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Royal Couple And New Prince Leave Hospital

Aired July 23, 2013 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PRINCE WILLIAM: He has a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure. He is a big boy, he is quite heavy, but we're still working on a name. We'll have that as soon as we can. We need a proper chance to catch up. Very emotional.

DUCHESS CATHERINE: Very emotional. I think any parent knows what this feeling feels like.

PRINCE WILLIAM: It's very special. I'll remind him of his tininess when he is older. Hopefully you can go back to normal and we can look after him now. He has her lips thankfully.

DUCHESS CATHERINE: No, no --

PRINCE WILLIAM: Wait and see. We have done that already. It's good. He has way more than me, thank God. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just listen to that crowd. Finally we were able to hear better what the royal couple said. You heard the William joking that the baby has more hair than me, saying thank goodness he has her looks and saying that the little one has a good pair of lungs, it's heavy, and they're still working on a name.

Christiane Amanpour, not too far away from the scene at Westminster Abbey, I just want your reaction to the back and forth from this couple, to what we're looking at now. William, you know, driving his family now home placing the car seat in the car, what do you make of this?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here we are where they have been ringing the bells of Westminster Abbey for hours and hours welcoming the birth of this child. Now it has come out, the world has seen the baby and has heard Prince William and Kate say a few words, I think everybody is trying to get as much as they can from what they said. It was hard to hear everything, but I guess, this couple has tried more than anything to be as normal as they possibly can.

They met in the university. They have been together years and years. They finally got married. It was a great, great boom here in England, brought huge amounts of tourists, good will, and not to mention money into the coffers, and gave a real boost and shot in the arm to the royal family again. That's what this couple has done to the royal family.

Of course, at the same sometime the queen had her diamond jubilee. People have been celebrating her 60 plus years on the throne. It's a moment where sometimes this royal family has gone through, as everybody knows, it's ups and downs. But now it is really sort of basking in almost unprecedented popularity.

And of course, everybody will be able to resist remembering and thinking and playing in their minds and also on screen the picture that was not quite identical, but there was William and the baby, 31 years ago, his mother, Princess Diana, who is no longer around, and Prince Charles. And I think that was the first time that people saw a royal couple come out after the baby was born not in the palace, but in a hospital and start what has been a gradual progression to in many ways, more modern aspects of being a couple.

But this is by no means just a modern bicycling royal family as sometimes they call other European royals, this is one that is still desperately and deeply steeped in so much tradition, pageantry and pomp, I mean, even today bells were ringing from all over. The cathedrals, the Westminster Abbey as I said, 41 gun salutes in Green Park right near the palace. So this is also pomp, circumstance, but it's about a birth and it is something that as Kate said as she came out every family can identify with what they're feeling right now.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right, any parent knows this feeling. Christiane Amanpour, thank you. We will come back to you as we look at this. Again, just to remind all of you, not since 1894 has the world seen three direct heirs to the throne in addition to the reigning monarch.

Victoria Arbiter is standing by. She lived in Kensington Palace during her younger years. Her dad serving as press secretary for Queen Elizabeth. Again, Victoria, as Christiane pointed out and I can't help but you know see this young couple wearing baby blue and Kate with that beautiful sapphire engagement ring that William gave her from his own mother, I'm reminded, never far from mind, is the late Princess Diana.

And I can't even begin to think the emotion, right? Look at these pictures, the one on the right side of your screen 31 years ago, the left side of your screen, moments ago, the same steps. What a moment?

VICTORIA ARBITER, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: -- Diana and Kate are wearing polka dots, so yet another item that is very similar. But yes, I think, just to see William, I mean, we have all seen these images for years of Charles and Diana carrying William out, and those photographs are iconic that we just flashed back every time especially when he was getting married from baby to a young man getting married.

So to see William and Kate in the same position, I think it's a really special moment for us to witness. Whether or not you're a royalist, I think anybody can't help but appreciate the history that we have here. This monarchy is over a thousand years old. It's still very much working, functioning, doing the jobs that royals do, and so we have a new generation, and of course any monarchy goes through ups and downs.

Who is to say what could happen 70 years from now, which is probably when this baby will take the throne, but I think certainly when the queen looks at these images today and has an appreciation of the optimism that the royal family is experiencing right now. She must be very proud looking at her own track record of duty that the monarchy is certainly in safe hands.

BALDWIN: Just quickly, there have been so many comparisons between Diana and Kate come from commoner families. Is it a fair comparison today?

ARBITER: Well, it is to a degree. I mean, Diana was technically a commoner too, though, it's hard for us to identify because she was the daughter of an Earl. So while a commoner she was still aristocratic. I think Kate and Diana share a lot of the same qualities in terms of their empathy, their approach to people, their ease with mixing with people from all walks of life and both really want to be very hands on mothers. So I think unfortunately it is Kate's cross to bear to always be compared to Diana, but I think Diana would be very proud of the lady that William married.

BALDWIN: Victoria Arbiter, thank you very much for your perspective. And to Atika Shubert we go. Atika Shubert, I believe you are outside the hospital where perhaps the scene has cleared. You tell me, set the scene for me.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It erupted in cheers when they came out. As soon as they good into the car, everybody jumped up immediately and it became chaotic, almost like a festival atmosphere really. But I can't begin to tell you the emotion in the crowd when they came out. What did you think when they first came out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was exciting and fantastic. The crowd erupted. We got down here about six and it was already about ten people deep, and then people kept coming out throughout the evening, everybody would start screaming, but it wasn't them. Then when they came out they erupted. It was fantastic.

SHUBERT: What did you think when Prince William took the baby in his arms. I mean, that was such, for me, I choked up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was fantastic. They both seem very relaxed. Even with the press there and the crowd, you know, they just seemed like a normal couple, which is waving and they just seemed really happy and relaxed and just seemed like a normal family, really. It was lovely.

SHUBERT: And they put the baby in the car, and Prince Charles got into the driver's seat and they drove off, as you say like a normal family. Is that part of the appeal of Prince Charles and Kate Middleton?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is. I think Prince William is just a genuinely nice guy. I just think that is what appeals to a younger generation in this country, is the fact that they're so down to earth and such a normal couple. That's why we came down here today was just to wish them well.

SHUBERT: Do you have any special messages for the new family?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just hope they have time to enjoy themselves as a family, and she rests up, and I hope to see a lot more of them in the future.

SHUBERT: Thank you for talking to us. That is Eliza Wells, and she saw everything here. That's how a lot of people felt. It was a really emotional moment, but at the same time, they looked like just any other family that just had their first kid.

BALDWIN: Atika, you were there. I mean, what an incredible moment to be able to cover. As you're looking at the crowd, tell us what the cameras couldn't capture. We were watching the young couple. We saw them walk through the doors, but take me behind the camera, how many people, medical staff, visitors, and media are there?

SHUBERT: You know, there were scores of people there especially media. I mean, literally dozens of media, I heard more than a dozen different languages being spoken here. Part of the incredibly scrutiny here isn't just from British press, but internationally, we had Japanese press, Philippines, French press, from all over the world and the world is really fascinated I think by the royal family, but in particular Prince William.

He grew up before our eyes. He was brought out here the day that he was born for everyone to see in the arms of Princess Diana and Prince Charles on those hospital steps. So for everyone to see that and then now to see him be married and have his own son, I think people really feel like they have been part of that and watched him grow up so an incredibly charged moment. For a lot of the press, their work is not done. It's still going to be a little more work for everyone here.

BALDWIN: They're rushing to file the photos. Atika Shubert, thank you. Many of them are already rushing toward Kensington Palace. If not already have cameras stationed there as we await the arrival. So we know that they have now officially left St. Mary's Hospital. They are headed now to their new home where they've been redoing this Apartment 1A in Kensington Palace. So we will bring you that moment in just a couple of minutes.

We have to get a quick break in. On the other side of the break, we will also talk to India Hicks, she is Prince Charles' goddaughter. She is 687th in line to the throne if you're counting. We'll get her impressions after this.

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BALDWIN: It has been an exciting last 45 minutes as we have now officially been introduced to the young baby Cambridge, nameless baby Cambridge at least for now. And the young royal couple, Kate and William, who we now know are en route from St. Mary's Hospital after they said a few words to the press and are now heading home to Kensington Palace.

As we await their arrival, I would love to bring in India Hicks. She is Prince Charles' goddaughter, 687th in line to the throne joining me from the Bahamas, India. My goodness, I mean, you have been watching it with the rest of us, seeing them walk out, seeing Kate hand the little baby to William, seeing him speak. He drove, he had the car seat, what are your impressions?

INDIA HICKS, PRINCE CHARLES' GODDAUGHTER: How modern it was and just how down to earth it was and exactly what we expect from a couple like that. I think it is extraordinary to think that when my godfather, the Prince of Wales came out holding William, there were two camera men there. Now 31 years later, there were 180. Imagine how difficult that must be for a new mother to come out and face that. I think we just have to think of them as a normal family.

They're not thinking that we all have our eyes on them. They're more thinking about getting a baby in a car seat. I think he will be much less aware of the extraordinary attention this has garnered. I think for Kate, she will be more aware because obviously she didn't come from this so it is different.

BALDWIN: You were a bridesmaid in the wedding in 1981. And when we talk about Diana and Charles walking down those same stairs 31 years ago, and I look at Kate, and I see that ring, they're both wearing polka dots. The comparisons it's hard to miss.

HICKS: I think they're very, very different girls, I really do. I think obviously Diana was so young, I mean, painfully young. To think she was only 21 when she married. Kate is a much more mature girl. She is extremely sensible. She takes her work incredibly seriously. Before she goes out to do an event, she has done her home work. She knows exactly who she is talking to and what to say. She goes above and beyond everything.

Not to say that Diana didn't, but Kate has had more time with her husband alone. She was not pushed into that limelight the way that Diana was at such an early age. So I think we're starting from a very different point here. I think also, just the really lovely fact that Kate is so normal. I love that she is wearing, today, of course, an English designer, but that in general she will wear high street mixed with well known British names.

BALDWIN: She mixes the high and low, and look at them waving to the cameras, the media all lined up there. Final question, I know we saw the Middleton's, we saw Kate's parents today at the hospital. We saw Charles and Camilla. Do we have any idea where Harry and Pippa are?

HICKS: Well, the word is that Pippa is going to be at Kensington Palace and Harry I know is incredibly close not only to William but also to Kate. He will not be far away. When you think about having your own babies, you do want that beginning bit to be very private. So then this is their baby, but it is also a baby of some importance.

BALDWIN: India Hicks, thank you so much. We appreciate talking to you, your perspective there. India Hicks, thank you. We will continue to watch and follow as we now know this car with royal baby in the royal baby seat are en route to their new home to Kensington Palace as we await that moment, quick break. Back in a moment.

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BALDWIN: Well, we have news for you. We have learned the royal baby and the young couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have now arrived home at Kensington Palace. And that is where we have Matthew Chance standing by. Matthew, tell me about the arrival.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They arrived, Brook, through a very discreet entrance a short distance from here, but not one we could see from this position into Kensington Palace. There were a few cameras there. There were a few shots of them going in. I also think it's probably the last glimpse we'll have of the little prince at least, for at least the next days, possibly for the next few weeks, perhaps even on, who knows because Kensington Palace is very much a haven from that media spotlight.

You saw the amount of attention they were getting as soon as they stepped out the door. Absolutely phenomenal interest around the world and this young child is going to have to deal with that. His parents will have to protect him for that for many, many years to come. It's inside Kensington Palace that they are going to be able to do that. That's where William and Harry were protected to a certain extent by their parents, particularly their mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales.

And it's that building, which they've chosen as their family home that has such a strong emotional bond to this building with Prince William in particular, of course, and his family.

BALDWIN: Do we have any idea if this little baby's uncle is home as well? Is Prince Harry inside Kensington Palace as well saying hello to the little guy?

CHANCE: Yes, I was talking to India Hicks who has the inside track on this. It's family time inside Kensington Palace. They're going to be relaxing. They are going to getting away from that media spotlight. The media have come out here, in force yet again, and it has become the next leg in that media circus, which is I expect destined to follow that little prince around for the rest of his life.

BALDWIN: Indeed, Matthew Chance for us at Kensington Palace where the family is now getting some much needed family time and away from the prying eyes of the world. Matthew, thank you very much.

Again, if you're just now joining us, we have been watching. We saw the first hello from this little baby as he was taken in first the arms of his mother, and then passed along to his father. They gave a few brief remarks as they walked down the steps there at St. Mary's Hospital. In case you missed it, we will replay it in entirety on the other side of the break.

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