Pippa Middleton gave birth to a big baby boy on Monday in London. Much like his cousin Prince Louis, Unnamed Baby Boy Middleton-Matthews is a big lad, as they say in Britain. He weighed 8 lbs. 9 oz., which is slightly bigger than Prince Lou, who weighed 8 lbs 4 oz at birth. 2018 is The Year of the Big Lads & Absolute Units. I don’t think many of us even thought we would get solid confirmation one way or the other about Kate visiting Pippa, but the Daily Mail decided to explain why Kate didn’t visit Pippa immediately. According to the DM, Kate has reportedly not gone to the Lindo Wing to visit Pippa and Absolute Unit. Instead, the palace made sure that everyone knew that Kate was doing one of her infamous “private meetings.”
Pippa Middleton delivered her first child on Monday afternoon and has already received a flurry of visitors, but there has so far been one noticeable absentee. While the new mother’s brother James Middleton has been to meet his new nephew their older sister Kate is yet to visit the Lindo Wing where Pippa gave birth. But it seems that the Duchess of Cambridge has been tied up elsewhere with Kensington Palace revealing that she took part in an unannounced engagement on Tuesday.
Less than 24 hours after the birth of her new nephew Kate, 36, hosted a meeting for one of her charity initiatives, thought to be held at her home of Kensington Palace. The court circular, which documents the engagements of the royal family posted a notification on the meeting on Tuesday. It read: ‘The Duchess of Cambridge this morning held a Meeting of experts convened by the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to inform Her Royal Highness’s charitable “Early Years” initiative.’
The meeting was a private engagement meaning that no photographs were taken and it was not announced until after it had taken place. The Early Years initiative is part of the duchess’ campaign to help children failed by ‘Broken Britain’.
For years, I’ve wondered how the Middleton family as a whole would treat Pippa’s kids versus Kate’s kids, and I think this is a big clue. Pippa is one of the first ones to visit her sister Kate, but Kate will wait to visit her commoner sister when Pippa gives birth. Of course, it’s more than possible that Kate did visit Pips later in the day, after the “private meeting.” Knowing Kate, she doesn’t like to stick around for those private meetings very long, so maybe she just visited Pippa in the afternoon, or she’s waiting to visit Pippa at Pippa’s London home. It’s just weird to me that the DM is making this about “Kate was too busy working to visit her sister.”
Kensington Palace did release a statement about Kate’s Absolute Unit nephew though:
Pippa Middleton has given birth to a boy, born on Monday at 1.58pm and weighing 8lb and 9oz. Kensington Palace says: "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are thrilled for Pippa and James."
……
— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) October 16, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
My daughter was 9lbs 8 ounces at birth. It’s nice having a bigger baby, feels a bit less fragile lol
My first son weighed that too! I thought it was a nice weight. And I didn’t think of it as big, since I come from a family of big babies lol (my older brother was the same weight as Pippa’s son….and he was a month early.)
I’m not going to come down hard on Kate for this. It’s very possible she does not want to overshadow Pippa’s happiness, as a story about her visiting the baby would be all about her and not Pippa and James and their new baby. Baby’s aren’t cartons of yogurt. They aren’t going to expire if they’re not “seen” within the first 24 hours. Kate is Pippa’s sister, so I am absolutely certain she will get plenty of facetime with her nephew.
Hahah great comment.
It’s also very possible Pippa declined visits. I’d be much happier to hve visitors after I was home, rested, showered etc rather than in my face right after birthing a kid out my vaj….
This is what I thought. Obviously everyone wants to coo over a new baby, but a lot of new parents want that time to bond with their baby. Not entertain visitors. A new mom especially might want to rest and heal. And like l84tea said, not like the baby’s going to expire. She can go visit once they’ve gotten home and settled in.
L84tea – my thoughts exactly.
🙂
Kate and Pippa seem to be quite close, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Kate has already paid a low key visit.
Same. But it’s totally OK if she hasn’t visited yet. I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by all the visitors that came to the hospital after I gave birth.
yupppp. I did NOT want visitors at the hospital after I had my daughters. We “limited it” to our parents and siblings (so – 10 people total). Way too many. There’s so much going on in the first days after having the baby.
For those who haven’t been there – think – trying to breastfeed every 3 hours (or more frequently). Trying to get up without crying and taking a shower (super messy if you get my drift). Meeting with lactation counselors, going to a BF class. The nurse checking on you every few hours. The baby getting checked out by a pediatrician, getting shots, having a hearing test…I’m sure I forgot some things!
@SARAH JOANNE
Yes this this is one of tge reasons I hardly ever visit the Royal threads because of all hypocrisy in these post.
This. Labor can be intense and exhausting and it’s not like you just get to sleep after that, with the constant feeding, changing, doctors, being in pain, etc. I would not blame anyone for not wanting too many visitors, or any at all. With my first I didn’t know this and I remember my husbands parents. sister and her husband came and stayed for like 1.5 hours. They insisted on holding the baby a ton, and I was so exhausted, felt so out of it, was sitting there with my boobs half out needing to breastfeed, and I was just so angry that they wouldn’t leave, and furious with my husband for not realizing what I needed. I was angry with him about that for literally months after. In some ways I still am. When my second was born we made sure their hospital visit was very short, but honestly I would have preferred it didn’t happen at all. I feel like a bad person for saying this because my in laws are nice people, but there you go.
Also wasn’t she in the hospital and in labor for 20 hours? Active labor was less than that-but she’s probably exhausted. I was only in labor for 6 hours and all I did the first full day after the baby was born was sleep.
Kate can’t win! She would be severely criticised if the security arrangements for a hospital visit stopped traffic and caused issues for other patients and she is criticised for not going. I expect that she made a private visit that noone noticed. Carole hasn’t been sighted either.
I am very happy that I gave birth in a hospital that allowed no visiting on the ward unless you were the baby’s father or sibling.
This is another DM story, so i repeat please don’t believe everything you read on DM. She may or may not have visited her sister, not everyone uses the front door.
Kate has 3 young kids, 2 in school/preschool aka germ city. They might not want to say one of her kids is sick do she’s waiting in case she’s a carrier.
May not want to overshadow, and get a sneak visit.
Maybe she shafts her sister and never meets the baby till he’s 21 because she’s jealous Pippa stole her baby thunder #sarcasm
+1!
Eh, I wouldn’t read into it. I’m sure Kate was one of the first Pip and James called after the baby was born. For all we know, Kate did go, through that side door that she used when she went into Lido to give birth. We didn’t know she got there at the time either, not till she was safely inside, laboring.
As close as the sisters are, I’m sure Kate has seen her new nephew by now.
That’s what I assume too. She’s either gone in some private entrance, or will see him at home immediately. We’re not seeing Carole and Mike entering either-are we thinking they’re not visiting? I mean, c’mon.
If that dress Kate is wearing didn’t have the weird shoulder things then the whole outfit would have been an absolute gorgeous. That color looks fantastic on her. I love the fastener & the way she did her hair.
Kate doesn’t seem like the type of person who “does” stuff for other people. She strikes me as the type of person who is use to having everything done for her and doesn’t feel the need to do anything in return.
I love those shoulders. Very updated 40s.
I was with my sister when my nephews were born, but none of my aunts or uncles immediately came to the hospital to visit me or any of my cousins, they almost always waited until the next day or until were home
Meh, it’s a non-story.
Agreed, much ado about nothing.
Her meeting was published in the Court Circular, as is any official engagement that the royals do.
As for visiting Pippa, maybe she went and was bot spotted? Or decided to wait to visit them at their home? Kate visiting would’ve overshadowed anything else, let’s be real.
Kate might have promised George and Charlotte they could go with her to meet the baby and this want to wait until the baby is at home instead of taking the kids to the hospital.
Maybe Pippa and James didn’t want visitors? Some new parents don’t.
Kate has every right to visit her sister when and if she wants to, overshadow be d**ned. She had a scheduled engagement and will visit when able I am sure.
It’s OK if Kate has not visited Pippa but it seems like this is being claimed because she was not papped going in or out one of the public entrances. She could have visited and got in without being noticed. IIRC when Kate was admitted to the hospital for the birth of her children, she managed to arrive and get admitted without being spotted, and it was via KP announcements that the public found out she was in labor.
So? Some people also don’t want visitors at the hospital.
I had a pretty horrific birth experience, that end up with emergency c-section (with lovely general anesthesia) and the baby was at the NICU. Did not want any visitor. The only person allow was my mom. She was coming over to let my husband go sleep a bit at our house.
I don’t care that she hasn’t visited Pippa yet (maybe she has and we don’t know, maybe Pippa asked that she wait until they get home, whatever), but its funny to me considering how the story a month or so ago was that Kate may have to miss Eugenie’s wedding if Pippa was in labor because she was going to be RIGHT THERE the whole time.
I also think this was more a way for KP to get out that she had this meeting, in case there was any grumbling about the “end of maternity leave” meaning one event a week.
I doubt it. KP made it clear that she would ease her way back in during October and the meeting was posted in the court circular.
Perhaps Kate didn’t want the attending media circus to impact the other laboring mothers and their families if she had a planned visit to the hospital. Isn’t that the reason given for why she leaves the hospital so quickly after giving birth?
There are lots of petty reasons to slag off on Kate. 😂 I don’t think this is one of them. This appears to be rather thoughtful, on the whole.
One of my friends relatives just gave birth to a 12 lb 12 oz baby! They tagged her in a picture of the baby and I was waiting for the kid to get up and challenge someone to a sumo wrestle!
I’m going to go ahead and s-t-r-e-t-c-h here to play devil’s advocate, but I think it’s important to remember how high-profile Kate is and what kind of threats she might receive on any given day. With Eugenie’s wedding just a few days ago, it’s possible someone may have threatened Kate. Even if it’s an empty threat, Kate may not want to put her sister and new baby in harm’s way. It might make more sense from a security standpoint for Kate to visit Pippa at a private residence. Personally, I think Kate just needed to attend to the private engagement, but my point is that on days when she doesn’t attend something the public expects her to, there may be something going on that we don’t know about and she can’t publicly address.
As others said, maybe Kate doesn’t want to put her sister or all the other new moms at the hospital through a security sweep or media circus if she visits the hospital?! There are plenty of pictures of Kate visiting her sister at the Matthew’s home, I don’t think Kate pulls rank on Pippa within their private lives. It must be a tough family dynamic, but it always seems like the Middleton’s stick together and that
Kate has remained close to her family. I don’t see the need to snark at them about that.
I side-eye the Heads Together “convening” events — I’m not convinced it’s a good use of these groups’ time — but the meeting would have been on Kate’s calendar since last week. Organization heads don’t just get a call at 8am and troop down to KP. It’s a coincidence that James Middleton visited the Lindo wing the same day the CC announced Kate’s meeting.
The “being informed” part is very passive wording and again shows more listening than doing. I don’t really care about the Pippa thing. They’re close and she will visit when she feels like it. I don’t even think Pippa is at the hospital anymore.