Britain’s Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are expecting their second child together.
The child is due in early spring, or Australia’s autumn, Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement on Tuesday.
“His Majesty The King has been informed and both families are delighted with the news,” it said.
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After a whirlwind romance, Beatrice and property developer Mapelli Mozzi tied the knot in July 2020 in a private wedding ceremony at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor, after their initial wedding date in May was postponed due to the pandemic.
The couple welcomed their first child, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi – now three – on September 18, 2021, at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Beatrice, 36, is also stepmother to Mapelli’s son Christopher Wolf, who is known as Wolfie, from a previous relationship.
She is the eldest daughter of King Charles’s younger brother Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, and is ninth in line to the British throne.
The announcement was shared alongside two new photos of the family, one featuring Beatrice and Mapelli Mozzi, and the other showing Mapelli Mozzi walking hand-in-hand with Sienna and Wolfie.
The happy news comes during one of the royal family’s most personally challenging years, with the King, the Princess of Wales and Beatrice’s mother Sarah, Duchess of York, all being diagnosed with cancer.
Sarah was treated for malignant melanoma skin cancer in January, just months after undergoing a mastectomy for breast cancer, but Beatrice said in May the duchess had been given the “all clear”.
The baby, who will not be an HRH, will be born 11th in line to the throne, with Beatrice’s younger sister Princess Eugenie moving down to 12th place.
– with AP