Kate is pregnant with her second child
Kate Middleton decided to have two children less than two years apart because she intends to have a third child before she is 35, a media report claimed today.
Friends have reportedly said that the reason why the 32-year-old Duchess of Cambridge is having two babies within less than two years is because she wants to have three by the time she is 35, The Times reported.
Kensington Palace announced on September 8 that she was pregnant with her second child.
The announcement was made before she had her 12-week scan because she is suffering from acute morning sickness. Assuming the new baby is born around April or May - the Palace has not announced the due date - there will be an age gap of around 21-22 months between Prince George, who was born in July 2013, and his younger sibling.
Kate has reportedly told friends that she would like "at least" three children to give Prince George and her second baby the chance of having the sort of family environment she had.
A friend was quoted as saying recently, "Kate has been talking about having at least three children, which is why she is keen to be pregnant again."
Prince William has said in the past that he would be happy to have two children.
Their respective preferences may well reflect their own upbringing. William was one of two brothers, while Kate was one of three.
The Royal Family has had a pattern recently of having two children - Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward all had two each. Queen Elizabeth II, of course, had four children, although there was a 10-year gap between the first two and the second two. The Queen had Edward when she was 37.
The Duchess is famously close to her family, and in particular her siblings Pippa and James. The Duchess is 20 months older than her sister, and less than five years older than her brother.
Her happy memories of her own childhood were reflected in the couple's decision to take George to spend time with his Middleton grandparents in Bucklebury within days of his birth. The Duchess, who is believed to be six to eight weeks pregnant, cancelled her appearance at an engagement in Oxford yesterday because she was unwell with hyperemesis gravidarum, the condition which saw her hospitalised at the beginning of her first pregnancy.