WILLIAM AND KATE EXPECTING THIRD CHILD, PALACE REVEALS
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child, Kensington Palace has announced. But, as fifth in line to the throne, the new royal is unlikely to ever rule, as Laura Elston explains...
PRINCE Harry has expressed his delight that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a third child, branding the news “fantastic”.
Harry, who will be the new royal baby’s uncle, declared he was “very, very happy” and said of Kate, who is suffering with severe morning sickness: “I think she’s okay”.
The Duchess, who is being cared for at Kensington Palace, has hyperemesis gravidarum, as she did in her previous pregnancies.
The rare condition, which causes severe vomiting, affects 3.5 in every 1,000 pregnant women.
William and Kate are thrilled to be welcoming a new addition to their family, a sibling for Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
The happy announcement comes just four days after the Duke marked the 20th anniversary of the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
Kate is less than 12 weeks pregnant, with Kensington Palace revealing the news early after the Duchess had to pull out of a public engagement yesterday due to severe morning sickness.
Grandfather the Prince of Wales is said to be “delighted”, as are the Queen and other members of William and Kate’s family.
Harry gave a thumbs-up when he was asked about royal baby as he arrived for a visit in Manchester, adding: “Fantastic. Great. Very, very happy for them.”
On how the Duchess was, he replied: “I haven’t seen her for a while but I think she’s okay.”
Asked for Prime Minister Theresa May’s response to the announcement, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “It is fantastic news and she passes on her congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.”
Just weeks ago, Kate joked about having a third child while on a tour of Poland and Germany with William, George and Charlotte. After being given a present designed for newborns while in Warsaw, she laughed and turned to William, saying: “We will just have to have more babies.”
The Duchess, who is one of three siblings and had a happy home life, was always expected to have three children.
Kensington Palace said in a statement: “Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their third child.
“The Queen and members of both families are delighted with the news.”
Kate had been due to visit the Hornsey Road Children’s Centre in London to hear about the mental health impact of becoming a mother.
Clarence House said of heir to the throne Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall: “They are delighted at the news.”
The announcement comes as William and Kate are preparing to send their eldest child off to school for the first time.
Four-year-old future king George starts at fee-paying independent school Thomas’s Battersea in south London on Thursday.
The past year has already been one of big changes for the Cambridges.
Their main home is now Kensington Palace rather than their Norfolk mansion Anmer Hall, and William quit his job as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance in July to become a full-time royal.
The couple’s third child will be born fifth in line to the throne, bumping Harry out of the top five for the first time and into sixth place.
The Prince of Wales is first in line, followed by William, George and two-year-old Charlotte.
As Harry talked to people living in Canada Street, Newton Heath, Manchester, local resident David Masterson shouted to him: “Congratulations on your kid having a baby.”
The royal visitor gave Mr Masterson a thumbs up and said: “Thanks.”
Mr Masterson managed a handshake with Harry as he left.
He said: “I grew up on the street all my life so to see Prince Harry on it is a bit of a shock.
“I just congratulated him. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to.”
His nine-year-old daughter Lisa said she was looking forward to the royal baby’s birth.
She said: “I think its going to be really nice.”
THE new royal baby will be born fifth in line to the throne. But, as a sibling to both future king Prince George and “spare to the heir” Princess Charlotte, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s third child is unlikely ever to be crowned sovereign.
The Duke of York is the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s third child, but when Andrew was born in 1960, he leapfrogged his older sister, Princess Anne, in the line of succession.
If the Cambridge’s third child is a boy, he will no longer be allowed to jump ahead of older sister Charlotte in the line of succession.
Previously, under the ancient rules of male primogeniture, royal sons took precedence over their female siblings, even leapfrogging first-born royal daughters.
But a radical shake-up of the royal succession rules removed discriminatory male bias and came into force in March 2015, affecting babies born after October 28 2011.
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 has already affected the Duke of Gloucester’s granddaughters, Senna Lewis and Lyla Gilman, whose younger brothers, born in 2012, now follow them in the line of succession.
It is rare for a third-born royal child to end up as monarch and there has been no instance so far in the House of Windsor.
But William IV, a Hanoverian king who ruled from 1830 to 1837, was a third child – of George III and Queen Charlotte.
He acceded to the throne when his older brother, George IV, died without an heir. William IV became heir apparent at the age of 62 when his other older brother, George III’s second child, Frederick, Duke of York, died.
William IV was known both as the “Sailor King” for his love of the sea and career in the Navy which began at the age of 13. He was also dubbed “Silly Billy” for his rambling speeches. He was good-natured but could also be boorish and was fond of practical jokes and swearing.
Edward VI was also a third child – Henry VIII’s – and became king aged nine in 1547 until his death in 1553 at the age of 15.
William and Kate’s new baby will, like Prince George and Princess Charlotte, be a great-grandchild of the Queen and a great-great-great-greatgreat-grandchild of Queen Victoria. Once he or she arrives, Prince Harry will shift down the line of succession to sixth place, while the Duke of York will move to seventh and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to eighth and ninth.
The baby will be a prince or princess thanks to the Queen, who stepped in ahead of Prince George’s birth to ensure all William’s children would become HRHs with fitting titles.
The Queen issued a Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm in December 2012 when Kate was just a few months pregnant, declaring “all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of Royal Highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour”.
A Letters Patent in 1917, issued by George V, limited titles within the Royal Family, meaning daughters born to William or Kate would not have been an HRH but Lady (forename) Mountbatten Windsor instead and second or later-born sons would also have lacked the HRH title and become Lord (forename) Mountbatten-Windsors rather than princes.