When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced Markle’s pregnancy this fall, they weren’t just making news; they were making history. Just as the Duchess of Sussex herself has been an unprecedented addition to the British royal family, so too will her future child become emblematic of change as a bona fide royal with American ancestry and a mixed-race heritage — a Windsor first.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared their good news about Markle’s baby on Twitter through the Kensington Palace Twitter account just before embarking on their royal tour to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand in October. Their royal relatives, including Queen Elizabeth herself, reacted with delight to news of the expected new member of the royal family after learning of the pregnancy at Princess Eugenie’s wedding, while Markle’s mom Doria Ragland also expressed her happiness.
Since the news broke, Markle and Prince Harry haven’t been shy about what Harry called their “upcoming baby” and “our little bump,” thanks to their many engagements Down Under. Pregnancy clearly hasn’t slowed her down so far. So now that royal fans are on Meghan Markle baby watch, here’s everything we know so far about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s baby, including the Meghan Markle baby due date, its place in the British monarchy’s line of succession, potential name choices, and other Meghan Marle baby news.
When is Meghan Markle’s baby due?
The Meghan Markle baby number one to be born sometime in Spring 2019, according to the royal notice. Like with its royal cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis — children of Kate Middleton and Prince William — the palace is playing its cards close to the chest concerning a more specific due date for the royal baby, keeping us guessing. But speculation will certainly begin to ramp up in March 2019. Spring has also been a popular time for royal baby births: Prince Louis’s birthday is April 23 and Princess Charlotte’s is May 2. (Prince George is a summer child, born July 22.)
What will Meghan’s baby’s name be?
Like with most royal baby news, information about the name of the future offspring of Prince Harry will be closely guarded by the family, and we’re unlikely to know before the palace is ready to share the name. But that hasn’t stopped the betting, with gambling companies already setting odds on Meghan Markle’s baby’s name just as they did with Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Prince George before. (Betting on royal baby names is something of a British royal tradition, with oddsmakers having a field day with predictions.) So far, online betting pool Ladbroke’s shows Victoria as the favored name, followed by Albert, Diana and Philip in a dead heat of 10/1 odds. (Other popular options include Alice and Arthur, followed by Alfred, Elizabeth, James, Mary, Alexander, Alexandra, Charles, Edward and Frances.) Each of the names comes steeped in royal history.
What is the gender of Meghan Markle’s baby?
So far, Markle and her prince have stayed officially mum on whether they’ll be welcoming a boy or girl to their family. But of course speculation has already run rampant, urged along by help from Harry himself: while on tour in Australia, one well-wishing fan shouted at Harry “I hope it’s a girl!” — and the Duke responded with, “So do I!” But with no further information than this one-off comment, oddsmakers have the chances of boy or girl set at an even split so far, with plenty of time for more developments on the gender front as time elapses.
How will Meghan Markle’s baby change the line of succession?
The royal family tree will get a new branch after Markle gives birth to her first baby in the spring. Currently, Prince Charles is in line for the crown following his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. After Charles, his son Prince William, Duke of Cambridge is next up for the task. And then Will’s children with Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge follow: Prince George first, then Princess Charlotte (after the law was adjusted to allow women equal status in royal succession) and finally Prince Louis, who was born just last spring.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex then takes his place as sixth in line to the throne. When his baby with Meghan Markle is born in the spring, that child will become the seventh in line, bumping down Prince Andrew, the brother of Prince Charles. Andrew’s daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, who was recently married at Windsor Castle, round out the top ten with the ninth and tenth spots in the line of succession, respectively.
Will Meghan Markle’s baby be a prince or princess?
The future child of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be of royal blood by birth — but he or she may not start off life with an official royal title as a prince or princess. In fact, the new royal may never end up with a “prince” or “princess” title at all, as ABC News royal contributor Imogen Lloyd Webber explained to TIME.
It all goes back to a 1917 royal decree made by King George V which limited the expansion of the monarchy by minimizing the family members eligible for those fancy prince and princess titles. When it comes to great-grandchildren of the monarch, only the oldest living son of the oldest living son of the oldest living son of the monarch was to be afforded the “titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names.” (So today, that refers to Prince George, who’s the son of William, grandson of Charles and great-grandson of Elizabeth. Got that?) Everyone else was to be just a Lord or Lady.
But there was a snag in the plan. Queen Elizabeth changed all that when she decreed that all of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children would be styled as Prince or Princess after all — which is why Charlotte and Louis, Will and Kate’s second and third children, have their titles.
Yet for future great-grandchildren — that means the children of Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and all the rest of the Queen’s grandkids — all bets are off. Lloyd Webber suggests it’s unlikely the Queen will make further changes, even for Harry’s offspring. “There aren’t really grounds for it,” she told TIME. Instead, because of remaining laws and traditions around titles, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s future baby will probably end up as an Earl of Dumbarton or a Lady Mountbatten-Windsor, depending on its gender. And if it’s a boy, he may one day inherit the Duke title — but if it’s a girl, she’ll remain a Lady, not a Duchess, unless the House of Lords makes some big changes to longstanding laws.
Will Meghan Markle’s baby have American citizenship?
We don’t know yet how the royal family will decide to go about the citizenship plan for the new royal baby. As royal expert Kelly Lynch told TIME, “No one in royal history has had an American mother, it will be fairly interesting to see what happens.” Upon the baby’s birth, “the child will be fully British.” U.S. law allows that any child born to an American parent in wedlock who has lived in the States for at least five years (two of those years over the age of 14) can be granted U.S. citizenship, even if the child is born outside of the U.S. Under that rule, Markle could grant her future baby American citizenship without a problem.
However, there’s a hitch: it’s not clear if Markle herself intends to retain her own American citizenship, or if she’ll be renouncing it in due time. If she proceeds as a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen, she would be vulnerable to an IRS audit, which could then make the royal family’s finances public — and that’s not something the British royal family has ever wanted done. At the same time, she’s not yet a full British citizen; that requires over a year of “indefinite leave to remain” status and a British citizenship test, with Markle having only relocated to the U.K. during her engagement to Prince Harry.
But presuming Markle does end up saying goodbye to her American citizenship, since the baby will be born on British soil as a British citizen, it’s unlikely it will be able to claim American citizenship as well. We’ll just have to wait and see how they choose to handle this delicate — and unprecedented — new point of protocol in royal history.
