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LONDON - Prince Edward and his wife Sophie are expecting their second child later this year, Buckingham Palace has announced.
The couple were said to be "thrilled and excited" by the news, while the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were delighted for their youngest son and daughter-in-law, a spokeswoman said.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex already have a daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, who was born prematurely in 2003. She was the first of the Queen's grandchildren to be born in a National Health Service hospital.
"The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and members of both families are delighted with the news," the palace said in a statement. The baby will be their eighth grandchild.
In 2001, Sophie Wessex lost her unborn baby after an emergency operation for an ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo develops outside the womb.
Edward, 43, who is seventh in line to the throne, and Sophie, 42, met at a real tennis charity event in 1993 and married in Windsor six years later.
- REUTERS
