Royal visit
A little lady and her prince
It’s the universal ice-breaker between new parents: How’s the sleep going? Cameras were clicking, officials were scurrying and everyone was on their best behaviour, but take that all away and the moment David Alve and daughter Eden were introduced to the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince George was just a meeting between two new parents and their babies.
Then aged 8 months, Eden was among nine Wellington babies chosen to join the prince, also 8 months, and his parents at a Plunket organised playdate at Government House in 2014.
The locals arrived first and when the royals followed they slowly made their way around the room, meeting everyone, Alve said.
He and Eden were snapped with the prince and his mum because their meeting coincided with a short window in which photographers were allowed into the gathering, he said.
The sweet moment — two babies, in the arms of their smiling parents, meeting over a shared interest in the same brightly coloured wooden doll — went around the world, with Eden celebrated as the prince’s “little lady friend”.
He was standing in front of one of the most famous people in the world, but the conversation was the same as any parent would share, Alve said.
“[The Duchess] was just pretty down to earth. She asked, ‘How are you finding it? How’s the sleep going?’ It was very relatable, just the same kind of conversations you’d have with other parents.”
He could hear the photographers capturing the moment.
“Quite a big throng of media came in and were in one corner. There were lots of clicks and flashes. We just tried to ignore them.”
Seeing the photo go global was surreal.
“You don’t think about that happening to you. But it’s also quite nice to hear from people we know who’d moved overseas. One said to me, ‘I saw you in the paper in a tube station in London’.”
As for Eden — now, like her old playdate mate Prince George, a big sibling to a younger sister and a baby brother on the way — Alve wasn’t entirely sure what she made of her connection to the boy who will one day be king.
Creative and imaginative, the 6-year-old was more interested in a monster-fighting princess than her playdate prince.
“She’s really into superheroes. She’s particularly fond of Bat Girl or the [book series] Princess in Black, but also any number of her own superhero creations, such as Ice Girl.”
But the young visitor from the other side of the world wasn’t completely out of her mind, Alve said.
“We’ve told her [about the meeting], she’s seen photos.
“Sometimes she asks when she’s going to see him again,” Alve said.