tonight on "nightline," royal road trip. they're here. and hollywood gives william and kate an a-list celebrity welcome. she was born a commoner, but in a town that knows how to measure star wattage she's now a red carpet queen. plus, babies behind bars. crawling in the prison halls. napping in the cell blocks. they're right at home. but what are these babies doing in the big house? we'll tell you, when we go inside the jailhouse nursery. and, a stolen life. a major abc news exclusive. in her first ever interview, jaycee dugard, kidnapped and held for 18 years, shares her story with abc's diane sawyer.

she talks about giving birth in captivity -- >> i felt like i wasn't alone anymore. >> and how she made it through. >> you just do what you have to do to survive. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," july 8th, 2011. good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin with today's british invasion. earlier tonight, heir to the british throne prince william and his bride, kate, the duchess of cambridge, arrived in los angeles as part of their north american visit. kate's first trip to the u.s. unusual amount of hoopla for hollywood outsiders. since their wedding in april, watched by m me than 1 billion people around the world, kate in particular has blossomed into a source of global fascination. abc's bob woodruff has been on the road with the royals.

>> reporter: tonight the world's it couple, william and kate,e, arrived in hollywood. their second stop, a star-studded gala reception at the home of the british consul general. and in this town known for creating heroes and heroines, princes and princesses, they're finally getting to see the real thing. some spectators even breaking down in tears. >> i'm really excited. i'm really touched. this is very emotional for me. >> this is the best day of my life. >> reporter: while here, they will rub shoulders with the likes of tom hanks, nicole kidman, and yes, j.lo. >> catherine's never been here before. and what better place for an introduction to america than l.a.? >> reporter: tinseltown has been eagerly anticipating their arrival. and a little bit of palace etiquette has even crept in. >> nobody's going to be trying anything out of the ordinary. there's going to be no hiding in bushes. there's going to be no climbing on trees. there's going to be no, you know, paying off a neighbor to look out of their windows. >> reporter: this is kate's

first trip to the united states. at first merely intrigued by the pretty commoner, america has become obsessed. >> her transformation from a commoner to a royal is just like any girl's fantasy. >> reporter: middleton's blockbuster wedding transformed her into a full-fledged star. >> this is a town that believes in people having their moment. so this is certainly the moment for kate and william here. >> reporter: janice mann is editorial director at "the hollywood reporter" and formerly editor-in-chief for the celebrity fab loyd bible "us weekly." she says kate middleton sells. >> in this age of cover stars, someone who can actually force someone to shell out $5 from their wallet, kate middleton can do it. >> reporter: she's graced the cover of "us weekly" six times so far, and the royal wedding, their best-selling cover of the year. "people" magazine put her on the cover five times this year, selling 2 million copies of their wedding issue alone. >> kate middleton could single-handedly help save the magazine industry in 2011. >> reporter: it's a rare moment. for one brief flash of the

paparazzi's cameras, the beautiful people are letting their light shine on outsiders. >> in hollywood and in america people have always said celebrities are american royalty. this trip to l.a. is really funny. what happens when a real royal comes and meets the sort of pretenders to the american crown. suddenly, this young couple comes into town and has sort of stolen the limelight. >> hollywood is so used to its own sort of royalty. the a-list stars that you see grabbing a coffee at starbucks. but for them to have the duke and duchess here, i think, is an incredibly special moment. >> reporter: it's all coming off an already packed trip for the duke and duchess. they spent nine days touring canada. their every movement tracked. like this rare moment of royal p.d.a., after a boat race. >> they want to just live a normal life. prince william is going to do things his way. and you know, they might say, well, this is how we do it, sir. but he'll say that's how you did it then, but we're doing it different now.

>> reporter: yesterday they attended a rodeo. this morning, a parade. >> hello. >> reporter: kate was in her comfort zone, dressed down, engaging, and electric with the adoring crowd. >> you've watched her do these walk-abouts. and she's now taking things at her own pace. before she'd look to william, seek his approval, perhaps not move on before he moved on. she's found her stride, and it's been a really wonderful thing to watch, and i think she's done -- i think she's surpassed everyone's expectations, actually. >> reporter: living up to a new status as a fashion icon. stealing the show at every turn. >> i think it was inevitable that for the first trip as a newly wedded couple the attention was always going to be on kate. this was her introduction really not just to america, but actually to the rest of the world. >> reporter: back here in los angeles, she can look forward to hobnobbing with barbra streisand. though if the kate that america is getting to know and love is anything like we imagine, she

probably enjoyed meeting this 6-year-old girl back in canada a lot more. for "nightline," i'm bob woodruff in los angeles. >> charming. and by the way, tonight, ever savvy, that green silk dress you saw kate wearing at the consul reception was by an american designer, diane von furstenberg. just ahead, these babies' earliest memories might be cell doors sliding closed. what are they doing living bebend bars?

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. lots of young parents spend time reading books designed to make sure every aspect of their baby's life is planned and perfect.

but none of the parenting books we've seen come with a chapter on raising a healthy, happy infant in prison. but the mothers you're about to meet are trying to do just that. through a program that lets them keep their newborns with them behind bars. here's abc's neal karlinsky. >> reporter: it's after 8:00 p.m. at the washington corrections center for women, and the inmates are getting restless. ♪ that's right. babies. behind bars, doing time with their mothers. crawling the prison halls and turning 9:00 p.m. lights out into what might seem like one of the more bizarre scenes in american criminal justice. >> time to go night night. good night. see you. >> reporter: nicky loman is doing time with her baby son logan. do you ever sit back and think,

this is kind of weird, i'm in prison and so is my baby? >> all the time. but it's really a blessing. i'm so thankful for it. >> reporter: the program allows mothers convicted of nonviololt crimes who are pregnant when they get here to keep their babies and live with them behind bars as long as their release date isn't much past the child's second birthday. "nightline" was granted special access to spend a full 24 hours locked behind prison doors with mothers, their babies and fellow inmates. >> my name is nicky loman. i was sentenced to 33 months. my son's name is logan. and he is 9 1/2 months old. >> my name is stacy dunn. i got a year and a day. my baby is chance, and he's 4 1/2 months old. >> my name is sharon yang, and i have two months left. my baby's name is sharon and she is 2 1/2 months. >> reporter: do you have any question in your mind that this is okay for the babies? safe and healthy for them? >> absolutely not. i have no question of that.

we've never had any kind of an incident regarding any kind of safety concerns for the child. >> reporter: prison unit supervisor sonia alley says the prison has become a model for a half dozen more nationwide. and for one simple reason. she says prison is a revolving door. recidivism for most offenders is 40%. but for women who go through the parenting program and who have titime to bond in this drug and crime-free environment, the rate of repeat offenders drops to 11%. >> never had a job before. i always made money illegally. >> reporter: always? never had an honest job? >> no. >> reporter: nicky loman is a virtual case study. >> i grew up with my dad and my grandma because my mom was always in here. i remember coming to see her when i was little. >> reporter: in this very prison? >> yeah. yeah. >> reporter: like mother, like daughter. now she is the inmate. she says her childhood was filled with meth and mother-daughter crime sprees.

today she's learning skills she never knew. to care for her son, inside the prison's early head start program. >> there's grandma. >> reporter:r:nd as fate would have it, her mother is here too. locked up again, doing eight years for robbery and hit and run. three generations behind bars together. >> it's not one of my proudest moments, but we're doing it together. we're like getting reacquainted, you know. >> reporter:r:o you feel any sense of guilt? because your daughter never had a chance. >> every day. i know she's grown. she's made her own choices. but i influenced those choices. i wasn't a very good example. what she knows is what i taught her. >> reporter: having a 39-year-old grandmother here, too, is unique. but what prison officials say is more common is this. women learning what many never knew on the outside. how to be a parent. >> hi. >> i hold them more accountable

than i would any other offender. so i expect the best because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to realize the gift that they've been given and really change their lives around. not only for themselves, but also for their child. >> reporter: the alternative for these mothers would be to give their babies up to the state to either foster homes or possibly life with relatives. relatives who don't always have an exactly law-abiding lifestyle. the question is, will the babies remember this? can doing time behind bars affect them later? prison family educator jamie roswell says no.o. but there were issues before, when they allowed kids to stay to the age of 3. something they no longer do. >> they were repeating things like "cease movement" and -- >> reporter: prison language? >> prison language. absolutely. they were much more aware of interaction between their moms and staff. searches that are happening.

those kinds of things that we just really felt children really shouldn't see their mothers in those positions. >> reporter: bonding here takes on many forms. it's 10:00 at night, and we find inmate sharon yang reading to her 2 1/2-month-old. not a bedtime story, but a narcotics anonymous book. >> anything you ever wanted for yourself was cast away in our pursuit of drugs. >> reporter: sharon will be released soon and is worried she won't be able to stay off meth whenenhe gets off. >> i'm scared. but i think that's just natural. i'm more scared because i've never wanted anything different. you know? and now i do. >> reporter: nikki, on the other hand, is optimistic for the first time ever. she now knows her own mother sober, something she's never experienced before. and she knows that statistically little logan, sweet as he is, may wind up a criminal, too, if she doesn't get it right when she gets out

next year. you think this is a turning point? >> i know it's a turning point. i know it is. >> reporter: you're not the first person behind bars to say that. >> yeah. logan is my second chance to do things right. >> reporter: raising babies behind bars in the hopes of keeping them and their mothers out of prison later. i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline" in gig harbor, i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline" in gig harbor, washington. we're the wassman family from skagway, alaska. livin' so far out and not havin' a bank within 90 miles... i was runnin' into dead ends. happened to come across quicken loans online. [ chris ] walked over to the computer... i was able to see all the paperwork. while i was on the phone, i was able to go through the checklist. [ kathy ] they were quick and efficient. quicken loans is definitely engineered to amaze. they were just really there for us. quicken loans is definitely engineered to amaze. meet beth, nursery school teacher. lights, camera, activia it's he best job in the world. my students are amazing.

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and now, a preview of an abc news exclusive. it's the story of a young woman named jaycee dugard, kidnapped 18 years ago when she was only 11 years old from a school bus stop near her home in south lake tahoe, calififnia. in her first interview, she tells diane sawyer her heart-wrenching story. how she was held in her captor's

back yard and raped repeatedly. how she gave birth in that back yard to two children. how she remained a hostage despite an astonishing stroifts that home visits to that home by law enforcement. it is a remarkable story of trauma and survival. here's abc's diane sawyer. >> reporter: jaycee dugard finally free. her first interview. she tells us, she never stopped thinking of the mother she loved. >> i wanted to see her more than anything. i would cry every day. and it would be hardest when i would think about her and what she was doing and then trying to convince myself she was better without me. >> reporter: and worried you'd forget? >> worried i'd forget what she looked like or what she sounded like. would she forget me? >> reporter: in our interview she will detail what happened to her at the hands of a predator. she had her first baby by her captor in a backyard.

>> so august 18th, 1994, you're how old? >> 14. >> reporter: you're in labor and there's nobody there. >> i didn't know i was in labor, but yeah. i was still, yeah, locked at that time. just scared. >> reporter: having a baby in a backyard. >> yep. i did. >> reporter: 60 times parole officers would come to the house where she was being held. never look, never find her. in the end two watchful women, campus police officers, spotted something wrong. and jaycee dugard was able to make the phone call to her mom she dreamed of her whole life. >> i just said, "come quick." i remember saying "come quick." >> and i remember telling you, "i'm coming, baby, i'm coming." and the rest was a blur. >> yeah.

>> reporter: jaycee dugard, stepping forward to look unflinchingly at what happened in her past and send a message of endurance and survival for every day of your life. i'm trying to imagine how you are coping. i'm trying to imagine -- >> i don't know. i can't imagine being beaten to death, you know? but -- and you can't imagine being kidnapped and raped, you know? so it's just -- you just do what you have to do to survive. >> remarkable. jaycee dugard, her first interview, a diane sawyer special, will air sunday night at 9:00, 8:00 central. and finally tonight, the death of former first lady betty ford tonight at age 93 and the outpouring of loving tributes from around the country got us thinking about mrs. ford's legacy. not only did she save thousands of lives by talking about her

own addictions to pain pills and renowned betty ford nching the rehabilitation center, her candor led her to talk about her breast cancer in the hopes of helping other women. >> i'm very glad that i brought cancer to the forefront so that it got -- it became a word in the english language, it wasn't a dirty word. it wasn't a word that people tried to hide. women no longer are ashamed of having mastectomies. they talk about it. and i think this has made great progress, and i feel that i've saved many lives. and that is probably the greatest thing that could possibly happen. >> betty ford's legacy. dead at 93. our thoughts are with her family tonight. that is our report for tonight. thank you for watching abc news. we hope you tune in for "good morning america." they're live from los angeles