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- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed a royal baby boy earlier this week.
- They introduced their new baby at Windsor Castle on Wednesday instead of posing on the steps outside of the hospital.
- Their first child is just the latest way the couple is breaking royal tradition — they’ve continuously departed from protocol throughout their marriage.
- Like other millennials, they’re changing the face of marriage — they’re just doing it at an elevated level that’s modernizing the monarchy.
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed a royal baby boy into the family on May 5.
In doing so, the couple has broken royal tradition — they skipped the Lindo Wing photo-op, in which they would have posed outside of the hospital after the baby’s birth. Instead, they celebrated privately and introduced him two days later in a photo-op at Windsor Castle.
But that’s not surprising, considering that Harry and Meghan have continuously broken royal protocol since their dating days. Like other millennials, they’re changing the way marriage looks compared to previous generations — they’re just doing it in a more high-profile way that influences the monarchy.
Millennials are waiting longer to get married, INSIDER’s Kim Renfro reported — Harry and Meghan were 33 and 36, respectively, when they wed. But by adding untraditional elements to their wedding and displaying affection in public, among other protocol-breaking actions, they’ve have taken things a few steps further.
Below, see how the royal couple has broken royal traditions.
Before getting married, Harry brought Meghan to the Queen’s holiday festivities.
Chris Jackson/Getty
Royal protocol dictates that only spouses of royals can attend the queen’s festivities at her private estate in Norfolk, according to INSIDER’s Talia Lakritz. Even Kate Middleton wasn’t allowed to spend Christmas with the royal family in 2010.
Prince Harry reportedly asked the queen to make an exception, and Meghan became the first royal fiancée to spend Christmas with the royal family.
Meghan is the first mixed-race divorcee to marry into the royal family.
Yui Mok / Getty
"It was deemed a royal union fit for the twenty-first century and a turning point for the monarchy," royal biographer Katie Nicholl wrote in her new book, "Harry and Meghan: Life, Loss, and Love." "Meghan was the first mixed-race divorcee to marry into the royal family, something that, decades ago, would have been unthinkable."
Her marriage to Prince Harry also marks the first time a royal family member had a church wedding with a divorcee.
The couple married in May, an unlucky month per royal superstition.
Getty Images
Since the age of Queen Victoria, it’s been a superstition that it’s unlucky for British royals to get married in May, but Meghan and Harry were one of the few royal couples to do so, tying the knot on May 19, 2018, according to Claire Nowak of Reader’s Digest.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- Meghan Markle just gave birth to a baby boy — from a $200,000 baby shower to a $500,000 maternity wardrobe, here’s how much her pregnancy has cost
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry just welcomed their first child — here’s how much the British royal family is worth
- Meghan Markle just gave birth to a baby boy and Prince Harry taking paternity leave — here’s what a royal’s job is really like
SEE ALSO: Kate Middleton’s delivery of her third baby probably cost less than a typical birth in the US
Source: Business Insider – hhoffower@businessinsider.com (Hillary Hoffower)