Duchess of Cambridge pregnant: Prince Charles makes gender request for second royal baby

The Prince of Wales said news of a second grandchild was "wonderful" but hoped for a particular chromesomal pairing

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cambridge at The Order Of The Garter Service in June 2014

Prince Charles has a royal request for his daughter-in-law over the next nine months – make thee a baby granddaughter this time.

Kensington Palace confirmed that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting her second child on Monday (8 September) after giving birth to her first, Prince George, in July 2013.

The Prince of Wales told “well-wishers”, as people interested in royal baby news are apparently called, that he thought the announcement was “wonderful”.

“I'm happy I'm going to be a grandfather again,” he told said “wishers”.

“I'm looking forward to it – but I hope it will be a girl this time.”

As with her pregnancy with Prince George, the Duchess is suffering from acute morning sickness - hyperemesis gravidarum. She is being treated inside Kensington Palace this time, rather than a private hospital.

Kensington Palace said the Duchess's attendance at forthcoming events would be decided on a “case-by-case” basis.

“There are a number of forthcoming engagements so we took the decision to be fully open about it at this point,” a palace spokeswoman said. “One is the forthcoming visit to Malta and a decision on that will be taken closer to the time.”

Among the events of national significance coming up is, of course, the vote for Scottish Independence on 18 September. Political commentary on whether the announcement could be just the thing to save the union was rife. But Alistair Darling, the leader of the pro-Union Better Together campaign, soon put a stop to the speculation by declaring the royal baby to be “above politics”.