New arrival shows there are no barriers in our modern monarchy

WHAT a bumper few days it’s been for royal watchers everywhere. As if the sight of Prince Philip breathing the same air as Sarah Ferguson without having apoplexy wasn’t thrilling enough, it has now been confirmed: The Duchess of Sussex is expecting.

In some ways it’s a relief. At 37, there was always a faint worry about Meghan’s chances of conceiving naturally.

Of course, she’s as fit as a fiddle and looks much younger – but plenty of women her age do struggle. Mother nature is mother nature, and fertility falls off a cliff at 35, duchess or not.

She and Harry were always going to want to conceive sooner rather than later, particularly if they plan to emulate his brother and have two or three children. But then they are newlyweds with the time and inclination to start a family, so we should not be too surprised at yesterday’s announcement.

Yet there is, of course, more to this than just two young people who are clearly very much in love embarking on the great adventure of parenthood.

This pregnancy is special and symbolic on a number of different levels – and in a way that few royal babies have been since Jane Seymour succeeded in producing a son for Henry VIII, at the cost of her own life when she died a few days later.

It’s not just what this milestone will mean personally for Harry, who has always seemed the more vulnerable of the two princes and perhaps the one who struggled most after the divorce of his parents and the death of his mother. Hopefully, this chance to create his own family unit will finally help heal some of those wounds.

He certainly looks the type who will make a great father – not only because he’s a bit of a big kid himself, but also because he seems to possess his mother’s emotional intelligence.

Or what it will mean to Meghan, the single-minded Hollywood starlet who now, by virtue of royal marriage and motherhood, finds her place in history secured. As Fergie discovered, once you give birth to a Windsor prince’s child, you are attached to The Firm for ever.

NO, the most profound aspect of this news is what the reality of a mixed-race child being born into the Royal Family will mean to the aristocracy and to the country as a whole.

For the first time, the dream of a truly multicultural Britain will find expression in the very heart of the monarchy. By showing there is no barrier to who may take their place in the royal fold, Harry and his bride will help secure the future – and relevance – of this great institution for many years to come.

This is, perhaps above all, the legacy of the People’s Princess writ large.

Of course, the way Meghan – despite her complex family history – has been embraced by the palace is a big part of that process. But there is a huge difference between simply tying the knot and actually starting a family. The former is a contract that can, if necessary, be dissolved. The latter represents an indelible commitment that can never be erased.

The fact is that once this baby comes, countless parents and children from mixed-race backgrounds up and down the country will, perhaps for the first time ever, look to the royals and see themselves reflected in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their child.

Britain will, at long last, have a royal family that is genuinely representative of the people it serves. One that not only sweeps away cultural and racial barriers, but also wears its heart, its emotions and its imperfections on its sleeve.

Not only will this be an historical first, it also signals a clear departure from the old-fashioned model of royalty, rigidly based on entitlement and rank, and rife with snobbery, to one that reaches out to a far wider circle. A much more informal, inclusive sort of institution with both purpose and relevance that genuinely seeks to speak to its subjects in a language they can not only understand but respect.

Of course, not everyone will like this kind of monarchy. Indeed there are some, even within the ranks of the family itself, who relish the status quo. But they are the ones who are out of touch now.

This baby is not just any baby. It is a symbol of the wider modernising agenda that Harry and Meghan – as well as Prince William and his wife Kate, descended from Geordie coalminers – have for the future. It is the embodiment of the revolutionary royal family they are striving to create.

In the meantime, we’ll have the pleasure of seeing another bonny child at Kensington Palace. And Meghan with swollen ankles? Knowing her, I wouldn’t bet on it.