LONDON — Two tired but beaming parents and one blissfully sleeping baby posed for cameras Wednesday as Prince Harry and Meghan helped satisfy a huge global appetite for images and details about their newborn son.
Standing in a vast, red-carpeted hall at Windsor Castle, Meghan declared the baby “a dream” and motherhood “magic.”
Harry cradled his son in his arms as the couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, posed for cameras — the first in a lifetime of photo calls for the two-day-old baby, who is seventh in line to the throne.
Baby Sussex, whose name has not been announced, lay silently, swaddled in a white blanket and wearing a matching knitted cap.
Meghan declared motherhood to be “magic.”
“It’s pretty amazing,” said the 37-year-old American formerly known as Meghan Markle. “I have the two best guys in the world, so I’m really happy.”
She said the baby had “just been a dream.”
“He has the sweetest temperament. He’s really calm,” she said.
Harry quipped: “I wonder who he gets that from.”
Asked which parent the baby took after, Harry said it was too soon to tell.
“Everyone says that babies change so much over two weeks,” said the 34-year-old prince. “We’re basically monitoring how the changing process happens over this next month really. But his looks are changing every single day, so who knows.
“We’re just so thrilled to have our own little bundle of joy,” he added.
The couple left the photo call to introduce the baby to his grandparents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The infant is the eighth great-grandchild of 93-year-old Elizabeth, Britain’s longest reigning monarch.
Baby Sussex was born Monday at 5:26 a.m. EDT at an as-yet-undisclosed location. He weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces.
Family members have welcomed the new arrival, with Prince William saying on Tuesday he was “absolutely thrilled.”
The baby is seventh in line to the throne, behind Harry at sixth. He is the eighth great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, 93, and Prince Philip, 97, and the fourth grandchild of Prince Charles the Prince of Wales and his first wife, the late Princess Diana.
It is not yet clear whether the baby will receive a title from the queen, who decides these matters based on personal preference of the parents and rules laid down in 1917 by her grandfather, King George V.
The next big event in the little royal’s life is likely to be his christening, which usually takes place two months after the birth and marks his official naming and his entry into the Church of England.
JILL LAWLESS and DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press
Contributing: USA Today
