Heir Apparent

Why William and Kate's firstborn, due in mid-July, is already a figure of global influence

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Patrick van Katwijk / DPA / Corbis

Catherine, pregnant Duchess of Cambridge, names a Princess Cruises ship 'Royal Princess' at Ocean Terminal, Southampton Docks, Hampshire, Britain, June 13, 2013.

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One tradition will not be observed: a custom that for centuries required the Home Secretary to witness the arrival of any potential future sovereign, to prevent birther-type conspiracies. That practice was abolished just before Queen Elizabeth delivered Prince Charles, William's father, and no government ministers are expected to be at Kate's side during her delivery. But the scrutiny of royals, and especially beautiful royal women, is in nearly every other way relentless. Princess Diana, the mother-in-law Kate never met, died as she had lived, with the paparazzi in pursuit. Kate's hospitalization in December for severe morning sickness precipitated an announcement of her pregnancy. An ill-judged prank call to the hospital by an Australian radio show triggered a tragedy when Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who inadvertently connected the pranksters, killed herself during the ensuing flurry of publicity.

Since that bleak episode, the narrative has been brighter, but the focus on Kate is just as unwavering, with a prurient documentation in the British press of the growing maternal bump and a swirl of supposed facts that range from informed speculation to purest invention.

Kate had repeatedly been declared pregnant, sometimes with twins, before she actually conceived. Since then, the reports have come fast and thick: She's breaking with tradition and won't employ a nanny, envisaging instead an enhanced role for her mother Carole, who is supposedly readying the Middleton home for the new parents to sojourn there with the baby for six weeks. Another story had her sister Pippa raising palace eyebrows by organizing a baby shower, a déclassé American custom. Britain's Daily Telegraph even claimed the ultimate scoop, based on a supposed slip of the tongue by the duchess: Baby Cambridge will be a girl. Bookmakers registered a flood of bets that the couple would name their daughter Alexandra, and this too has been reported as a racing certainty.

Some elements of this slew of stories may prove accurate. Others are plain wrong. The baby--there is only one Cambridge in the works--may be a Princess. Or a Prince. The parents have chosen to be surprised, says a royal official. They have not decided on a name. (Reports of a water birth, it might surprise you to know, are unfounded too.) The Middleton family's online business, Party Pieces, does market baby-shower products, featuring winsome elephants holding umbrellas--but there are no plans for a shower. It wouldn't be surprising if the duchess wished to spend time with her family. Nor would it be startling if the Cambridges grabbed a spell of solitude at the Queen's remote Scottish castle of Balmoral.

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