THE Prince of Wales couldn’t stop smiling when he emerged from the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in West London on 21 June 1982. He’d become a father for the first time and his joy was evident for the world to see.
“How do you feel, sir?” a reporter asked.
“I’m obviously relieved and delighted,” he replied. “It’s marvellous. It’s a rather grown-up thing I’ve found.”
Charles, who was 33 at the time, was at Diana’s bedside throughout the delivery.
“I felt as though I’d shared deeply in the process of birth and as a result was rewarded by seeing a small creature who belonged to us, even though he seemed to belong to everyone else as well,” he later said, referring to the fact that he and Diana had produced an heir to the throne.
Less sentimental was the queen. “Thanks heavens he hasn’t ears like his father,” she reportedly said when she met William.
A little over two years later, Charles and Diana were back on the steps of the Lindo Wing with a new little bundle in the form of Harry. “He has pale blue eyes and hair of a sort of indeterminate colour,” Charles told the crowd outside the hospital.
“I’m going home to have a stiff drink.”
THE EARLY YEARS
At first Charles left the bulk of the day-to-day parenting to Diana, who was a month shy of her 21st birthday when she became a mother.
But when the boys were out of their baby phase, he
