Birth control: what Diana fiasco taught royals as they face into a baby frenzy - Irish Independent

22 June 2013

IN less than a month, an event bigger than William and Kate's wedding, more colossal than the early arrival of Kimye's offspring, an occasion that will be branded on public memory forever, will come to pass.

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The birth of 'Baby Cambridge' is set to shut down the internet, if the rising frenzy is anything to go by.

So how are the royal family and palace officials handling a media circus which could threaten the safety and privacy of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and their newborn? Well, by being unusually forthcoming with information.

Last weekend the Duchess of Cambridge seemed very easy and breezy at her last official engagements before she gives birth. The lover of all things 'greige' went for a baby pink and pearl Alexander McQueen ensemble for the Trooping the Colour parade. In the face of 'Pink – it's a girl!' tongue-wagging, Middleton must have quietly known that the palace was about to drop a parcel on the media's doorstep.

And drop it did during the week, as St James's Palace answered more than a few FAQs regarding the young royal couple's birth plan and movements, and the birth announcement itself.

Much of it seemed out of a box labelled "what we say when a baby in line to the throne is due'', but overall the information seemed crafted to distract the salivating public and media from Kate and the baby.

Officials confirmed that Kate would be going for a natural birth, as opposed to a C-section and that Kate and William have refrained from finding out the sex of the baby.

Like they'd tell anyone anyway. 'The Daily Telegraph' reports that "the future king or queen will be born in the private Lindo wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, where the Duke of Cambridge, who was also born there, will be with his wife throughout the delivery."

Meaty stuff, indeed.

The contingency venue is the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading should Kate go into labour early at her parents' home.

And from there the press release mostly left Kate and the baby behind, focusing on William's paternity leave, the Buckingham Palace easel, Twitter – and the queen's beauty sleep.

The palace has good reason to play an offensive line. The public's connection to William and Kate, at this stage of their marriage and family, is far more familiar and intimate than that of Charles and Di in the early '80s. The untimely loss of Diana intensified the British people's relationship with William.

His relationship with 'commoner' Kate reignited faith in the monarchy being an institution that belongs to the people. And the people see Baby Cambridge as the nation's child.

Royal expert and co-author of 'What's in the Queen's Handbag (And Other Royal Secrets)', Phil Dampier says of the phenomenon: "There is no doubt that the worldwide interest in them is greater than ever.

"You used to get a pack of 10 or 12 Fleet Street reporters and a couple of TV crews following them, but now there are stations from the US, Australia, Japan, Europe, all over the world, watching every move."

The palace must have learned a lesson from Diana's legacy – an enmeshment with the public which indirectly led to her untimely death.

History began to repeat itself with the topless picture scandal of last September, and the tragic suicide of a staff nurse at the hospital where the duchess was treated for pregnancy complications earlier this year.

So offering information to the public and press is a smart move, and tactically making a fuss of the announcement on an easel at Buckingham Palace ahead of Twitter – and the birth of the baby not being made public at all until the queen is informed (when she wakes up that is).

However they try, the press will never get enough of these two.

Dampier points out that "there is such an insatiable appetite for news about this baby that some news outlets push it as far as they can go, regardless of how the palace attempts to control it".

But it is comforting to know that there is an effort being made to go against the tide of human nature, while sticking with tradition, where possible.

And no doubt officials at St James's are only delighted at the distraction North West has provided in the interim.

Irish Independent