Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expecting their second child together! The royal couple shared the happy news on Valentine’s Day. “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,” a spokesperson for the couple said.
That statement came with a new photo of Harry and Meghan (above), which was taken remotely by their longtime friend and photographer Misan Harriman. It shows the Sussexes relaxing outside, with Meghan resting her head in Prince Harry’s lap.
The Sussexes have not yet announced a specific due date for their baby’s arrival; they also did not comment on the baby’s sex in the announcement, and they might choose to keep it a surprise. Harry and Meghan were famously quiet about Archie’s sex before he was born. Similarly, Harry’s brother Will and his wife Kate have also chosen to keep the sexes of their children a surprise until their royal babies made their public debuts on the steps of the Lindo Wing.
This afternoon’s news comes not long after Meghan’s moving essay in the New York Times in which she revealed that she had suffered from a miscarriage last summer.
“Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few. In the pain of our loss, my husband and I discovered that in a room of 100 women, 10 to 20 of them will have suffered from miscarriage. Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning,” she wrote.
“Some have bravely shared their stories; they have opened the door, knowing that when one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same.”
Baby Sussex will be eighth in line for the throne behind Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Prince Harry, and baby Archie. He or she will be Prince Charles’s fifth grandchild and the Queen and Prince Philip’s 10th or 11th great-grandchild, depending on if the baby arrives before or after Zara Tindall’s new baby.
In the past, Prince Harry has suggested that he and Meghan want to keep their family fairly small, at least in part due to the impact on the planet. During a conversation with environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall about children in the September 2018 issue of British Vogue, Harry said he hopes to have “Two, maximum!”
