Sophie plans Prince George meeting

The actress, who gave birth to her daughter with husband Lord Frederick Windsor earlier this month, has posed for pictures with her family including Prince and Princess Michael of Kent for Hello! Magazine.

She told Hello! the birth, at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles where the couple are based, was "long" and "hard".

She said: "By the end I was begging for a caesarean thinking, I can't do this any more - but I managed a natural birth with some wonderful doctors and midwives along with Freddie in the room with me, who were just stunningly brilliant, saying, 'You can do this!'. Their dynamic, American positivity carried me through."

Lord Windsor said: "We liked the idea of an old-fashioned English name and there are a couple of Princess Mauds in my father's family from a hundred years ago - one was the youngest daughter of Edward VII who ended up being Queen of Norway, and another was a granddaughter of Edward VII by his daughter Princess Louise.

"It's also a beautiful, elegant name and it was always our first choice. Elizabeth is a tribute to the Queen, Daphne is Sophie's grandmother, who she was very close to and Marina is my paternal grandmother."

Sophie said Freddie was the perfect birthing partner and did his best to take her mind off the labour, saying: "He was very brave, because it wasn't delicate or pretty and I was horrid to him. He read me a crossword clue in the middle of it and I just wanted to throw a saucepan at his head."

Speaking about his granddaughter, who is 42nd in line to the throne, Prince Michael said: "We are absolutely thrilled by the arrival of our beautiful first granddaughter, Maud. We are both besotted with her. Not only does she have the prettiest blue eyes and adorable tiny feet, but she is also remarkably well-behaved."

His wife said they had not met Prince George yet, because they had been on holiday and were "preoccupied" with Maud's arrival, but hoped to do so at Christmas.

Sophie, who starred in the TV sitcoms Peep Show and Two And A Half Men and married Lord Windsor in September 2009, said: "Perhaps we'll introduce the babies at Buckingham Palace for the Christmas lunch, that would be very sweet."