Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Said No to William & Kate's Childcare Setup
Gotta love those British-Canadian–Santa Barbarian royals and their refreshing defiance of tradition. When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex aka Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are not breaking royal norms by choosing a different baby stroller (gasp!) they’re turning their nose up at such time-worn conventions as Ye Olde Live-In Nanny. The new royal biography Finding Freedom,by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, reveals the reason the Sussexes decided against full-time in-home care for their son, Archie.
“Harry and Meghan had agreed they didn’t want their home filled with staff. Harry had seen that situation at William’s home (the Cambridges had a live-in housekeeper and a full-time, live-in nanny), and didn’t want the same for his own family,” Scobie and Durand write.
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Of course, hiring a nanny is a quite common practice, especially for celebs who can afford it. But having a nanny — and a housekeeper — live with you full-time in your home? I mean, we get why Meghan and Harry bristled at the idea, even if Kate and Will had already normalized it for this generation of royals.
“He and Meghan liked the idea that when they went to bed at night, it was just the three of them in the house,” Scobie and Durand add in the book. “Cozy and private.”
Sounds lovely, honestly. Although, this decision didn’t mean the Sussexes were averse to hiring a night nurse for those very trying early newborn days. And yet, even the night nurse didn’t last.
“Meghan and Harry were forced to let the nurse go in the middle of her second night of work for being unprofessional and irresponsible,” Scobie and Durand wrote. Um, yikes?
“The new parents hired a second night nurse, who did a good job, but due to the incident with the first nurse, neither of them felt comfortable getting a full sleep at night without going to regularly check on Archie,” the book continues. “After a few weeks, they decided to take the nights themselves and completely deprived themselves of a night nurse.”
While the word “deprived” certainly seems a stretch, it makes sense that Meghan and Harry were keen to fast-forward through the newborn nurse era and head straight to that “cozy and private,” alone-in-the-house family time. And we have a sense that these freewheeling royals are only getting started with their trendsetting and tradition-breaking.
These celebrities have gotten real about their nanny experiences.
Launch Gallery: Celebrity Parents Who Got Real About Their Nannies & Baby Nurses
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