The Princess of Wales has been at the centre of so many iconic occasions since she joined the Royal Family, but one of the most "important" of all filled her with slight terror. This is unsurprising when you stop to think about it, as it revolved around Prince George and the very high-profile way he was introduced to the world.
Just hours after giving birth to her first child Kate carried him outside St Mary’s Hospital where she and Prince William posed for photographs. This was fans’ first glimpse of the future King, who is now second in the royal line of succession.
Although the proud parents looked as relaxed as ever, Kate later reflected that she had "mixed emotions" in this moment. The Princess opened up during her appearance on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast in 2020, declaring it was "slightly terrifying, I’m not going to lie".
Any new parent would have felt slightly daunted by sharing their baby in this way, though despite her fear Kate went ahead with this photocall as both she and Prince William believed it was "important" to do.
She explained, "Everyone had been so supportive and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about and you know we’re hugely grateful for the support that the public had shown us, and actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important."
The senior royal went on to add that this was "coupled" with the fact that their son was newborn and they were "inexperienced parents" at the time, as well as the "uncertainty of what that held".
"So there were all sorts of mixed emotions," she added candidly.
The Prince and Princess of Wales went on to face this "slightly terrifying" experience twice more as they also introduced Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in this way. These pictures are famous across the world, though the tradition is newer than you might think.
All of Queen Elizabeth’s children were born at one of the royal residences (Princess Anne at Clarence House and her brothers at Buckingham Palace). It was the next generation of royals who started being photographed with their babies outside the hospitals they were born in.
This isn’t the case for everyone as, for example, Prince Harry and Meghan were first pictured with Prince Archie in a more private photocall at Windsor Castle.
As the Princess of Wales said on the podcast, the public were hugely excited to know of their eldest child’s arrival, though whilst the first picture of Prince George was taken at St Mary’s, the first official snaps released by Kensington Palace were more low-key.
They were taken at the Middleton family home by Kate’s father Michael and showed the Waleses with their son in the garden. Their dog Lupo and the Middletons’ dog Tilly joined them in one of the pictures. Speaking to the Daily Mail at the time, a family friend alleged that Michael suggested this, believing it would be more relaxed.
"Michael had the perfect solution," they claimed. "He proposed that he would take the photo himself: organise a stress-free photoshoot in the garden and save them the bother of getting in a photographer who would take ages. It meant the nervous new parents could stop any time they wanted."
