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Royal Couple Make First Appearance with Infant Son Royal Couple Make First Appearance with Infant Son
(35 minutes later)
LONDON — The Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William appeared publicly for the first time on Tuesday with their infant son, the newest royal heir, taking turns cradling him in their arms in front of St. Mary’s Hospital to the screaming delight of onlookers and snapping press cameras. LONDON — After a long day spent in the privacy of a hospital maternity suite, Prince William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, emerged on Tuesday evening into the public spotlight outside, taking turns cradling their infant son, with Prince William telling reporters massed on the sidewalk that “We’re still working on a name.”
“It’s such a special time,” the duchess told reporters, looking radiant in a blue dress with white polka dots as she handed the newborn, shrouded in a shawl, to her beaming husband. A few minutes later they left in a dark station wagon, Prince William at the wheel. The baby, who becomes third in line to the royal throne after Prince Charles, his paternal grandfather, and Prince William, his 31-year-old father, appeared to sleep throughout the two-minute hubbub that ensued when the royal couple stepped through the doorway of the Lindo wing, the private annex to St. Mary’s Hospital in the London district of Paddington, at 7.15 p.m. London time.
Their appearance came less than 24 hours after the news of the royal birth, which was hardly a surprise but was greeted with relief and joy among Britons and royal well-wishers around the world, including President Obama. “He’s got a good pair of lungs on him, that’s for sure,” Prince William said in response to questions from a packed gallery of reporters and photographers, as he held the infant in his arms, with Kate, formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, standing beside him. “He’s a big boy, he’s quite heavy. We’re still working on a name, but we will have that as soon as we can.”
The baby, a boy who weighed in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces, will not be king for some time: he has to wait in the long line behind his great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth; his grandfather Prince Charles; and his father. The baby has not yet been given a name. The couple had waited 27 hours after the baby’s birth at 4.24 p.m. on Monday before emerging to the cheers and shouts of good will from those waiting outside, who included crowds of well-wishers and uniformed members of the hospital staff.
Striking an informal note that suggested something about the changes they may wish eventually to bring to royal life, the duchess was hatless and wearing a short-sleeved blue polka dot summer dress, with William in black jeans and an open-necked blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Kate, who had passed the baby carefully to her husband before they crossed the road to speak with reporters, described her feelings as “very emotional,” and added, “Any parent will know what that’s like.”
William, responding to a question about the newborn’s appearance, responded, “He’s got her looks, thankfully.” Kate quickly retorted, “No, no, I’m not sure about that.”
Swaddled in a white baby shawl, his fair hair and fingers visible, the infant was carried by his beaming parents on a brief walkabout down the serried lines of the waiting media, before being taken back inside the hospital and buckled into a car baby seat. With Prince William driving, a royal security aide beside him and Kate with the infant in the back seat, they then set off in a black Range Rover for the baby’s first night in a royal palace.
Their destination was Kensington Palace, a short drive away across Hyde Park, which is to be the royal couple’s permanent London home. It was also the home in which William and his brother, Prince Harry, spent much of their childhood, and where they were living when their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, by then divorced from Prince Charles, was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Members of the royal family, when discussing the duchess’s pregnancy in recent months, have carefully avoided any mention of Diana, who was regarded as a virtual pariah by the royal court at the time of her death, after her acrimonious divorce from Prince Charles and their mutual acknowledgments of infidelity during their marriage.
Some British commentators have described her as the phantom of the occasion, but the fact that Kate wore her blue sapphire engagement ring as she appeared for the first time with her baby – a ring that was given to Diana as an engagement ring by Prince Charles in 1981 – conveyed its own message, as did the BBC’s use, during the vigil outside the hospital wing, of archive photographs of Diana and Prince Charles emerging from the Lindo wing with William, their firstborn child, after his birth in June 1982.

Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.

Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.