What we suspected of the royal record that Prince Louis broke the day he was born

Prince Louis may not be Prince William and Kate Middleton ‘s firstborn , but he’s the best-performing one yet. His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Wales was born on April 23, 2018 as the third child (and second son) of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He was also the sixth great-grandchild of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but little did the adorable boy know that as soon as he was born he became fifth in line to the throne of England.

It soon became apparent that there was one category in which Prince Louis did, in fact, rank number one, and that was birth weight. At birth, little Louis weighed in at eight pounds, seven ounces (3.94 kilos, almost four!). That’s more than either of his siblings weighed when they were born ( Prince George weighed in at eight pounds, six ounces, and Princess Charlotte weighed in at eight pounds, three ounces at birth; 3.90 and 3.76 respectively), making him becomes the number one heaviest baby in Wales.

And that’s not all. Prince Louis not only ranks as the heaviest baby in Wales, he also ranks as the number one heaviest newborn heir to the throne in at least 100 years. And Louis is holding on to that record right now. There are, however, two caveats.

Prince Louis broke the record as the heaviest royal heir at birth

First, Prince Louis is not the heaviest baby ever born into the royal family. That distinction had been earned in 2010 by Savannah Phillips, the eldest daughter of Peter Phillips, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s grandchildren; baby Savannah weighed eight pounds eight ounces when she was born. Savannah then lost her ranking in June 2018, when Zara Tindall, the Queen’s granddaughter, gave birth to Lena Tindall, who weighed in at a whopping nine pounds three ounces.

After Harry and Meghan announced their pregnancy, some speculated that baby Archie could take the top spot as the heaviest royal baby at birth based on Meghan’s belly size, but that wasn’t the case. Archie weighed seven pounds three ounces when he was born, less than all the babies in Wales. Although he didn’t outbid Prince Louis for heaviest baby, Archie changed the royal line of succession.