Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are expecting their second child.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are expecting their second child!
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the big news on Valentine's Day.
"We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother," the couple said in a statement released on Sunday. "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child."
Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, are already parents to their son, Archie, whom they welcomed in May 2019. The two have been married since May 2018.
A palace spokesman shared with ET that Harry's royal family members are excited by the news, stating, "Her Majesty, [the] Duke of Edinburgh, [the] Prince of Wales and the entire family [are] delighted and wish them well."
In November, Meghan revealed she suffered a miscarriage over the summer in an op-ed for The New York Times.
"I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband's hand," she recalled. "I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both our tears. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we'd heal."
Meghan also wrote that amid their own loss, she and Harry learned how common miscarriages are, which prompted her to speak out in an effort to encourage others to do the same.
"Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few," she wrote. "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."
In January 2020, the couple stepped down from their roles as senior members of the royal family and relocated to their new home in Santa Barbara, California, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"For us, we're trying to embrace all of the quality time we get with our son right now and to not miss a single moment of his growth and development, which has been really special," Markle said of Archie during the TIME100 Talks in October.
In November 2019, Harry hinted at wanting a sibling for Archie. During a surprise visit to families of deployed servicemen and women in Windsor, England, one mother said that Harry was interested in knowing how she manages with two kids.
"Harry was really quite interested in how things were with second children, as well, because we both have older children," Susie Stringfellow told the Forces network after the royals' impromptu visit. "And we were trying to encourage him to have a second baby."
Last July, Harry also told legendary ethologist Dr. Jane Goodall how many kids he and 38-year-old Meghan wanted to have. When Goodall advised him at one point during their chat not to have "too many" children, in an effort to save the planet, Harry said he planned to only have "two, maximum!"
Royal expert Katie Nicholl also told ET in July 2019 that the royal couple "absolutely" wanted more kids.
"Sources close to the couple told me that they really would love to have a big family," Nicholl said. "They are, by all accounts, amazing parents. They are loving parenthood."
"Their life has changed enormously and that was one of the things the sources I spoke to .... told me -- that this really has been a life-transforming event," she added of the two becoming parents. "Yes, they're royals, yes, they probably have more help than the rest of us, but this really has turned their world upside down for the better. So, I think at the moment, they’re focusing on Archie, but I know it’s their plan to have more than one child."
Watch the video below for more:
RELATED CONTENT:
