Nearly one year after their royal exit was finalized last March, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are having another child. On Sunday afternoon, the couple announced the pregnancy through a spokesperson and released a photo showing the two embracing outdoors. “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”
The royal family, including Queen Elizabeth, had already been informed about the pregnancy, according to the Daily Mail’s Rebecca English. “Her Majesty, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and the entire family are ‘delighted’ and wish them well,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Though the photo shows Meghan touching a baby bump, there was no word on her due date. It was taken remotely on an iPad by their friend, Misan Harriman, the photographer who shot Princess Beatrice’s engagement to Edoardo Mapellli Mozzi in September 2019.
“Meg, I was there at your wedding to witness this love story begin, and my friend, I am honored to capture it grow,” Harriman wrote on Instagram. “Congratulations to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on this joyous news!”
According to People, she is rewearing a Carolina Herrera dress, designed by Wes Gordon, which was originally made during her last pregnancy. On a February 2019 trip to Morocco, she wore the blue dress on with a ruffled floral chiffon layer on top at a dinner with the King Mohammed VI.
Meghan and Harry moved to California soon after the coronavirus pandemic began last spring, and are currently living on an estate in Montecito, a small community in Santa Barbara County, where they have been filming video call appearances. Last weekend, they surprised a virtual poetry class from their living room.
The news comes just four months after Meghan published an opinion piece in the New York Times that described a miscarriage she suffered in July 2020. At the time, a source close to the couple told Vanity Fair that they were already moving on from the trauma. “There’s a tone of hopefulness and optimism at the end of the article which I think shows where they are today,” a friend said in November. “They are doing well.”
Archie, the couple’s oldest child, will turn two in May and he was last seen in a holiday card that showed the family at play. Last year, People reported that he was enjoying life in California and is very close to the family’s two rescue dogs. “They make him laugh and are gentle with him,” a source told the newspaper.
This article has been updated.
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