Kate’s middle is in royal pain

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:59:00 +0000

"The whole world is watching my stomach." That's what she said. She said it before Twitter and TMZ, before the E! network and OK! magazine. It was 30 years ago, and the woman who uttered those words, Princess Diana, was pregnant with her first child. Now, that child she carried is about to have a child of his own, and the mother of that baby has already raised the bar for what it means to have the world's most-watched stomach. It's a royal pregnancy unlike any other. And as such, it's a unique opportunity to demystify the experience, and for Kate Middleton to become the future queen who proves that growing a baby is no fairy tale.

The announcement Monday that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was expecting was one that royal watchers have been waiting for since before Middleton even married Prince William. Over two years ago, in the couple's first official interview after their engagement, ITV's Tom Bradby eagerly begged, "Do you want lots of children?" (Subtext: "How soon can you two breed?") But the news that Kate was "finally" knocked up came with an unexpected and worrisome side note. The mother-to-be is currently in a London hospital for hyperemesis gravidarum, severe nausea and vomiting that affects a small percentage of pregnant women. Or, as Time explains about what's happening to the woman who is carrying a future monarch, "She’s throwing up. A lot."

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Kate’s middle is in royal pain