Just hours after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived in Australia yesterday, Kensington Palace made the announcement that they are expecting their first child. As we’ve established, this jacked up the excitement level about the tour, as intended. Harry and Royal Meghan’s final engagement today was a reception hosted by the Governor General where at one point, she spent time talking to singer Missy Higgins holding her baby daughter, Luna. Later on, Meghan told teacher Eddie Woo and his wife Michelle, who have three children, that she and Harry couldn’t wait to “join the club”.
For some reason everyone wants this shot 👶 #Royalbaby pic.twitter.com/Uyv6ezkoib
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) October 16, 2018
It’s officially a pregnancy tour. And it’s not just Meghan who’s talking about. Harry addressed the happy news during his remarks too:
"We genuinely couldn't think of a better place to announce the upcoming...err...baby," says Prince Harry, who seems a bit taken aback by the novelty of saying it out loud #royalvisitaustralia pic.twitter.com/x9b9DtOSlh
— Hannah Furness (@Hannah_Furness) October 16, 2018
That’s a great assessment of Harry’s stumble. It is the novelty of saying it aloud after not talking about it for weeks. And, even for someone who’s been in the spotlight his whole life, and accustomed to it by now, it’s a new angle of attention, obviously an angle he’s entirely unfamiliar with. As noted in the previous post, Harry and Meghan are much more demonstrative in public than other members of the royal family. And they’ve chosen to share this news, the pregnancy, in a pretty public way. It’s not that others haven’t shared the same but I’m not sure it’s ever been quite like this, as a kickoff to a major tour where every single day for the next two weeks, hour after hour, they’re going to be face to face with people who will be congratulating them about it, talking to them about it, caring so much about it. That’s a lot of energy to take in without a lot of down time and/or privacy. And, again, it’s a different approach from what’s “standard” where royals are concerned. Which makes this tour even MORE interesting than it already was. And was again.