The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have confirmed that they are expecting a younger brother or sister for their one-year-old son, Archie.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan 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.”
The couple shared a black and white picture of themselves under a tree with Harry resting his hand on Meghan’s head as she lies cradling her bump.
Misan Harriman, a friend of the couple and the photographer who took the photo that accompanied their announcement, 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!”
Responding to the news, Buckingham Palace said: “Her Majesty, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and the entire family are delighted and wish them well.”
The Sussexes’ baby will be the Prince of Wales’ fifth grandchild and 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. He or she will be eighth in line to the throne and entitled to be a Lord or Lady, but the duke and duchess are expected to again opt for Master, like Archie, or Miss, with the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.
Harry retained his place in the line of succession despite him and Meghan stepping back as senior royals in January last year, and dropping their HRH style. The Duke of York, who was second in line when he was born in 1960, will move down to ninth place.
In November, Meghan disclosed the devastation that the couple experienced after she had a miscarriage last summer.
Writing in the New York Times, she described how, as she was changing Archie’s nappy at their home, she “dropped to the floor” in pain. She wrote: “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
Addressing the stigma surrounding miscarriage, Meghan continued: “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few.”
Speculation that the duchess might be expecting a second child arose after she applied for and was granted a postponement of her privacy trial against the Mail on Sunday until the autumn for a “confidential” reason.
Any trial was averted when, on Thursday, the duchess won her high court privacy case against Associated Newspapers Ltd over the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online’s publication of extracts from a private handwritten letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, 76, after the judge, Lord Justice Warby, granted summary judgment in Meghan’s favour.
Harry and Meghan’s announcement comes just five days after the royal family celebrated the arrival of Princess Eugenie’s first child – a baby boy.
This new baby, like Archie, is set to grow up thousands of miles away from the Queen, Prince Charles, and Prince William, as the Sussexes now live in Montecito in California after leaving royal life in a quest for personal and financial freedom.
The couple have been busy securing funding for their new life, signing a lucrative deal with streaming giant Netflix rumoured to be worth more than £150m, and another multi-million-pound podcast deal with Spotify.
They have also been working on their Archewell charitable foundation, but faced controversy when Harry was accused of political interference after he urged people in the US to “reject hate speech” and vote in November’s presidential election.
Harry and Meghan have almost followed in the footsteps of the duke’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, whose pregnancy with Harry – her second child – was announced on February 13 1984, hitting the front pages on February 14.