Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they are expecting second child
Video report by ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship
An overjoyed Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting a baby.
Harry and Meghan are preparing to welcome a brother or sister for their young son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.
The news comes after the duchess suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage in the summer of 2020, and just days after she won a privacy case against Associated Newspapers Limited.
A spokesperson for Meghan and Harry said: “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”
Following the announcement, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “Her Majesty, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and the entire family are delighted and wish them well.”
The couple shared a black and white picture of themselves, sat under a tree, with Harry resting his hand on Meghan’s head as she lay in his lap cradling her bump.
Misan Harriman, a friend of Meghan and Harry and the photographer who took the image, tweeted: “Meg, I was there at your wedding to witness this love story begin, and my friend, I am honoured to capture it grow. Congratulations to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on this joyous news!”
Meghan revealed her miscarriage in November last year in a deeply personal article for the New York Times, writing: “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
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The couple quit their roles as senior working royals in March 2020 in a quest for personal and financial freedom, and now live in an £11 million house in Montecito in California.
The Valentine’s Day announcement came just five days after the royal family celebrated the arrival of Princess Eugenie’s first child – a baby boy.
Baby Sussex will be the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s 10th or 11th great-grandchild depending on whether he or she arrives before or after Zara Tindall’s baby, which is also due in 2021.
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In October, Meghan’s potential privacy trial at the High Court was postponed from January 2021 to the autumn for a confidential reason.
It led to behind-the-scenes speculation that Meghan might be expecting a baby.
A month later, Meghan wrote of experiencing an “almost unbearable grief” after losing a child in a miscarriage last summer.
In 2019, proud father Harry announced the arrival of their firstborn Archie to a press pool, and then later held his newborn son in his arms, with Meghan at his side, for his public debut at Windsor Castle.
The new baby, like Archie, will grow up thousands of miles away from the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as his or her cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
He or she will still be eighth-in-line to the throne.
But they will not be entitled, at this stage, to be an HRH nor a prince or a princess due to rules set out more than 100 years ago by George V – but this is the same as what would have happened pre-Megxit.
The baby is entitled to be a Lord or a Lady, but Harry and Meghan will again opt to style their second-born a plain Master, like Archie, or a Miss, with the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
The Sussexes’ new infant will be the Prince of Wales’s fifth grandchild.
Sixth in line Harry and ex-actress Meghan have been busy securing the funding for their new life, signing a lucrative deal with streaming giant Netflix, rumoured to be worth more than £150 million, and another multi-million pound podcast deal with Spotify .
They have also been working on their Archewell charitable foundation, but caused controversy when Harry was accused of political interference after he urged people in the US to “reject hate speech” and vote in the presidential elections.