Experts predicted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would go on to have three children.
And today’s pregnancy announcement from Kensington Palace has proved them right.
But Kate’s ‘rogueish’ uncle Gary Goldsmith, 52, believes the royal couple won’t stop at three babies – and suggested they could follow in the Queen’s footsteps by having four children.
Kate and William, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, so far have two children, Princess Charlotte (left), and heir Prince George (right) with a third on the way
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh had four children: sons Prince Andrew (right) , Prince Charles (centre back), Prince Edward (centre) and daughter Princess Anne (left back) – pictured 1968 at the Frogmore Estate
Mr Goldsmith, a millionaire businessman, said of the pregnancy news: ‘It’s the best news I’ve had so far this year. She’s a natural mother.
‘I wonder if she will stop at three? I doubt it. They are having such fun with the babies.’
By getting pregnant a third time, Kate and William have already broken the mould set by the previous generation, as all of the Queen’s children went on to have two children.
William’s only other sibling is, of course, Prince Harry, so experts believe he may have needed convincing about having another baby.
Kate on the other hand is one of three, and had a happy home life with her sister, Pippa Matthews, and brother, James Middleton, and is close to both of her siblings.
Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, had two children: William and Harry
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had four children: their heir, Charles (right), Anne (left), Andrew (centre), and Edward. Pictured with three of their children in 1960 in the grounds of Balmoral Castle
By having more than two offspring, William and Kate could be following in the footsteps of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who went on to have four children – although there was a gap of 10 years between their second child, Anne, and third, Andrew.
An age gap of less than two years between Prince George and Princess Charlotte gave Kate enough time to try for a third before she reached her late 30s, when women’s fertility starts to decline more rapidly.
It is thought William needed convincing about having another baby, however.
On an overseas tour to Singapore in 2012, when he was asked by a group of teenagers how many children he would like to have, he said he was ‘thinking about having two’.
The couple talked openly of having a family when they announced their engagement and planned ahead by saving the top of their wedding cake – traditionally served at the christening of a first-born.
It is unlikely they will have as many children as William’s great-great-great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who had nine offspring.
Carole and Michael Middleton had three children: James (pictured with sister Pippa, left), Pippa and Kate (pictured together at Wimbledon in 2012, right)
Despite her large brood, domineering Victoria disliked being pregnant and was said to not be at all maternal.
Betting on a third child for William and Kate began to take off in the run-up to Charlotte’s christening when the princess was only nine weeks old.
On a royal tour of Poland in July 2017, Kate joked about having a third – after being given a present designed for newborns.
She speculated about the prospect of another child when she was offered a cuddly toy designed to soothe tiny babies during an event for start-up tech companies in Warsaw.
Saying thank you for the present, she turned to the Duke, laughing, and said: ‘We will just have to have more babies.’