Royal Wedding
Bets on for a new year baby
April 28, 2011
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Nancy J. White
LIVING REPORTER
Prince William and his bride, Kate, will announce next year that they are having a baby. Or so say British bookies, who are taking bets on it.
An upcoming royal bump is common sense. Prince William and Kate Middleton, both edging up to thirty, make no secret of their desire for a family. Besides, the job of polishing up public enthusiasm for the crown lies with the young couple. And what’s a monarchy without heirs and spares? Royalphiles drool at the prospect of a babe-in-arms for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in early June next year.
So even before Wills and Kate exchange wedding vows, musings about the next generation abound. In case the couple’s first offspring is a girl, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg wants to ditch the first-born boy royal succession law.
Bloggers are already suggesting best baby names: For a girl, Diana gets the sentimental vote and Charles or William, junior, the play-it-safe bets. (Traditional monikers, however, may be passé. Note Queen Elizabeth’s first great-grandchild: Savannah.)
But the big question is what will the baby look like? Could the child bear a resemblance to Princess Diana or, well, Queen Victoria?
It’s a toss of the genetic dice, as any parent knows. Science offers only some clues. The child will likely be of fair complexion and grow tall and lanky. Height is determined by many genes, says geneticist Maria Papaconstantinou, and this offspring will get no shortage of ones tending tall. Prince William is 6-foot, 3-inches, and Kate is 5-foot, 10-inches.
Brown hair colour usually dominates, but the child’s crown could be any hue from blond to dark brown, even reddish like Uncle Harry, says Papaconstantinou, a genetics lecturer at the University of Toronto. If it’s a boy, he will likely inherit the male-pattern baldness of his father and grandfather Charles.
For eye colour, more genes play a part than originally thought, she explains, but the Windsor kids’ eyes would probably be blue or hazel, similar to their parents, maybe even green.
Sadly, a child could get Granddad Charles’ big ears. Just because William and Harry dodged that gene doesn’t mean it’s not lurking in the pool.
Twins could be in the royal lineup. Kate’s paternal grandmother, Valerie Glassborow, had a twin sister.
If the Glassborow girls were fraternal twins, Kate could have inherited the hyperovulation gene. But if they were identical, meaning an egg had split, then there’s not a genetic component, explains the geneticist.
A more sure bet is that baby Windsor, like many crinkly newborns, will indeed look like a famous Brit, Winston Churchill.