Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, claps as she and her husband Britain’s Prince Harry attend a lunchtime reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison with Invictus Games competitors, their families and friends in Sydney Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018. (Paul Edwards/Pool Photo via AP)
Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, was revealed to be pregnant last week.
In true American fashion, the United States is obsessed. We left England because of their monarchy, but to this day, we can’t seem to get enough of the British royal family.
The couple got married on May 19, and their wedding was the only thing people could talk about for weeks. And now, just five months later, Kensington Palace released a statement announcing The Duchess’ pregnancy, giving Americans even more royal news to buzz about.
“Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019,” the statement read. “Their Royal Highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public.”
Due to the vagueness of simply saying “spring,” there is speculation on when the baby is actually due. Because if it’s early spring, people are wondering if The Duchess was pregnant at her wedding. While the latter likely isn’t true because of timing reasons, it still is a quick pregnancy following their marriage.
The low likelihood of something being true doesn’t stop speculation, however, and The Duchess is no stranger to wild conspiracy theories. Over the summer, the Internet speculated that Markle was simply a robot after a video appeared to show her clapping next to Prince Harry without moving her facial features at all. In reality, someone was merely wearing a mask, but it didn’t stop the conspiracy theory from spreading and gaining popularity.
Another claims that Markle is part of a conspiracy for the British to reclaim America. It’s a hilariously wild idea, but the root of it is actually quite interesting.
Since Markle is American, her child will technically be an American citizen as well. What the royal family will do about this will prove to be interesting: Will the child have dual citizenship or will they only be British? The distance between the child and the throne is large, but imagine having someone with American citizenship on the throne.
Either way, the child will be growing up with an adorable line of cousins, the children of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Name and gender speculation has already begun, but obviously it is far too early to know anything. Still, it gives Americans some more royal family gossip to talk about for months, just until we can swoon over photos of the baby and figure out what its citizenship will be.
Courtney Gavitt is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at courtney.gavitt@uconn.edu.