Duke of Sussex likely to find leaving baby son ‘agonising’ so soon after birth

The Duke of Sussex is likely to find leaving his baby son so soon after his birth “agonising”, a leading parenting expert has said.

Harry is due to travel to the Netherlands on Thursday to promote next year’s Invictus Games – three days after the safe delivery of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Parenting expert Suzie Hayman said she thought the duke would feel a “pang” to be leaving his wife, Meghan, and their child, and that he would probably be wanting to return “very quickly as soon as he can”.

The agony aunt and author said: “I would have thought the greatest stress would be to him.

“This is a very involved dad, who was present at the birth, and I think he’d find it actually agonising to leave his baby and his wife this early.”

Baby Sussex, whose name was revealed to the world after the family-of-three posed for photos for the first time, was born at 5.26am on Monday.

Harry and Meghan could not hold back their smiles, with a delighted Harry calling the baby “our own little bundle of joy”.

The new father will visit The Hague on Thursday to take part in a programme of activities to mark the one year countdown to next year’s Invictus Games.

It is not known whether he will return to the UK the same day.

Ms Hayman continued: “I would have thought that for somebody who is that involved, and very much clearly from the photos that we’ve seen adores his baby as well as his wife, he’d actually find it quite hard.

“The baby’s not going to suffer – mum may miss him. Babies don’t really notice much of what’s going on as long as they are cuddled, and fed, and kept warm and secure, they’re, at that stage, not necessarily aware of who’s gone and who’s there.”