Royal family 'delighted' at news of Princess Beatrice's pregnancy

Princess Beatrice, the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth who married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi last year, is expecting a baby, Buckingham Palace said.

The baby — the first for Beatrice, the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, and her property developer husband — is due to be born this autumn.

“The queen has been informed and both families are delighted with the news,” the palace said in a statement.

The princess, the ninth-in-line to the throne, and her husband wed at Windsor Castle in July in a scaled-down private ceremony that took place without the usual pomp and fanfare that royal weddings usually attract because of Covid-19 restrictions. 

Beatrice is not the only royal gearing up to welcome a baby this year, with her cousin Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, eagerly awaiting the birth of their second baby.

The couple, already parents to two-year-old Archie, revealed that they were expecting a baby girl during their explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March. 

Beatrice joins her sister Eugenie in parenthood, with the latter giving birth to a baby boy — August Philip Hawke Brooksbank — earlier this year.