Precious moment Kate wanted that Meghan might get

Reports of a rift between the two duchesses have been rife since the royal wedding. Now it looks like Meghan’s had a major victory.

Here are a few things that Meghan has ended up with that Kate hasn’t: a koala named after her*, the cheekiest of the Wales brothers as a husband and a much-vaunted overnight jaunt on the royal train with Her Majesty.

Now she might be about to get something else pretty special that Kate has been denied — a home birth.

Meghan has not been seen in public for 47 days. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Meghan has not been seen in public for 47 very long days and is believed to have started her maternity leave about a month ago. Quite when the royal baby will make an appearance and put royal watchers out of this sweet misery is not known, but what is clear is Harry and Meghan are firmly committed to welcoming their sprog with the utmost privacy.

That means no traditional proffering up their wee newborn to the frenzy of the world’s press perched on carefully placed step ladders outside the hospital. (The smart money is on a perfect Instagram shot announcing the bub’s arrival.)

To ensure proceedings are as covert as possible, Meghan is widely reported to be planning on having a home birth at the couple’s newly renovated Windsor estate, Frogmore House. (There will allegedly be a helicopter on standby in the garden to whisk Meghan to hospital, and there is already a no-fly zone over the property.)

When the claims first surfaced the former Suits star and Instagrammer par excellence was considering eschewing the starched white confines of a medical facility to have her baby, it was largely filed as befitting of someone who proselytises about the benefits of yoga and is a dab hand with a NutriBullet.

Royal watchers believe Meghan has won the fight to have her baby at home. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

However, only a year-and-a-bit ago, Kate was reportedly trying to arrange the very same thing.

After enduring the Lindo Wing palaver twice for the arrivals of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Kate was reportedly keen to have her third bub at home at Kensington Palace. (Which would have been the first time since Her Maj gave birth to Prince Edward in 1964 that a Windsor had entered the world behind Palace gates rather than in a nice sterilised hospital room.)

Apparently, she wanted to avoid the “chaos” and intrusion into the day-to-day running of any hospital where she gave birth.

She reportedly “sought permission from aides” to go through with this plan but was denied because the plan was deemed “too risky”. (Let’s leave aside the sad fact that a modern woman with all the privilege in the world was denied being able to make a choice about her own body by a retinue of Men in Grey.)

This change in plans was put down to medical concerns, but I’m not sure this washes: By all accounts, Kate had very textbook pregnancies, aside from nasty bouts of Hyperemesis gravidarum early on. (Meghan by contrast is a much older first-time mum and is reported to be considered a “geriatric” maternity patient.)

Instead, Prince Louis was introduced to the world like his siblings: swaddled in a merino wool blanket and blissfully dozing while hundreds of press took his picture and his mother did her best to look cheerful while wearing gauze knickers only hours after giving birth.

The picture Kate apparently wanted to avoid after the birth of her third child. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

This then is one of the big differences between marrying the heir and the spare. Kate’s choices, including those about her own health and her children, are largely guided and ruled by courtiers and Palace mandarins. Being the future Queen comes with a heavy price tag — it means surrendering a galling level of control over your own life to a bunch of ageing blokes with signet rings.

Meghan, however, is spared this level of deeply unpalatable scrutiny and is allowed far more autonomy and freedom. (Such as installing a yoga room and occasionally going all renegade and wearing dark nail polish.) Wherever she does give birth, it will be because she has clearly and unequivocally chosen it.

Earlier this year Kate sparked a wild flurry of headlines after admitting she was broody. If she and Wills should decide to follow in the Queen’s footsteps and have baby number four, I hope she takes a leaf out of Meghan’s book and cheerfully makes her own plans. And if that means installing a birthing pool in between the chintz sofas in their Kensington Palace sitting room and sending Wills out for some drop plastic sheets to cover the priceless Persian rugs, then so be it.

*Though if Kate did want a koala named after her, I reckon Taronga Zoo would be dead keen.