Did Duchess let the cat out the bag?
IT WOULD usually be the best-kept secret in a Royal household known for its utmost discretion.
This time, it was the Duchess of Cambridge herself who offered the first clue she would soon have a third child, after she publicly remarked she would like another baby just seven weeks ago.
The Duchess raised eyebrows around the world when she told her husband they would “just have to have more babies” during a tour of Poland and Germany in July, inspiring fevered speculation about whether she was already expecting.
Kensington Palace yesterday announced she is pregnant for a third time, fulfilling her reported wish for “at least” three children to match her own happy upbringing.
Significantly, the news was released ahead of the conventional 12-week mark, as the Duchess proved too ill to fulfil a planned public engagement in the afternoon. Experiencing severe morning sickness, she was instead looked after at Kensington Palace by family including her mother, Carole Middleton.
The symptoms mirror those she experienced when expecting Prince George, when she was admitted to hospital with sickness, and Princess Charlotte, when she had to announce the news weeks early after being too ill to undertake engagements.
The announcement comes just seven weeks after the Duke and Duchess’s tour of Poland and Germany with their two young children, and follows much speculation about whether a third baby would be imminent. On July 18, the Duchess was presented with a toy for newborns in Warsaw, at which point she turned to her husband and said jokingly that, to make use of the gift, “we will just have to have more babies”.
But even if she had hoped for happy news soon afterwards, the Duchess remained ever the professional, deftly navigating the ever-present offers of alcohol with a smile for the cameras.
During the tour, the couple took part in a rowing race, attended a rowdy children’s centre and met Holocaust survivors in an emotional trip to a concentration camp.
When offered a drink at public engagements, the Duchess, who never indulgences in quantities of alcohol in public anyway, politely acquiesced, raising a glass for a toast on several occasions. She and the Duke appeared in fine spirits during the tour, laughing
‘The news was released ahead of the 12-week mark as the Duchess proved too ill to fulfil an engagement’
and ribbing one another affectionately during their public engagements together. And it was just as well they seemed to enjoy themselves: with their two children by their side, the trip may prove to be a last hurrah for the young family for some time.
Soon to be a family of five, the Duchess will take a third maternity leave from public engagements next year after Prince George starts school and the Duke steps up to further assist his grandmother The Queen.
The Duchess is long thought to have wanted “at least” three children. She is herself one of three Middleton siblings, with the Duke having one brother, Prince Harry.
The Duchess last appeared in public five days ago, when she seemed in good health during a Kensington Palace event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Future engagements, including a planned overseas tour in October or November, will now be conditional upon her health.