Baby On The Way For Britain's Royals

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Just as soon as it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge, that would be Kate Middleton, was pregnant, a slew of breathless headlines followed. To hear what this royal baby really means for the British, we're joined by Ingrid Seward. She's the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine.

Good morning.

INGRID SEWARD: Good morning.

MONTAGNE: Why don't we just start with - now, this isn't new news as of this morning. It's been out there since yesterday. But what's been going on in terms of the sort of things people are saying and how excited people are?

SEWARD: I think very - well, I think the media are very excited about it, because it's something that we've been waiting for. And there's been a lot of speculation, as you know. But I always thought the logical thing was that she would never get pregnant until she'd finished her jubilee duties, as it were, on behalf of the queen. And then I thought what she's going to do now is she's going to really try hard to get pregnant so she can conceive a child in jubilee year, which is exactly what's happened.

MONTAGNE: Well, in fact, though, it's very early in the pregnancy, and I would imagine that the reason that it has been announced this early is that she's been hospitalized because she's having some trouble.

SEWARD: Normally, a pregnancy, let alone a royal pregnancy, would never be announced at this sort of 10 or 11 week level. But they obviously took an executive decision that if Kate was going to have to get into hospital the palace needed to be the ones making the announcement, not the newspapers.

MONTAGNE: So what is the problem then? It's a very severe case of morning sickness?

SEWARD: Yes. And what happens is you just have extreme, extreme morning sickness, so you can't keep anything in your body and you lose weight rapidly and become dehydrated. So I think the baby is fine. It's her, I think, they're more worried about.

MONTAGNE: What about this new child? What, third in line to the throne?

SEWARD: Yes. I think the exciting thing about this child is that it doesn't matter if this child's a boy or a girl, it will be third in line to the throne. So you've got the queen, and then her direct heir, who is Prince Charles. Then his direct heir, which is Prince William. And then Prince William's direct heir, which is either this girl or a boy, whatever this child might be.

MONTAGNE: Well, just one last question. How are Britain's famous bookmakers taking this news?

SEWARD: Well, they've gone crazy. They're betting on names, and they're betting on what gender the child will be. And, you know, it's a (unintelligible)...

MONTAGNE: Due date, I'm sure.

SEWARD: ...they'll be betting on the color of the eyes. Anything, you can bet anything.

MONTAGNE: Right, right. And I suppose this is one of the more fun bets to be made.

SEWARD: Yes. I think, at the moment, or as of last night, one of the favorite names was something like Elizabeth. And there weren't very good odds for the more sort of way out names that people call their children these days.

MONTAGNE: Yes, I should imagine those would be very bad odds in this situation.

SEWARD: Well, it'll be a classic name. They're not going to call their child Apple, or Pear, or Orange or Peaches.

MONTAGNE: Well, thank you very much for taking the time to join us.

SEWARD: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

MONTAGNE: Ingrid Seward is the Editor-in-Chief of Majesty Magazine and she spoke to us from London.

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