THE barefoot prince sits back with his beautiful lady staring up at him, her hands gently resting on her baby bump.
It looks like a picture from a vintage fairy tale, not a future King’s son, but Prince Harry – seventh in line to a throne that has been around for over a thousand years – has chosen celebrity over substance for the carefully posed picture.
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The timing – a Valentine’s Day announcement – ties in with the couple’s apparent desire to try to echo the life of Harry’s mother, Diana, whose second pregnancy was announced on February 13, 1984.
But at least he and wife Meghan waited until Princess Eugenie had arrived home with her new baby boy so they didn’t steal her thunder.
To most of us Brits, it looks too posed, too styled and trying too hard.
But one of the messages the couple are getting across very clearly is that they are free from royal protocol. They are determined they only want to be photographed looking their best and doing good and beautiful things.
Women all over the world sympathised with Meghan when she suffered a miscarriage last year and the news she is pregnant again is indeed uplifting, especially in these difficult times.
But there is something reassuring in those stiff formal announcements from Buckingham Palace that provide a familiar continuity that we miss.
From the moment of their birth, every detail of a royal baby – however mundane or insignificant – is recorded in gushing tones.
It provided a symbolic hope for the future – of the Royal Family and the nation they presided over.
Family has always been central to the British Monarchy, but Harry and Meghan’s way of royal life has come to an end – its foundations shifted.
Like the guns that saluted a royal birth, they will be no more. Their demand for life on their terms has seen to that.
The latest news that the American network CBS have bagged Meghan to speak to Oprah Winfrey in their prime time show 60 Minutes heralds the beginning of their expanding independence.
In the interview, the Duchess is apparently going to talk about “everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work and how she is handling life under intense public pressure”.
Later Oprah and Meghan are to be joined by Prince Harry.
Well of course they are, as Harry is Meghan’s passport to fame and fortune.
The Americans have always been super impressed by the British royal family and its traditions going back hundreds of years.
Harry is the son of the future king of England, which goes a pretty long way over in the States. Without him, she wouldn’t be where she is today.
So much for a private life and so much for discretion. But there is little doubt their interview will be the biggest royal sensation on TV since Diana’s Panorama interview.
Good luck to them.
Ingrid Seward is Editor in Chief of Majesty magazine and author of Prince Philip Revealed A man of his Century.
