‘We're Both Absolutely thrilled!'

Anyone who watched Prince Harry step out onto the grounds of Windsor Castle nine hours after the birth of his son on May 6 could see that he was a changed man.

The nerves that had shown on his wedding day almost one year ago were replaced with glee; the arm’s-length distance he typically maintains with the press had been swapped for an ear-to-ear grin. Noting that he’d had “about two hours’ sleep,” he gushed that his son’s arrival “has been the most amazing experience I could ever possibly imagine.” With new mom Meghan Markle and baby a mile away in their Frogmore Cottage home, Harry lavished his wife with awestruck praise—“How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension; I’m so incredibly proud” of her—and admitted his son already has Dad wrapped around his tiny finger: “This little thing is absolutely to die for, so I’m just over the moon.” Even those who know Harry best were struck by the pure bliss radiating from the new dad. “He was bubbling,” says a friend of the couple’s. “This is the most important thing in anybody’s life, and you could see the relief that everything went okay, along with the unbridled joy of him sharing the news with the world.”