Imane Kurdi As I stood before a newsstand, I was astounded by how one story of a woman giving birth to a baby in London made it to all the front pages. No matter the language, no matter the political leanings of the country, no matter whether the country was a republic that had fought a bloody revolution to remove their own royalty, or a kingdom with its own newly crowned monarch, or a country that fought a hard war of independence from the very same royals for whom they were now all cheering the birth of the third in line to the throne, every one of them bore a photo of William and Kate leaving the hospital with their baby boy in their arms. Why is this birth so newsworthy? Would, for example, the birth of a boy to Albert and Charlene of Monaco have nearly the same wall-to-wall news coverage? They married the same year as Kate and William, Princess Grace was even more famous and certainly more glamourous than Princess Diana, and sadly they both died in tragic circumstances, and yet, I am willing to bet you that baby would not be met with the same media hysteria. Did the birth of the first child of Felipe and Letizia of Spain get that level of media coverage? They had just as beautiful a wedding as William and Kate, televised and watched by millions across the world, and yet I don't remember seeing photos of the happy couple with their baby daughter in their arms leaving the hospital splashed across the front pages of newspapers around the globe. Now, I am very happy for William and Kate and wish baby Prince George a long and happy life, that is not at issue. But what I find obscene is the extent of interest this birth has generated. Obscene may sound like too strong a word, but I find it apt to use this term when the everyday event of a healthy young woman giving birth to a healthy young boy is blown out of all proportion in this way. Does it not show how we still stupidly continue to believe in fairy tales? Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy, this birth is not being celebrated because this child will one day be a powerful king ruling over an empire like some of his ancestors. This story is newsworthy because it captures the public imagination and links into the happily-ever-after stories that we have grown up with. William and Kate – and note how easily people speak of them in first name terms – have successfully created an image of themselves as the modern day happily-ever-after prince and princess of old. They are young, pretty, happy and do everything right to keep that image glowing in the public eye. They give perfect photo calls but rarely speak or give lengthy interviews. We do not know their opinions on anything, nor do we see in either of them emotional reactions beyond those expected of them; they play the role assigned to them to a tee. They are the perfect embodiment of modern royalty, and in this age of celebrity, royalty trumps all. If you think back, not so long ago, not just in Britain but across Europe, the very concept of royalty seemed to be unravelling at the seams. In Britain, the Queen was seen as haughty and out of touch, Diana's divorce from Charles brought out ugly images that broke the fairy tale mold. Elsewhere there was both a trend for young royals to eschew their roles and to try to live just like "ordinary" people and at the other end of the spectrum, a series of scandals filling the pages of the gossip magazines from illegitimate children to extreme partying. It seemed that the glamour days of European princes and princesses were over. And then came William and Kate. Great Britain has through this young couple managed to make of their royal family a winning brand that both gives the country an aura of success and glamour, and pulls in the tourists and visitors. It is no mean public relations feat. It was preceded by a careful repositioning of the Queen who over the years has done a great deal to lose the haughty and distant image that plagued her after Diana's death. There was also the Jubilee celebrations timed so close following the royal wedding, and in just one magic flash of the fairy wand, the British royals have once again taken their place as the purveyors of happily-ever-after stories to the world. As I stood before the newsstand dazzled by the wall-to-wall photos of William and Kate with baby in arms, one front page stood out and made me smile; it was the British satirical magazine Private Eye which summed up the situation in gorgeous simplicity, a blank cover with just three words: Woman has Baby. – Imane Kurdi is a Saudi writer on European affairs. She can be reached at [email protected]
