Royal baby: Media frenzy begins

How the world's media have reacted to royal baby news. Photo / AFP

Reporters are staking out a hospital, news websites have launched live-blogs and a "forensic artist" has even engineered images of a yet to be born child.

It's official: Prince William and wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a baby.

Clarence House broke the news on Twitter - the tweet, simply reading "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby", has been re-tweeted more than 2,500 times.

The Duke and Duchesses website has since gone down due the heavy traffic.

Following the announcement, the hashtag "#Royalbaby" was trending worldwide on Twitter, while in the UK "#Kate" and "#UnlikelyRoyalBabyNames" were also trending.

The 24-hour news networks broadcasted live pictures of nothing happening outside the King Edward VII Hospital in London, where Catherine was taken after suffering from severe morning sickness.

"So far 14 news cameras, 4 sat trucks and dozens of snappers at King Edward VII hospital where #Kate #pregnant," BBC News reporter Philippa Thomas tweeted earlier, accompanied with a snap of the aforementioned mob.

The British tabloid websites celebrated in typical fashion. The Sun's retina-burning headline "BABY JOY FOR WILLS AND KATE" shouted the news in white on black, the Mirror deployed an exclamation mark in their lead story's headline "It's official! Kate and Wills announce they're expecting their first baby", while the Daily Mail opted for the essay-long, search engine grabbing headlines "Worried William spends hour at pregnant Kate's hospital bedside after she is placed on a drip to combat acute morning sickness" and "Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant: 'Incredibly happy but nervous' Royals forced to announce first child as Wills drives Kate to hospital with acute morning sickness (and the Queen didn't know)".

Some UK news sites, including the Guardian and the Telegraph, provided live-updates on the announcement, however there is no word yet on whether the birth itself will be live-blogged.

But the best coverage of the announcement came from the Mirror, who turned to US forensic artist Joe Mullins to predict what the heir would look like as a child.
According to Mullins, who studied photos of both Prince William and the Duchess to create the "incredible images", if the child is a boy it will "inherit many of William's features, including the famous Windsor ears", while a girl "is predicted to closer resemble Kate, with a high forehead, slightly pointed chin and long brown hair".
See the creepy photos here.