In the Finding Freedom excerpts we’ve seen so far, we’ve mostly heard the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s versions of their courtship, the lead up to their wedding and when things began to deteriorate between the Sussexes and the Windsors. There are still tons of other stories and scandals yet to be discussed, and I really wonder what Finding Freedom will cover. Will FF have behind-the-scenes info on how Meghan felt about her British Vogue guest-editorship and the outsized, panicked, crazy, racist reaction to it? Will we learn any details about Meghan’s two trips to Wimbledon with Kate?

Here’s another “controversy” which we didn’t hear about in the first excerpts: all of the nonsense drama about Meghan’s birthing plan and the confusion about where she gave birth. Remember all of that? Meghan gave birth at Portland Hospital, which was closer to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, as opposed to the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s, which is where all modern royal moms gave birth. Meghan also did not do a “photocall” with baby Archie outside of the hospital, nor did the Sussexes announce when Meghan went into labor. They kept everything a secret in real-time. It sounds like there will be some discussion of all of that in FF:

When Princess Diana gave birth to Prince William, she broke with royal tradition, and delivered her son in the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital. Prince Harry too, was born at the London medical facility, and shortly after both Princes’ arrivals, they made their public debuts via photo calls on the steps of the hospital. The Duchess of Cambridge recreated those images with each of her three children, posing for the cameras outside the Lindo Wing within hours of giving birth.

But according to Finding Freedom, a forthcoming biography of Meghan and Harry by reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durrand, the Duchess of Sussex wanted to break with tradition once again with the birth of her first child.

“Meghan never considered giving birth at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, where Kate delivered all three of her children,” reads a report from People about the book’s contents. Meghan wanted to deliver somewhere “more discreet,” the book claims. The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to baby Archie at London’s Portland Hospital on May 6, though the couple never confirmed that was the location of his arrival. (It eventually came out, after Archie’s birth certificate was made public.) A few days later, the young royal was introduced to the press with a photo call at Windsor Castle, albeit a much more intimate one than his cousins experienced.

There were no crowds of royal fans or press. Instead, the Sussexes made their official debut as a family of three with just two photographers, one agency reporter, and three video cameras present.

[From Town & Country]

This gave me flashbacks to how salty the royal reporters were about all of this. To be fair to the Sussexes, I think by the time Meghan gave birth, she and Harry were already completely “over” the Royal Rota and the British press entirely. Maybe they didn’t intend for their secrecy to be an explicit “f–k you” to the Royal Rota, but that’s how it was taken. I think Meghan just didn’t want to be seen “copying” Kate, or doing some kind of creepy Diana cosplay on the steps outside the Lindo Wing. Meghan legitimately wanted some privacy and she didn’t want people breathing down her neck during what was an advanced maternal age pregnancy. She’s also a feminist and I could see her – in her full American glory – being appalled at the idea of being treated like a walking royal womb, a vessel for the next generation of royal toffs.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.