Talk about being fired by email.

William told his brother that Kate was pregnant - putting him out of a job - by email after being unable to contact the Afghanistan-based royal by phone.

William and Kate were thrown into a mad scramble to get the news of her pregnancy to senior royals today after Kate's morning sickness dramatically worsened and William was advised to take her to the hospital.

Such was the level of secrecy around the pregnancy that before this weekend the only people who knew were William and Kate themselves. Kate's parents realized over the weekend that Kate was pregnant as her vomiting worsened.

William and Kate were bounced into announcing Kate’s pregnancy before she hit the 12-week mark after she had to be admitted to hospital suffering from an acute form of morning sickness, or, to give it the proper name, hyperemesis gravidarum.

“Hyperemsis” is the Latin word for vomiting, “gravidarum” means pregnancy.

To have been admitted to hospital, Kate would have likely been vomiting pretty much constantly after eating, and sometimes women affected by the condition can vomit blood.

Paddy Power bookmakers of Ireland were first out of the blocks with prices on royal baby outcomes today.

They have made Mary, Victoria and John the joint 8/1 favourite baby names following the announcement that Kate Middleton is pregnant.

Next in the running is Diana and Frances at 9/1 with Philip, Anne and Charles all available at 10/1. The current longshots include 80/1 Chelsy, 100/1 Bradley and 250/1 Fergie.

Elsewhere, Paddy Power make it an unlikely 6/1 that the child will have ginger hair, with brown the current 13/8 favourite.

You might expect that the birth of a future heir to the throne would automatically trigger the activation of a vast retinue of childminders and assorted nursery attendants, but a source has told the Royalist that Kate Middleton does not plan on getting a nanny when her baby is born.

Instead, she intends to be a full-time mum, and that may well mean we see significantly less of her on the public stage, at functions and ceremonies, at least until her children are of school-going age.

Charles was initially said to be dumbstruck by the notion that Kate would rear her children singlehandedly, but has now apparently accepted it.

In truth there was little else for him and other senior courtiers to do. Kate is a fiercely determined woman. The last time they tried to intervene on Kate’s staffing arrangements was when a housekeeper was hired for Kate in Anglesey without her knowledge. When she found out, Kate promptly reversed the hiring.

Of all the ways that Kate and William had hoped to announce their pregnancy to the world, this was undoubtedly not it.

They were rushed into making the announcement after Middleton was taken to hospital in central London this afternoon, suffering from acute morning sickness. Kate and William travelled together by car, not ambulance.

The hospitilization left the palace with little option but to announce that she was indeed expecting a baby, as the Royalist had suspected for some time.

1. The bets. The most recent clue, relevant for those who believe the market usually gets it right, is that British bookmakers have suspended betting on whether Kate will have a baby in  2013 after taking a number of large bets in recent days. Bookmaker Coral has suspended betting on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge having their first child in 2013, while Paddy Power tells the Royalist they have cut their odds to 1/6 (ie you bet $6 you get $1 in profit if you are right.)

David Stevens, of Coral, said: "We cut the odds to 1-4 and then again to 1-8, at which point we decided to suspend the betting. If the money talks, 2013 will see a new addition to the Royal family."

2. The fuller face. No-one has claimed Kate is actually showing a baby bump yet, but there is a definite hint of 'preg-face' as it is customarily known on these shores creeping into the royal visage. Kate looks a little bit rounder, and it’s not just the new fringe playing tricks on the eye.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, has been spending the day in the Welsh city of St Asaph meeting victims of floods which have affected hundreds of people in the area.

St Asaph, in Clwyd, was one of the worst hit places in the UK, with more than 180 homes flooded and 500 evacuated.

The Prince had a private meeting with the family of Margaret Hughes, 91, who was found dead inside her home in the city and is thought to have drowned after being unable to escape the rising water.

Roy and Cynthia Evans, aged 93 and 83, told the Telegraph they were delighted with the Prince's visit to their street.

Kate Middleton revealed her nickname was 'Squeak' when she visited her old prep school - St. Andrews in Pangbourne, Berkshire - when she visited last week, and now some old school photos have emerged of Kate in the hockey, tennis and rounders teams.

Rounders is a British girls sport which is a a bit like mini-baseball.

What to give the Royalist who has everything for Christmas this year?

Well, hint hint, how about this doorstepping Taschen book, “Her Majesty”, which weighs in at a truly regal 11.7 pounds? 

The book features formal studies taken by famous photographers alongside others  snapped by bystanders.

How cute.

Kate Middleton revealed today that her nickname at junior school was 'Squeak' - after the school guinea pig.

Kate was visiting her prep school, St Andrew's in Pangbourne, Berks, which she attended from the age of four to 13.

From Politico:

There are just five paragraphs dedicated to the “relevance of the internet” in Thursday’s Leveson report.

Note: the entire report is 1,987 pages long.

Princess Diana was hailed for breaking barriers when she famously touched men dying of AIDS and now  William and  Harry are following in her footsteps giving their support to a leading HIV charity.

The royal brothers have written to the Terrence Higgins Trust, praising the organisation for supporting people with the virus. The charity was named after one of the first people to die of HIV in the UK.

In the letter to the charity, Princes' William and Harry called on people to "pick up the sword and continue the fight" against HIV.

Prince William and Harry wrote in the letter: "Our generation has never known a world without HIV. We have grown up knowing of the devastating impact this virus has on lives, on families, on communities.

"We know, too, that HIV can be treated and the lives of sufferers extended by many years. However, there is still a stigma which blights sufferers of the disease, even today.

It's only three days since Kate emerged with her new bangs, and the British papers are full of hair-related features today.

The Daily Mail has a double whammy - an emotional piece by writer Amanda Craig on getting her hair cut when she was 22 after her heart was broken. She writes:

Like Kate, I also asked for a fringe, because a fringe feels like a screen you can hide behind…redictably — given that she and William have now been married for a year-and-a-half, and he has spoken in the past about his desire for children — Kate’s new cut has sparked speculation that she may be pregnant."

The Mail's second hair piece concerns attending the hirdresser with  32-year-old Heidi Agan, a Kate looklalike as she gets Kate’s new look.

The evidence is strictly circumstantial, but speculation is building once again that Kate might be pregnant after Prince William accepted a baby present during a walkabout in Cambridge today.

William was given a romper suit with a picture of a helicopter and the words “Daddy’s little co-pilot”, but rather than hand it back, a clearly delighted William told the lady who gave it to him, 'I'll keep that,' and handed it to an aide, according to the Daily Mirror.

A source told the Royalist earlier this year that Kate was pregnant, but that the couple had decided to delay announcing the pregnancy until it could no longer be hidden.

Speculation has been building that the couple who married in April last year are expecting ever since Kate twice drank a royal toast with water on tour in Singapore in September.