Buckingham Palace: Duchess Meghan Gives Birth to Boy

American former actress turned British Royal Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex has given birth to a boy, Buckingham Palace confirmed Monday afternoon.

Meghan Markle, who became the Duchess of Sussex upon her marriage to British Royal Prince Henry — most commonly known by his chosen name Harry — went into labour in the early hours of Monday morning and gave birth to a son at 0526 BST.

This is Meghan’s and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex’s first child and Queen Elizabeth II’s seventh great-grandchild.

It could be several days before the chosen name for the child is announced.

Duchess Meghan has made headlines throughout her pregnancy with her public remarks on the future of her child, telling an audience at an International Women’s Day event that she felt the “embryonic kicking of feminism”, an ideology she said she hoped her child would embrace.

The official announcement by Buckingham Palace giving the gender of the child hours after the birth appear to stand at odds with Meghan’s publicly expressed desires. In March, the former Suits actress was reported to have told friends that she wanted to take a “fluid approach to gender” for her child, with British society magazine Vanity Fair claiming Meghan and Harry had already planned a gender-neutral nursery.

It has been a year for Royal great-grand-babies with Prince Louis, the youngest child of Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, celebrating his first birthday on St George’s Day and Zara and Mike Tindall welcoming baby girl Lena Elizabeth in the summer.

This story is developing. More follows.