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Prince Harry confessed he “enhanced his mood” with laughing gas as wife Meghan Markle gave birth to their son Archie, now 3. The Duke of Sussex, 38, made the admission in his upcoming memoir Spare, which is being released by Penguin Random House on Jan. 10. “Meg was so calm. I was calm too,” he wrote in the memoir per Daily Mail of the birth at London’s Portland Hospital. “But I saw two ways of enhancing my calm. One: Nando’s chicken (brought by our bodyguards). Two: A canister of laughing gas beside Meg’s bed. I took several slow, penetrating hits,” he added.
Laughing gas is a colloquial term for nitrous oxide, which is a pain reliever admitted in hospitals during procedures. He explained that the former Suits star “‘bounced on a giant purple ball” while going into labour before taking a bath. The actress, 41, also had electric candles and a photo of Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana, on a table in the delivery room. She also listened to “soulful hymns” to calm her nerves.
“Meg, bouncing on a giant purple ball, a proven way of giving Nature a push, laughed and rolled her eyes. I took several more hits and now I was bouncing too,” he went on, revealing a nurse later came back into the room to use some of the gas for Meghan — only to fine the can was empty. “I could see the thought slowly dawning [of the nurse]. ‘Gracious, the husband’s had it all’…’Sorry,’ I said meekly,” he recalled as the nurse looked over in his direction.
Meghan then received an epidural to help with the pain of her first time giving birth. “The anaesthetist hurried in. Off went the music, on went the lights. Whoa. Vibe change,” he shared, adding there was momentary worry that baby Archie was potentially tangled in his umbilical cord (a situation avoided).
When their daughter Lilibet was born in June 2021, he revealed there was no laughing gas available. “This time I didn’t touch the laughing gas (because there was none),” he cheekily penned.
