The royal record Prince Louis broke the day he was born

Lauren Cahn

At 11:01 a.m. on April 23, 2018, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge was born, and so, as it happens in all families, but perhaps most notably in the British royal family, the rankings began. At the moment of his birth, Louis was:

  • Third child (and second son) of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

  • Sixth great-grandchild of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

  • Fifth in line to the throne.

But it soon became apparent there was one category in which Prince Louis, did, in fact, hold the number one ranking, and that was birth weight. At birth, little Prince Louis weighed in at a robust 8 pounds 7 ounces. That’s more than either of his siblings weighed when they were born (Prince George weighed in at 8 pounds 6 ounces and Princess Charlotte weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces at birth) making him the number one heaviest Cambridge baby.

And that’s not all. Not only does Louis rank as the number one heaviest Cambridge baby, but he also ranks as the number one heaviest newborn heir to the throne in at least 100 years. And Louis is holding onto that record at the moment. There are, however, two caveats:

First, Prince Louis is not the heaviest baby ever born to the royal family. That distinction had been earned in 2010 by Savannah Phillips, the eldest daughter of Peter Phillips, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s grandsons; baby Savannah weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces when she was born. Savannah then lost her ranking in June 2018, when Zara Tindall, granddaughter of the Queen, gave birth to Lena Tindall, who weighed a whopping 9 pounds 3 ounces. See the cutest royal baby photos from throughout history.

Second, many are predicting that Prince Louis’s record will fall upon the birth of the baby expected by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. This prediction is based apparently on the size of the Duchess of Sussex’s bump, who is following these royal pregnancy rules. However, that may or may not actually be an accurate measure of the size of the baby Meghan is carrying, according to Kyrin Dunston, MD FCOG, host of the podcast Her Brilliant Health Radio. Dr. Dunston tells Reader’s Digest that the apparent size of a woman’s pregnancy bump is affected by such factors as her bone structure and the shape and size of her pelvis and rib cage. We do know one thing for certain, though—Baby Sussex will definitely change the royal line of succession.

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