By Anthony DeMarco, Contributor
As the world awaits the birth of the next heir to the British throne (third in line), it’s anybody’s guess as to what the baby of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William will receive in gifts. A look back at the gifts given to past royal newborns show that objects of practicality, subtlety and elaborate flair were all part of the mix. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
A flood of last-minute bets on Britain’s royal baby poured in on Monday even as Prince William’s wife Catherine was in hospital in labour. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
The royal baby is on its way!
Keep tuned in here for breaking news and latest updates on Kate Middleton, Prince William and the new baby in our liveblog:
Read More…
More on Kate Middleton Baby
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
From royal baby name generators to interminably dull live-feeds of a hospital door — the longer Britain waits for Prince William’s wife Catherine to give birth, the more nonsense the Internet provides. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
This week’s Family Dinner Table Talk, from HuffPost and The Family Dinner book:
In case you haven’t heard — although that would be hard to believe! — Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a baby. The little girl or boy, who will be third in line to the British throne, could be born any day now. In the months since the royals announced their news, there has been an explosion of excitement all over the world, with companies creating new royal-baby-themed products (pillows, plates or cookies, anyone?) and people betting money on everything from the child’s name and hair color to his or her Olympic chances. As for the Queen herself, she said this week that she’s ready for the baby to arrive — since she’s about to go on vacation.
Questions for discussion:
Read More…
More on Kate MiddletonSource: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
LONDON, July 19 (UPI) — Prince William and his wife Kate have left her family home in Bucklebury and headed to London, suggesting she is in labor and will deliver their baby soon. …read more
The Duchess of Cambridge lives a very different life to most mums-to-be, but Britain’s army of mothers has been captivated by her pregnancy — and is ready to rally around to help her bring up the new heir.
Social media has been abuzz with every detail of Prince William and his wife Catherine’s journey towards parenthood, none more so than Mumsnet, a web forum used by 4.4 million people in Britain.
Rumours on the site last week that Kate had gone into labour flew across the world, sending Twitter into overdrive and sparking panic in newsrooms across the globe.
It was a false alarm — Britain’s technology-savvy mothers had no more information than anyone else.
But the online community, a lifeline for many parents struggling with new babies, toddler tantrums, illness, work, money troubles and much more, is ready to embrace Catherine as one of their own.
“When you become pregnant, you have this universal bond with all the other women that are pregnant around the world: you know what they’re going through,” said spokeswoman Jane Gentle.
At 27 weeks pregnant with her second child, she knows something of what Catherine might be feeling right now. “I sympathise with Kate in this very hot weather!” she told AFP.
As would be expected of a website with so many users, Mumsnet has not been universally kind to the duchess.
A quick Internet search brings up discussion threads criticising her weight, her looks and why she doesn’t have a “real” job.
But many are sympathetic to how Catherine has managed under the global media spotlight since she was forced to prematurely announce her pregnancy in December after being admitted to hospital with severe morning sickness.
“There was a lot of support on the site from mothers who’ve been through hyperemesis (gravidarum) because it’s far more than morning sickness and a lot of people don’t understand that. It’s a horrible thing to go through,” Gentle said.
“To have someone so famous suffering from exactly the same condition as people from every kind of walk of life is helpful because it gets the word out there.”
Catherine was given the best treatment available and will give birth to the third in line to the throne in a plush private hospital wing costing thousands of pounds a night.
It is a far cry from the average British woman’s experience in the state-run National Health Service (NHS), let alone the difficulties faced by women in poorer parts of the world.
“For every new mother, it’s a life-changing experience. Everything’s shaken upside-down, everything that you knew yesterday has changed,” Gentle says.
“For Kate, it will be an even bigger impending day because she’s got the world scrutinising her.
“Hopefully the Duchess of Cambridge will be able to retreat a little bit, look after herself and not worry about what everyone else is saying about her.”
When she gives birth, organisers will be asking members for tips for the royal first-time mum.
“We’re going to compile all of those brilliant pieces of advice into a book and we’re going to hand it over to Kate after …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The Duchess of Cambridge lives a very different life to most mums-to-be, but Britain’s army of mothers has been captivated by her pregnancy — and is ready to rally around to help her bring up the new heir.
Social media has been abuzz with every detail of Prince William and his wife Catherine’s journey towards parenthood, none more so than Mumsnet, a web forum used by 4.4 million people in Britain.
Rumours on the site last week that Kate had gone into labour flew across the world, sending Twitter into overdrive and sparking panic in newsrooms across the globe.
It was a false alarm — Britain’s technology-savvy mothers had no more information than anyone else.
But the online community, a lifeline for many parents struggling with new babies, toddler tantrums, illness, work, money troubles and much more, is ready to embrace Catherine as one of their own.
“When you become pregnant, you have this universal bond with all the other women that are pregnant around the world: you know what they’re going through,” said spokeswoman Jane Gentle.
At 27 weeks pregnant with her second child, she knows something of what Catherine might be feeling right now. “I sympathise with Kate in this very hot weather!” she told AFP.
As would be expected of a website with so many users, Mumsnet has not been universally kind to the duchess.
A quick Internet search brings up discussion threads criticising her weight, her looks and why she doesn’t have a “real” job.
But many are sympathetic to how Catherine has managed under the global media spotlight since she was forced to prematurely announce her pregnancy in December after being admitted to hospital with severe morning sickness.
“There was a lot of support on the site from mothers who’ve been through hyperemesis (gravidarum) because it’s far more than morning sickness and a lot of people don’t understand that. It’s a horrible thing to go through,” Gentle said.
“To have someone so famous suffering from exactly the same condition as people from every kind of walk of life is helpful because it gets the word out there.”
Catherine was given the best treatment available and will give birth to the third in line to the throne in a plush private hospital wing costing thousands of pounds a night.
It is a far cry from the average woman’s experience in the National Health Service (NHS), let alone the difficulties faced by women in poorer parts of the world.
“For every new mother, it’s a life-changing experience. Everything’s shaken upside-down, everything that you knew yesterday has changed,” Gentle says.
“For Kate, it will be an even bigger impending day because she’s got the world scrutinising her.
“Hopefully the Duchess of Cambridge will be able to retreat a little bit, look after herself and not worry about what everyone else is saying about her.”
When she gives birth, organisers will be asking members for tips for the royal first-time mum.
“We’re going to compile all of those brilliant pieces of advice into a book and we’re going to hand it over to Kate after the birth …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
After more than two weeks camped outside St Mary’s Hospital in London, the media waiting for Prince William’s wife Catherine to give birth are having terrible thoughts — what if they are in the wrong place?
Camera crews, journalists and photographers have been staking out St Mary’s since the beginning of the month after royal officials revealed Catherine would have her baby there.
But as the days tick by with not so much as a royal corgi dog making an appearance, paranoia is setting in.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday reported that the Duchess of Cambridge may instead give birth at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, near her parents’ home west of London.
The 31-year-old has been dividing her time in the past four or five weeks between her London base at Kensington Palace and the Middleton’s Bucklebury home, royal sources told AFP.
And the Telegraph noted that if she goes into labour while staying with her parents, the half-hour drive to the Royal Berkshire in Reading may be preferable to risking the 50-mile (80-kilometre) trip through the traffic to central London.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace told AFP: “There are contingency plans for wherever the duchess might be in the country, and that has always been the case.”
The Royal Berkshire Hospital may be closer but as a purely National Health Service facility, it does not offer the same luxuries as St Mary’s.
Although St Mary’s is also run by the state-funded NHS, Catherine is booked into the private Lindo Wing, which offers plush suites and top quality cuisine.
No such facility exists at the Royal Berkshire, where — if she gives birth there — Catherine might end up staying on a post-labour ward with a number of other new mums.
The palace refused to confirm where the duchess has spent the past week since her reported due date on July 13, or to say whether William was with her.
But the spokesman confirmed the prince has not been at work in northwest Wales, where he is a search and rescue helicopter pilot, since the weekend.
“He’s not on shift,” he said.
Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday revealed her impatience to meet her third great-grandchild, joking that she hoped it would arrive before she goes on holiday in Scotland next week.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Blue Carreon, Contributor After waxing poetic on Kate Middleton’s personal style — before and during the royal baby bump — I think it is valid to ask how she will dress her and Prince William’s newborn. Will the baby be wrapped in a cashmere Burberry plaid blanket? Will Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen design the christening gown? Will Church’s make velvet shoes embroidered with the royal crest? Will the milliner Philip Treacy design a bonnet for the royal baby? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
British interior minister Theresa May on Tuesday laughed off suggestions she was needed at the imminent royal birth, saying the custom of making sure the “baby hadn’t been smuggled in” no longer existed.
Lawmaker Michael Ellis admitted he was being “mischievous” when he posed the question to May at a select committee hearing.
Prince William’s wife Catherine is due to give birth to Britain’s future monarch at the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital any day now.
“Until relatively recently there was a convention that home secretaries attended royal births, I understand this happened with her majesty the queen,” he said.
“Do you have any plans to visit the Lindo Wing any time soon, following this convention?”
May countered that the centuries-old custom no longer existed.
“It is no longer the case that the HS is required to attend a royal birth, but I suspect Mr Ellis with your royal connections you might have more information about these things than I do,” she said.
Asked why the convention ever existed, she explained: “It goes back many centuries…. The home secretary had to be there to evidence that it was genuinely a royal birth and that a baby hadn’t been smuggled in.”
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Britain’s Prince Charles joked Monday that his son Prince William’s baby was “hopefully” on its way as the kingdom feverishly awaits the new arrival.
With William’s wife Catherine due to give birth any day, Charles, the Duke of Cornwall, and his wife Camilla kicked off their annual summer tour of the southwest English county and neighbouring Devon.
On their visit to the seaside town of Bude, the heir to the throne came face-to-face with some newborns.
Bude resident Trudi Lindsay brought along her three-week-old baby Ellie-Mae to see the royals.
“I said, ‘You have got one of these coming soon’ and Charles replied ‘Hopefully’, then he laughed,” she said.
“He was very good with Ellie-Mae, he touched her cheek.”
Charles and Camilla drew loud cheers from the flag-waving crowds as they walked through the town.
Jenny Dawe, 62, who works in a local shop, showed the royals her selection of cards.
“I said, ‘You will need a new baby card soon’ and they laughed,” she recounted.
New parents Poppy and Paul Steen brought their five-day-old son Lowen to meet the royal couple.
“Lowen wasn’t supposed to be born today but he came on Wednesday and I had to deliver him at home,” said Paul Steen.
“The midwife did joke that he might arrive on the same day as Kate’s and we might get a commemorative coin but Lowen wasn’t waiting for that.”
All babies born on the same day as William and Kate’s imminent arrival can register to receive a free lucky silver penny from the Royal Mint, worth ??28 ($42.25, 32.40 euros).
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The hospital is ready, the Wikipedia page and Twitter accounts are up and Britain’s famously creative press are running out of ideas. But Sunday arrived with no sign of the royal baby.
Prince William is filling the time until his wife Catherine goes into labour, playing polo, taking part in charity matches on Saturday and Sunday with his younger brother Harry.
He has taken a couple of days off from his work as a search and rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said, although he refused to say when the prince might be going back.
The palace has stayed tight-lipped about the birth of the new third in line to the throne, saying nothing for days other than to reiterate that Catherine is due some time in mid-July.
The press had pencilled in Saturday as the day, but bookmakers William Hill tipped Sunday as the likely due date, with Paddy Power offering equal odds on Sunday and Monday.
The only thing that is certain is that babies rarely come on time and that when this new heir to the Windsor dynasty arrives, the world will be ready.
In keeping with the digital age, the newborn already has its own page on Wikipedia, entitled “Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge”, to use William and Kate’s formal titles.
Several spoof Twitter accounts have also been set up, with one, @RoyalFoetus, already claiming 5,500 followers. On June 19, it declared: “One is done with gestating.”
International media are camped outside St Mary’s Hospital in London where Catherine is due to give birth, and a row of parking spaces have been reserved by the royals outside the private Lindo Wing until the end of the month.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the 31-year-old’s gynaecologist, Marcus Setchell, will be given a police escort to hospital when she goes into labour.
It has previously been reported that Setchell had given up alcohol for several weeks in preparation for the birth.
In the absence of any proper news about the baby, such tidbits formed the bulk of the royal coverage in Britain’s normally hard-hitting Sunday newspapers.
The Sunday Express reported exclusively that Catherine had spent the weekend at her parents’ home in Berkshire, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) west of London.
Meanwhile the Mail on Sunday published a poll revealing that 53 percent of Britons think William and Catherine should not hire a nanny.
A further 56 percent think she should cut back significantly on her royal duties after the birth.
The paper said that palace officials expected Catherine to resume some public engagements in the autumn — provided of course, that the baby ever arrives.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy has seen her endure illness, media frenzies, bikini shot scandals and a prank that ultimately ended in tragedy.
The news that Prince William’s wife Catherine was expecting a baby was released on December 3, after she was taken to hospital suffering from acute morning sickness.
Three days earlier, Kate had shown no sign of discomfort as she played hockey on a visit to one of her former schools.
The new arrival will be directly in line to inherit the British throne after William, who is second-in-line after his father Prince Charles.
But joy at the news of a baby tinged with concern for the duchess’s condition, soon turned to anger and then tragedy.
During her three-night stay at King Edward VII’s Hospital in London, a hoax phonecall made by two Australian radio presenters — pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II and William’s father Prince Charles — resulted in details of Kate’s condition being divulged.
The stunt, by Michael Christian and Mel Greig, triggered a global media storm of its own and sparked a backlash against the presenters and the radio network.
Jacintha Saldanha, the Indian nurse who answered and put through the call, was found hanged on December 7, having taken her own life.
William and Kate were left “deeply saddened” by her death, a spokesman said.
England’s state prosecutors eventually decided not to bring any charges against the radio hosts, saying that “however misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank”.
Looking well, Kate returned to public duties on December 16 at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards, handing Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins the main trophy.
But in February, pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge holidaying on the Caribbean island of Mustique were printed in Italian and Australian publications, showing Kate in a bikini, her baby bump clearly visible.
Infuriated, St James’s Palace called it a “clear breach of the couple’s right to privacy”. It came after topless pictures of the duchess had been published the previous September, incensing the royals.
Britain’s media got themselves into a frenzy in early March, believing Kate had accidentally given away the sex of their baby while meeting members of the public on a visit to a fishing town.
National newspapers ran front-page headlines reading “It’s a girl!”.
However, recordings of the exchange revealed nothing of the sort.
“Is this for us? Oh, thank-you so much, it’s very, very sweet of you,” she said as she was handed a teddy bear.
“Did you nearly say my daughter?” a 67-year-old woman a few metres away asked shortly afterwards.
“No, no, no,” the duchess replied. “We don’t know”.
But the molecule of confusion was enough to get the papers all in a lather.
“Obviously, Will’s grown up in it, but Kate’s become very used to that kind of circus,” said Claire Irvin, editor-in-chief of Mother and Baby magazine.
The duchess carried out her final solo public engagement on June 13, launching a new liner in the southern English port of Southampton, sending a 15-litre bottle of champagne smashing into its hull.
Two days later …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Since the start of their relationship, Prince William and Kate Middleton, now Duchess of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Philip Treacy, milliner to royalty and darling of divas, has an imagination as riotous as the Irish mind can get. Raised with eight siblings in rural County Galway, he has conquered the fashion world with his surreal toppers for the human head. He has been the last word on “In” – having designed fabulous crowns for Madonna, Stella McCartney, Naomi Campbell, Sarah Jessica Parker, and 36 royal guests at the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. That display of Treacy’s visions prompted worldwide sales of Fascinators to grow by 300 percent.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
If you believe the bookmakers, the first child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge will be a girl, and she will be called Alexandra.
British bookies firm Coral has slashed the odds on the name to 2-1 from 25-1 after receiving an unusually large flurry of bets on it.
Spokesman Simon Clare said Thursday the company had taken 10,000 bets on various names, but he was surprised to see about 2,000 pounds ($3,080) in bets on Alexandra in a matter of hours.
Rivals William Hill and Ladbrokes also have Alexandra as 2-1 favorite.
Earlier, Coral suspended bets on the baby being a girl. The royal couple say they don’t know the gender, but last month Kate Middleton appeared to let slip that it was a girl.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/NIGEL01DVDg/
A private U.S. company is to take over the work of Britain’s military search-and-rescue helicopter service, whose pilots include Prince William.
The Department for Transport announced Tuesday that Houston, Texas-based, Bristow Group has won a 1.6 billion pound ($2.4 billion) contract to operate the service, which for 70 years has been run by Royal Navy and Royal Air Force squadrons.
Bristow Managing Director Mike Imlach said the company would replace Britain’s aging Sea Kings with more advanced helicopters to provide a better service. But unions said they were concerned about the privatization.
Prince William flies a Sea King on rescue missions for the Royal Air Force.
His tour is due to end later this year, before the air force stops its search and rescue operations in 2016.
ALDERSHOT, England, March 17 (UPI) — Britain’s Kate Middleton says she and Prince William are split on whether they want to have a boy or a girl and that they have not yet chosen a name.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
We get pretty excited about royal weddings — seriously. But what about those long lulls in which not a single noble ties the knot? Thankfully, we have society weddings to hold us over.
Sir Richard Branson‘s son Sam Branson wed Isabella Calthorpe last week in South Africa during a five-day fête chock full of royals and celebs. The extravagant activity roster — which included costume parties, safaris and bongo lessons — earned the event the nickname “the nearly royal wedding.”
Unlike a royal wedding, however, Hello! magazine was on the guest lists to report on all of the aforementioned celebrations. In case you’re not so familiar with British society circles, the bride is an actress, daughter to a *real* Lady Mary and half sister to Prince Harry’s latest flame Cressida Bonas. Oh, and she’s that infamous girl who got away from Prince William (he courted her during the on-again-off-again phase of his relationship with Kate Middleton).
