British royal baby dominates world media - like it or not

FRUSTRATED PHOTOGRAPHERS

Prince William, 31, is known to value his privacy and that of his wife Kate after the way the paparazzi hounded his mother Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.

"Unbelievable. I've stayed here, I've been camping here for 13 days. I've been on the night shift. There was no indication that it was happening," said Ki Price, a frustrated freelance German photographer camped outside the hospital.

Mark Stewart, a photographer specialising in royals, said the amount of media interest in the couple was extraordinary.

"This really is one of the biggest turnouts I have seen at a royal event with media from all over the world. It just shows what a global phenomenon they have become," he told Reuters.

International TV crews from around the world were broadcasting regular, breathless updates as temperatures in London hit their hottest for the year at 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit), Britain's most prolonged heatwave in seven years.

With no update forthcoming, a handful of union flag-bedecked, royal fans camped outside the hospital were happily giving interviews to TV crews from China to Australia.

"I'm proud to be British and I would just like to say God bless the royal family and particularly now, Katherine," said John Loughrey, 58, a former chef, decked out in Union Jacks.

A Reuters reporter who took his wife for a checkup at the hospital said nurses were complaining that the media had taken all the disabled people's parking spaces and that the hopsital cafe was packed out.

People magazine ran a fake baby's first photoshoot with Prince William, Kate and Queen Elizabeth lookalikes passing a baby between them.

Even Britain's left-leaning Guardian newspaper was running a list of articles about the royal birth, although it did give readers an option to press a "republican" button at the top of its home page to filters out news about the royal baby.  

"I just had to come back, having tried out the 'republican' button, to offer my thanks. How bloody marvellous of you. I hope it lasts forever," one Guardian reader posted on the website.