
| No name was immediately announced. The child is third in line to the throne. His birth gives the royal family three generations of heirs to the throne for the first time since Queen Victoria’s rule. | No name was immediately announced. The child is third in line to the throne. His birth gives the royal family three generations of heirs to the throne for the first time since Queen Victoria’s rule. |
| The announcement came more than 12 hours after Buckingham Palace said Monday morning that the 31-year-old duchess had gone to St. Mary’s Hospital in London in the early stages of labor. Then not another word emerged from royal officials, beyond the bland assurance from palace officials that matters were “progressing normally.” | The announcement came more than 12 hours after Buckingham Palace said Monday morning that the 31-year-old duchess had gone to St. Mary’s Hospital in London in the early stages of labor. Then not another word emerged from royal officials, beyond the bland assurance from palace officials that matters were “progressing normally.” |
| Hundreds of reporters and photographers gathered by the hospital in Paddington, a district on the edge of central London, wilting in a heat wave. They were joined through the day by excited well-wishers from Britain and beyond, some pledging to stay until the birth was announced. | Hundreds of reporters and photographers gathered by the hospital in Paddington, a district on the edge of central London, wilting in a heat wave. They were joined through the day by excited well-wishers from Britain and beyond, some pledging to stay until the birth was announced. |
| Queen Elizabeth offered a faint signal that an early development might be at hand when she left her preferred quarters at Windsor Castle and drove the 20 miles to Buckingham Palace. That put her in position to be on hand, her royal standard fluttering, when the birth was announced. | |
| A large crowd gathered there, periodically breaking into cheers and straining to get a view of the framed official announcement by the gates. | |
| Jenny Self, a media planner for a broadcaster, said she felt compelled to be at the palace for the announcement. “I missed the royal wedding and the Olympics so I wanted to be here,” she said. “It is something to be proud of.” | |
| She said she was happy the baby was a boy. “But it would have been nicer if it was a girl — more historical,” she added, referring to the recent change to Britain’s laws to allow a first-born girl to inherit the throne. | |
| Michael Frederick, who described himself as a freelancer in public relations, pushed his way back out of the crowd after getting a glimpse, saying: “It was like going through labor. I hope she realizes what I have been through.” | |
| “I’m so happy,” he said. “It’s an example of what brings the community together in London, and it has also made the whole world focus on this amazing city and its people.” | |
| The statement from the palace said that members of the immediate family, including Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as William’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, “have been informed and are delighted with the news.” | The statement from the palace said that members of the immediate family, including Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as William’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, “have been informed and are delighted with the news.” |
| Prince Charles issued a statement saying that he was “enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future.” | Prince Charles issued a statement saying that he was “enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future.” |
| A message on Twitter was the first of a series of carefully scripted disclosures that culminated in the announcement of an event that appeared to be drawing unparalleled media coverage, even in the annals of Britain’s headline-making royal family. Live-streaming cameras have been trained on the hospital, and even on the easel where the announcement of the birth was formally posted. | A message on Twitter was the first of a series of carefully scripted disclosures that culminated in the announcement of an event that appeared to be drawing unparalleled media coverage, even in the annals of Britain’s headline-making royal family. Live-streaming cameras have been trained on the hospital, and even on the easel where the announcement of the birth was formally posted. |
| “Her royal highness the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, in the early stages of labour,” said a message from Clarence House, the official residence of the duchess and her husband, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. | “Her royal highness the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, in the early stages of labour,” said a message from Clarence House, the official residence of the duchess and her husband, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. |
| The duchess had traveled by car to the hospital from another royal residence, Kensington Palace, a second message said. Reporters outside the hospital said the couple had slipped in through a side entrance, largely unobserved by the waiting press corps. | The duchess had traveled by car to the hospital from another royal residence, Kensington Palace, a second message said. Reporters outside the hospital said the couple had slipped in through a side entrance, largely unobserved by the waiting press corps. |
| The couple met in the early 2000s, when both were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and their relationship, which was later hailed as a fairy tale union, proceeded sporadically for several years until their wedding in April 2011. | The couple met in the early 2000s, when both were students at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and their relationship, which was later hailed as a fairy tale union, proceeded sporadically for several years until their wedding in April 2011. |
| In some ways, the phantom of William’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, has hovered over the couple, and he has frequently made it clear that he wants to protect his wife from the intense media scrutiny associated with his mother. Her own fairy-tale wedding to Prince Charles in 1981 soured, and the protracted breakdown of their marriage included toe-curling acknowledgments of infidelity by both. They divorced in 1996. | |
| The princess was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997 as her driver tried to outrun a pack of paparazzi trying to snap pictures of her and her lover, Dodi Fayed, the son of an Egyptian billionaire who owned the London department store Harrods. | |
| Prince William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, were teenagers at the time, and images of the two walking, eyes downcast, behind the caisson that carried their mother to her funeral in Westminster Abbey marked an emotional low point for the nation. Prince William, quiet and intensely private, has said in interviews in recent years that he was determined to make sure that his family was never subjected to the media’s cruel buffeting. | |
| Intrusive and highly competitive coverage of royal events was common for decades. But the newspapers have been chastened by public opprobrium resulting from a phone-hacking scandal that led to broad scrutiny by Parliament, the public and the police of the way the media operate. And an agreement bolstering the royal couple’s privacy was secured in discussions between royal officials and editors of Britain’s municipal newspapers. | |
| For weeks, photographers and camera crews had camped out with stepladders and other equipment outside St. Mary’s, where William, now a Royal Air Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, was himself born in June 1982. His brother, Harry, was born there in 1984. | |
| The period preceding the birth, however, was marked by a display of restraint among the tabloids, with no sign of photographs of the royal couple from clandestine stakeouts. | |
| For the last few months, the tabloids restricted themselves mainly to photographs of the duchess with her growing “bump” that were taken on official occasions, and articles about the mellowing impact that her family was having on the often-stuffy protocols of the royal family. The Middletons have no royal blood, but rather a lineage of merchants, miners and laborers in Britain’s industrial northeast. | |
| The young couple’s success in protecting their privacy lasted through the final hours of the duchess’s pregnancy, when they arrived unobtrusively at a back door of the hospital wing not long past dawn, seen by only two of the dozens of photographers who had staked out the wing for much of the past month. | |
| The baby is expected to be known formally as the Prince of Cambridge. In the line of succession, he will be third after Prince Charles, 64, and William, 31. Prince Harry will be fourth. | The baby is expected to be known formally as the Prince of Cambridge. In the line of succession, he will be third after Prince Charles, 64, and William, 31. Prince Harry will be fourth. |
| The birth gave the House of Windsor, the reigning family in a line that stretches back more than 1,000 years, a sense of enhanced stability — much sought after by Queen Elizabeth, whose 61 years on the throne, second in length only to Queen Victoria, have included tumultuous periods of scandal and grief. | |
| The excitement over the birth has been depicted as offering a likely counterpoint to Britain’s economic austerity, buoying a public mood that has been elevated by a series of sporting successes in cricket, rugby and cycling after London hosted the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. An unusual heat wave, meanwhile, has brought picnickers and strollers out in droves across the land in parks, on beaches and at heaths and wilderness areas. | The excitement over the birth has been depicted as offering a likely counterpoint to Britain’s economic austerity, buoying a public mood that has been elevated by a series of sporting successes in cricket, rugby and cycling after London hosted the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. An unusual heat wave, meanwhile, has brought picnickers and strollers out in droves across the land in parks, on beaches and at heaths and wilderness areas. |
Sarah Lyall, Julia Werdigier, Stephen Castle and Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting. | Sarah Lyall, Julia Werdigier, Stephen Castle and Katrin Bennhold contributed reporting. |
| This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: | This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: |
| Correction: July 22, 2013 | Correction: July 22, 2013 |
An earlier version of a caption with the | An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the picture’s location and date. The picture, of Princess Kate, was taken at an official visit to Hope House addiction center in February, not outside St. Mary’s Hospital on Monday. An earlier version of this article misstated part of the name Queen Elizabeth’s preferred residence and its location. It is Windsor Castle, not Windsor Palace, and it is just outside London, not in the city. |