Sussexes share private past and thank public for baby gifts galore
AS they prepare for the arrival of their first baby, most parents will be busy stocking the nursery with clothes, blankets and toys to welcome their newborn.
But well-wishers have saved the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a job, after their baby has been showered with hundreds of gifts from adoring fans before even being brought into the world.
Baby Sussex, who is due to arrive later this month, was given armfuls of toys, clothes and books during visits to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, after it was announced the Duchess was pregnant on the first day of their autumn tour.
An official register of the presents, published yesterday, shows they were handed at least 97 soft toys and teddies, including 11 koalas, five kangaroos, four kiwis and one echidna (spiny anteater).
There were seven blankets and three shawls, home-made by well-wishers, as well as eight pairs of baby socks, 15 vests, 18 bootees and six bibs. Two didgeridoos were brought home, along with three boomerangs and a toy box. Some 146 books were also given to the Duke and Duchess, many known to be favourite children’s stories of the fans who handed them over. While royal children are always showered with gifts on overseas trips, with Prince George on the receiving end when he was taken to Australia by his parents in 2014, Baby Sussex’s gift list is all the more remarkable for the fact he or she has not yet been born.
The list of gifts to the Duke and Duchess spans 26 pages, and is dominated by baby presents, although the couple were also given some items for themselves; these included Tongan grass skirts, a Fijian war club, a masi bark hair pin, Maori korowait (a cloak), and a vinyl record from Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister. Palace policy allows the couple to keep particularly meaningful gifts, and some may decorate the nursery at their new residence of Frogmore Cottage, Windsor. Others are stored, while the remainder are given away to charities.
Yesterday, the Sussexes used their Instagram page to thank fans for an online “baby shower” they had organised, in which avid followers donated money to charity in their name.
Timing the message to reach their American fanbase in the morning, they posted a heart emoji and told them: “Thank you for sharing the love.” The Sussexes also used their social media page to share a previously unseen image of the then-meghan Markle during a 2017 trip to Botswana with Prince Harry.
The couple are seen fitting a satellite collar to an elephant as part of a conservation project, during what is understood to have been a secret holiday to the country while they were dating.