Princess Diana 'never told' King Charles this important detail when she was pregnant with Harry due to her 'extreme vulnerability'
Royal author Ingrid Seward claims the Princess kept this from him despite the 'closeness she had felt' with her husband before the birth
The news of Prince Harry's birth was met with outpourings of excitement from fans and the waiting press outside St Mary's Hospital in 1984, with his proud father King Charles describing it as "absolutely marvellous". The birth of another son was seemingly a surprise for the monarch, though according to royal author Ingrid Seward, Princess Diana knew it was a boy.
"Oddly, despite the closeness she had felt with Charles before Harry's birth, she never told him she was expecting another boy," the expert alleges in her biography, Catherine & Diana. "She knew he longed for a daughter, and her extreme vulnerability made her keep this piece of intimate information from him."
The suggestion that Princess Diana hadn't felt comfortable sharing their baby's gender with King Charles is heart-breaking. Ingrid writes that Harry's birth "ended one of the brief happy periods" in the couple's marriage and Diana herself spoke about this with Andrew Morton, author of the biography, Diana: In Her Own Words.
As per Today, in recordings made for the book which were included in a documentary, she said the six weeks before Harry was born were the "closest" they'd ever been.
She added, "And then as suddenly as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain. He wanted two children and he wanted a girl."
Meanwhile, Prince Harry has described a joke his father apparently made about it being "wonderful" Diana gave him an "heir and a spare" after his birth. This could suggest the King was delighted to have a second son to follow him and William in the royal line of succession.
Either way, it was clearly a very difficult time for the couple and Charles has never publicly addressed either of these claims. However, we do know the monarch was especially overjoyed when his first granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, was born in 2015.
At the time The Telegraph reported the King was visiting Poundbury in Dorset when he revealed he'd been "hoping for a girl". He described Charlotte as "beautiful" and said he'd hoped for a granddaughter - "someone to look after [him] when [he is] very old".
The two royals have a close bond, with the King wearing what looked like a homemade friendship bracelet at Trooping the Colour this year. The eleven-year-old has already made Prince William one, so she's likely the one behind her grandfather's sentimental jewellery.
Charlotte's name is also the feminine form of Charles in a sweet nod to her grandfather. Before her older brother George was born, William allegedly also wanted a little girl and was thinking of naming her in honour of Princess Diana.
"William had privately voiced his preference for having a girl, and was keen to incorporate a tribute to his late mother, most likely in the form of a middle name," claimed royal author Russell Myers in William & Catherine, adding that Kate wanted Alexander or Alexandra instead.
Unlike Princess Diana, the couple hadn't found out the gender in advance and when George was born he got Alexander as a middle name. Two years later, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana arrived and was given a name that celebrates three loved ones.
