Kate Expectations

Kate Middleton and Prince William Are Expecting Their Third Child

Prince George and Princess Charlotte are going to have a younger sibling.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton at Kensington Palace on August 30, 2017.by Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Well, this is a bit of a Labor Day surprise! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child, the palace has confirmed in a statement. Yes, that’s right, our Will and Kate—parents to Prince George, four, and Princess Charlotte, two—will be adding to their family.

The announcement was made early Monday morning via a press release from Kensington Palace: “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, as was the case for her first two pregnancies, is suffering from severe morning sickness, and she will not be attending an event on Monday that had been on her schedule. “As with her previous two pregnancies, The Duchess is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum,” continued the statement, “Her Royal Highness will no longer carry out her planned engagement at the Hornsey Road Children’s Centre in London today. The Duchess is being cared for at Kensington Palace.”

There was a bit of foreshadowing for the news, as Kate joked with William, during their tour of Poland in June, after receiving a teddy bear (designed for a newborn) as a gift, “We will just have to have more babies.”

People notes that Kate is “understood to be less than three months pregnant,” and that the statement was made at this early stage due to her morning sickness. (When she was pregnant with Charlotte, Kate also was taken care of at Kensington Palace.)

Prince Harry was asked about the news on his way into an engagement on Monday, and he responded that he is feeling “fantastic” about the news. (Questioned about Kate's condition, he said he “hadn’t seen her in a while” but thought she was doing “O.K.”)

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A few other conversation points for you to use at brunch this morning, related to the forthcoming #royalbaby: (1) if the child is a boy, he will not jump ahead of Princess Charlotte in the line of succession, as he would have prior to 2011, when a rule was passed changing the policy that had male heirs move ahead of female ones even if they were younger, and (2), this will make Prince Harry sixth in the line of succession, rather than fifth.

This is a big week for the royal family, as, in addition to this exciting news, Prince George will start school, at Thomas’s Battersea, on Thursday.