Looks like Kate Middleton is getting her Christmas wish: She and husband Prince William are expecting their first child!
Having long expressed her desire to start a family, the Duchess of Cambridge, 30, is finally pregnant, St. James's Palace confirmed to Us Weekly Monday, Dec. 3.
"Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby," the statement read. "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."
Prince William's pregnant wife has been admitted to King Edward VII Hospital in Central London with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, an acute form of morning sickness, and is expected to remain there for several days.
Tying the knot in April 2011, Middleton and her husband, also 30, were eager to become parents as soon as possible. "Trying for a baby has been their priority, a royal confidant tells Us. "They're both excited to be focusing on a new chapter in their lives."
As her pregnancy progresses, Middleton and Prince William plan to relocate from their quaint Welsh cottage to Apartment 1A of Kensington Palace, a four-story, 20-room flat currently in the midst of a massive renovation. The reason for their move? The couple want to raise their baby in a more "secure environment," an insider explains. The level of protection at their rented cottage on the sleepy island of Anglesey, even with all their trips to the movies and down to the shop, "just isn't enough," says the confidant.
The couple's baby-to-be — boy or girl — will jump ahead of William's kid brother, Uncle Harry, in line for the throne, given the U.K.'s historic 2011 constitutional change that gives a firstborn girl the right to succeed the throne over her younger brother. (Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 only because she didn't have any brothers.)