First time in the footlights for young Cambridge

The couple displayed great humour as they took it in turns to hold the Prince, snugly wrapped in a white shawl, and answered questions from the Press outside St Mary’s Hospital in London last night.

Asked about changing nappies William said: “We’ve done that already,” and Kate said: “He’s done his first nappy already”.

Kate, who still had a bump under her bespoke Jenny Packham summer dress, said that it was a “very emotional” time and “any parent will know what this feeling feels like”.

Of the long vigil held outside the hospital by the Press, William said: “I’ll remind him of his tardiness when he’s a bit older.

“I know how long you’ve all been standing here so hopefully the hospital and you guys can all go back to normal now and we can go and look after him.”

The Duke said they were still working on a name and, heading back inside the hospital he joked about his own lack of hair, saying: “He’s got way more than me, thank God.”

A black Range Rover with blacked out rear windows pulled up as the royals disappeared from view back inside the hospital and a few minutes later the three of them exited once more.

The Duke climbed into the driving seat and hospital staff, standing watching on the pavement, waved them off as they headed for the family home at Kensington Palace.

Their appearance outside the Lindo Wing harked back to the day the Duke first emerged into the world outside the same hospital in the arms of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1982 – although the atmosphere was very different as the royal couple appeared perfectly at ease.

It was a touching conclusion to Kate’s 37 hour-plus stay at the hospital, having arrived just before 6am on Monday in the early stages of labour.

Earlier, day the new parents thanked staff at the hospital for the “tremendous care” they and their son have received.

With the world’s media camped on the doorstep of the hospital, the royal couple also acknowledged the way staff, patients and visitors had coped as the private maternity ward was thrust into the spotlight.

The frenzy intensified in the afternoon as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arrived to meet their grandson for the first time, following an earlier visit by Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton.

He told the waiting crowds his grandson, who has yet to be named, was “marvellous”.

Charles and Camilla spent half an hour with William, Kate and the baby prince after travelling from a string of engagements in East Yorkshire.

They were beaten there by Mr and Mrs Middleton who spent just over an hour with their daughter and son-in-law and the new third in line to the throne.

Mrs Middleton described 
her grandson as “absolutely beautiful” as she left the hospital 
and, speaking about mother and baby, said: “They are both
doing really well, and we are so thrilled.”

Asked what the first cuddle with her grandson was like, Mrs Middleton said: “Amazing, It’s all coming back.”

Kate’s parents are likely to play a key role in the upbringing of the new prince, with the Royal couple and their son reportedly set to spend their first few weeks 
as a family at the Middletons’ mansion near Bucklebury in Berkshire.

William’s uncle Earl Spencer also offered his congratulations yesterday. The Earl, whose sister was the Duke’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, added: “My father always told us how Diana was born on just such a blisteringly hot day, at Sandringham in July 1961.

“It’s another very happy summer’s day, half a century on.”