As Kate tells the world she’s pregnant again, an unmissable picture pullout to celebrate her gorgeous growing family
We just can’t wait to meet baby number three!
‘I wonder if she’ll stop at three?’
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were forced to announce yesterday that they are expecting their third child after Kate developed acute morning sickness weeks into the pregnancy.
The royal mother-to-be is suffering from the same hyperemesis gravidarum that saw her hospitalised while pregnant with Prince George.
The condition returned with a vengeance when she was expecting her daughter, Princess Charlotte.
Last night Kate was resting on medical advice at her Kensington Palace home after being forced to cancel a long-planned engagement at a children’s centre in north London.
It is believed she may be as little as six or seven weeks pregnant, making the baby – a little prince or princess who will be fifth in line to the throne – due in April or May next year.
A source said palace aides would announce the month the baby was due when the duchess gets past her 12 weeks ‘safe’ point.
Further engagements in the duchess’s diary are likely to be cancelled, although sources said she was ‘hopeful’ of being able to take Prince George for his first day of school on Thursday.
A royal aide said: ‘It’s an important day in a child’s life and like any mother she will do her utmost to be there.
‘Unfortunately the duchess won’t be able to make a decision until nearer the time, when she sees how she is feeling. If she can be there, she will.’
Although she was hospitalised with severe dehydration while pregnant with George, doctors are now better placed to cope with her condition at the earliest possible stage and it is hoped that the duchess will not require any hospital treatment.
Prince William was with her at Kensington Palace yesterday, although he will resume his public duties today. Kate’s mother, Carole Middleton, was also seen leaving the palace after spending the day with her daughter.
The rest of the Royal Family expressed their happiness, with the Queen and the Middleton family declaring themselves ‘delighted’.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, on holiday in Scotland, were understood to be already aware of the news and also expressed their joy.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry, on official engagements in Manchester, described the news of a new royal baby as ‘fantastic’, adding: ‘It’s great, I am very, very happy for them.’
Asked how Kate was, he remarked: ‘I haven’t seen her for a while but I think she’s OK.’ He made the latter comment despite the fact that he attended an engagement with the duchess less than a week ago to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of his mother Princess Diana, but sources suggested he was put on the spot and was just being protective of his sister-in-law.
The arrival of the baby will see him pushed down the pecking order to sixth in line to the throne, but he will still need to ask the Queen’s permission to marry should he propose to his actress girlfriend Meghan Markle.
Kate’s uncle, Gary Goldsmith, joked: ‘She’s a natural mother. I wonder if she will stop at three? I doubt it. They are having such fun with the babies.’ It is likely that the baby will be born, like George and Charlotte, in the private Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, West London, with contingency plans put in place in both Norfolk and Berkshire, should Kate suddenly go into labour at the couple’s country home, Anmer Hall in Norfolk, or her parents’ home in Berkshire.
The baby is likely to put a question mark over the duchess’s public duties for the foreseeable future.
Kensington Palace announced last week that, with the couple’s move back to London from East Anglia complete following William’s decision to give up his part-time role as an air ambulance pilot, the Cambridges planned to become full-time working royals in support of the Queen.
Aides said they would ‘ steadily increase’ the number of duties they undertake on behalf of the Queen, particularly after the retirement of 96year-old Prince Philip.
The couple have been criticised in recent years for failing to pull their weight, undertaking fewer than 200 engagements a year each, compared to the Queen, 91, who last year conducted a staggering 385.
With Kate set to be a mother of three children aged four and under next spring, it is debatable whether she will greatly increase her 2016 total of 140 for the next two years or more.
Questions also remain over whether a yet-to-be announced foreign tour, pencilled in for the couple at the end of November, will still go ahead.
But sources said that it is not due to be a long-haul trip and by then the duchess would be past her 12-week point, which means that she would be safe to fly and, hopefully, over her sickness. If not, William would more than likely go ahead alone.
Word of the pregnancy began to leak out after photographers arriving for the duchess’s engagement at the Hornsey Road Children’s Centre yesterday morning were told by staff that it had been cancelled without any explanation. Within half an hour, Kensington Palace had announced Kate’s news, saying that she is suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum.