Queen Elizabeth 'couldn't understand' George's behaviour when she came to 'inspect' him for the first time as a baby
According to royal biographer Ingrid Seward, the late monarch was faced with her great-grandson 'screaming' throughout her visit
You might think that Queen Elizabeth would've seen it all as a mother-of-four but there were apparently still some parts of parenthood that surprised her. In-keeping with tradition, the late monarch was the first to be informed about Prince George's birth in July 2013 and two days later she visited him at the Prince and Princess of Wales's Kensington Palace home.
However, according to royal expert Ingrid Seward, baby George wasn't exactly on his best behaviour for his great-granny. In her new biography, Catherine & Diana, the author revealed that he was crying the whole time, much to Queen Elizabeth's dismay.
"When the Queen came to inspect her great-grandchild for the first time he managed to scream throughout her visit, which was not something the monarch was used to or enjoyed," she alleged.
Ingrid reflected that "the world had changed and childcare had changed with it". A long time had passed since Queen Elizabeth last became a mum in 1964 and the author suggests that she "was not used to babies being fed on demand".
According to her, the Queen just "couldn't understand the infant George's displeasure at having to wait" to be fed. Her Majesty's children were born at a time when experts recommended feeding babies in line with a strict schedule and not when they cried.
She also had a lot of help on hand and so might not have had to get used to screaming babies as they adjusted to the schedule. In contrast, in the early days the Prince and Princess of Wales didn't have a full-time nanny and even now, the children's nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo doesn't live with them at Forest Lodge.
However, whilst Ingrid claimed Queen Elizabeth didn't "understand" her great-grandson's crying, she was still something of a royal rule-breaker as a parent. When she was pregnant with Prince Edward she asked for Prince Philip to be in the room when she gave birth.
Nowadays this is the norm but Philip hadn't been with her for Charles, Anne or Andrew's births so this was a major turning point. Ingrid previously detailed this in her biography, My Husband and I: The Inside Story Of 70 Years Of Royal Marriage and alleged Philip was "actually holding his wife's hand" as Edward came into the world.
"The Queen, by then aged 37, had asked him to be there; she'd been keenly reading women's magazines that stressed the importance of involving fathers in childbirth and had become fascinated by the idea," she continued.
King Charles was there for Prince William's birth in 1982 and he was in turn there to support Kate in 2013. She has been very open about what it was like to become a mum and then have to face the world's press outside the hospital with baby George.
"It was slightly terrifying, I'm not going to lie," the Princess declared on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast. "Everyone had been so supportive and both William and I were really conscious that this was something that everyone was excited about and, you know, we're hugely grateful for the support that the public had shown us, and actually for us to be able to share that joy and appreciation with the public, I felt was really important."
