Oh, baby! Drawing a new line
With a new little one on the way, succession and all sorts of other things change for the royals
Only a month ago, Duchess Kate of Cambridge was heard telling someone about having “more babies” and everyone thought she was just joking. She wasn’t, to the surprised delight of all on Monday.
Five days after the poignant 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, her son, Prince William, and the daughter-in-law she never met announced they were expecting their third child, probably sometime in the spring.
Here are some of the reasons why this matters:
THE SUCCESSION: The new baby will alter the line to the throne. He or she will be fifth behind sister Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, 2; brother Prince George of Cambridge, 4; father Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, 35; and grandfather Prince Charles, 68, the Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son.
Recent changes in succession law make royal birth order more important than gender. So if it’s another boy, he will follow Charlotte, not jump ahead of her.
Uncle Prince Harry, 32, moves down to sixth in line, while greatuncle Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, falls to seventh. Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, drop to eighth and ninth respectively, and the queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, moves to 10th.
THE MEMORY OF DIANA: No one would have been more thrilled about another baby than Diana, described by her sons as a wonderful mum who had a special rapport with children. During these last weeks of commemoration, happy pictures of her with her sons were everywhere. People recalled she first came to public
attention before her engagement to Prince Charles in 1981 as a London nanny and, in a famous picture, as a nursery school aide clutching toddlers to her hips.
A new baby was an apt reminder that life goes on, turning the page on a new chapter for the royal family and for the Cambridges in particular.
FOLLOWING THE QUEEN’S LEAD:
Will and Kate may be on their way to equaling his grandparents in family size, which would make them relative rarities as royal heirs since at least George V, who had six children.
The queen, 91, and Prince Philip, 96, have four children, but aside from them, no others in the close line of succession since her grandfather (he died in 1936)
have had more than two children.
PRINCE GEORGE: The nation’s favorite 4-year-old starts his first day of school on Thursday. No doubt his mother would have been expected to accompany him a few miles from the palace to Thomas’s Battersea.
The Cambridges already have indicated they want low-key media coverage of the day (meaning just a small pool of photographers).
PRINCE HARRY: Although he moves down in the succession, Harry is still required by law to get the permission of the queen to marry (the 245-year-old law that required all royals to get the monarch’s permission was changed in 2013 to include only
the first six in line).
But the pressure is still relieved for the prince, who might be the next royal to announce an engagement: to American actress Meghan Markle, 36.
Harry, who turns 33 on Sept. 15, will open his third Invictus Games for wounded warriors Sept. 23 in Toronto, where Markle lives while filming Suits.
PRINCE ANDREW: The baby will mean the Duke of York, 57, no longer needs the queen’s permission to remarry, even if he and exwife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wed again. The two are still close, sharing the same royal mansion for years even though they divorced in 1996, but they have always denied they plan to remarry.
HOW’S MOM DOING? The news was announced Monday because Kate, 35, is suffering from the acute morning sickness she had during her first two pregnancies, according to the palace statement. As a result, her scheduled visit to a family mental health center in London had to be canceled at the last minute. British media reported she is believed to be less than 12 weeks pregnant.
The palace announcement said the duchess is under care at the Cambridges’ 20-room Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, which is a far more spacious abode than tiny Nottingham Cottage where she spent time during her first pregnancy. (Harry now lives in Nottingham Cottage.)