Kate Middleton, The Duchess of Cambridge. Photograph by Tom Soper
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is in the early stages of labour and has been taken to hospital according to Kensington Palace.
She travelled to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, with her husband, William, the Duke of Cambridge, where the pregnancy has been described as “progressing as normal”.
The couple’s son or daughter will be third in line to the throne after Charles, the Prince of Wales, and William, the Duke of Cambridge. The rules of primogeniture were changed under the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 after Catherine announced her pregnancy so that the first-born child, whether male or female, would inherit the British crown.
Press from around the world have been camped outside St Mary’s hospital for the last few days in anticipation of news about the royal baby, with a mid-July due-date widely speculated.
