Meghan Markle Isn't the Only Celeb Who Gave Birth at an Outrageously Posh Hospital Where "Some Patients Spend £500,000"
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor began his life in appropriately royal fashion.
We now know where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's little bundle of joy was born! According to his birth certificate, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor made his royal debut at Portland Hospital in Westminster, England, which is no ordinary hospital.
Portland is a private care center favored by monarchical types like Sarah Ferguson (for Eugenie and Beatrice) and posh English celebrities such as Victoria Beckham (for Brooklyn and Romeo) and Elizabeth Hurley (for her only son, Damian). The available amenities rival any of London's top hotels (like 24-hour room service and Molton Brown toiletries), and a 2016 BBC documentary called Five Star Babies: Inside the Portland Hospital reports that a quarter of the patients come from all over the world and Portland's top prices can soar way past any of the area's most luxurious properties.
"It’s like a club," says one new mom in the film. "I can say my baby was born at the Portland."
So, if Markle wanted room service with, say, a flower wall and a silk crepe baby basket with hand-cut glass crystals, plus Champagne, foie gras, or lobster during her birthing stay, the Portland was only too happy to oblige. The facility even gifts its new mothers with a complimentary celebration meal — many choose to have afternoon tea with finger sandwiches.
According to a downloadable sheet of their 2018 prices (here), rates for a normal delivery only start at £6,100 (nearly $7,800), whereas a midwife-led delivery starts at £9,100 (about $11,500).
Standard rooms for additional nights range from £1,200 (around $1,500) and go all the way up to "a beautiful premier suite available with pricing on request." (And we can all probably agree where Master Archie was born.) The hospital's CEO Janene Madden (in a 2016 interview with The Daily Mail) estimated that "some patients spend £500,000" ($636,000).
It's also not unheard of for some celebrity guests to want an entire floor to themselves (to redecorate beforehand, natch), and the hospital has a designated "VIP liaison team" and a secret entrances for their most prized mamas-to-be.
No word on if the Duchess and Duke of Sussex opted to bring in their own nursery furniture as the posh London shop Dragons of Walton Street is on hand to give these babes' first beds an major upgrade, with a range of bespoke cot beds like the four-poster Little Duchess cot at a cool £14,000 ($18,000).
Way to enter the world in style, Archie!
