A former royal advisor revealed the one major worry household staff faced ahead of Prince George's birth as the Prince and Princess of Wales prepared to become parents for the first time.
The famous couple announced they were expecting their first child together in November 2012, after they had been married for a year and a half. In July 2013, Kate revealed she had welcomed a baby boy.
While Prince George, now 12, arrived safe and sound, it wasn't smooth sailing inside the walls of Kensington Palace, as staff were taken aback by the pair's "incredibly relaxed" demeanours.
The courtiers felt pressure to perfect the announcement of Prince William's first child and the new heir to the throne. Following a nonchalant response from himself and his wife, they turned to historical clippings for inspiration.
In the pages of royal expert Russell Myers's latest book, William & Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, he revealed that a former courtier said: "On the surface, they were both incredibly relaxed, which actually made us all slightly more nervous. We genuinely had no idea how the birth should be announced, so we proceeded to get some old documents and newspaper cuttings from the archives, which only complicated matters."
The courtier continued explaining: "The weight of expectation was extraordinary. There was no doubt in our minds that this would be a global event, so everything had to be right."
Russell also revealed in his tell-all book that only four people knew of the security plans for Kate's birth and that the press office was fielding hundreds of calls from publications around the world hunting for information.
William and Kate broke traditional protocol, however, with their email and social media birth announcement rather than the usual easel placed outside Buckingham Palace. The princess has previously spoken about giving birth, and she told Giovanna Fletcher: "It is extraordinary as I've said. How can the human body do that? It is utterly extraordinary, actually. And he was very sweet. And also sort of relieved that he was a happy, healthy boy."
© WireImageWelcome, Prince George
Later that summer, in July at 4:24 pm, Prince George Alexander Louis was born at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London.
The little boy's arrival was celebrated with gun salutes in Green Park and the Tower of London, while the bells at Westminster Abbey rang continuously for three hours.
© Getty ImagesJust 24 hours after his birth, Kate and William showed off their newborn to the waiting cameras on the steps of the Lindo Wing and strapped his car seat into the waiting Range Rover to take him to the Middleton family home.
At the time, proud dad William said: "He's got a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure. He's a big boy; he's quite heavy. We are still working on a name, so we will have that as soon as we can."
