At Last!

Kate Middleton Is Less Than 12 Weeks Pregnant

Guess who's pregnant? The palace announced today that the Duchess of Cambridge is indeed expecting.

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.

Speculation that Kate was pregnant had built in recent days, after William was handed a baby onesie on tour and told the crowd member who gave it to him, “I’ll keep that.”

It was also suspected that Kate’s new haircut may have been a distraction technique or a hormonally-charged decision to switch up her look.

A source told the Royalist that William and Kate had been hoping to keep the news of their pregnancy secret for as long as possible, and although Buckingham Palace declined to say just how far along in her pregnancy was, they did make the unusual step in the press announcement made at 4 p.m. this afternoon of saying that the pregnancy was in "its very early stages."

Royal sources tell The Daily Beast that Kate is less than 12 weeks pregnant, but that the young couple decided to come out with the news when she was hospitalized today.

The statement issued on behalf of the royals read: "Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby.

"The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news.

"The Duchess was admitted this afternoon to King Edward VII Hospital in Central London with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter."

David Cameron, who was told the news shortly before it was made public, then tweeted: "I’m delighted by the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby. They will make wonderful parents."

Unlike previous future queens who have been under intense pressure to produce a boy, Kate’s child will become the third in line to the throne, ahead of Prince Harry, regardless of whether it is a girl or boy, following a change to the ancient rule of royal primogeniture, which was scrapped last year following an agreement between heads of the Commonwealth nations.

If Kate is indeed less than 12 weeks into her pregnancy, then it means the baby was not conceived during the "topless photos" trip to France, but may well have been conceived on the royal tour of Singapore and the Pacific.It was on this trip that Kate and William set tongues wagging by drinking only water for the royal toast not once but on two occasions.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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