Duchesses Kate & Meghan Won’t Be Sporting Matching Baby Bumps Anytime Soon

Duchesses Kate and Meghan aren’t both going through pregnancy together, despite misleading (or downright false) claims made by a family of celebrity gossip magazines.

As the old adage goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” And the prospect of royal sisters-in-law both being pregnant at the same time – Kate with her fourth, Meghan with her first, twins even! – is just too juicy to pass up. And in the absence of fact, says Gossip Cop, a couple of magazines just made stuff up.

Here’s the thing: celebrity gossip magazines rely on tips and “insider sources” for their stories. Some do a better job than others at checking them out. Star and the National Enquirer, for example, are at the bottom of the barrel of reliability, according to The Atlantic, while In Touch Weekly is not going to win any Pulitzers but is generally reliable.

Or, it was. The magazine has been bought out by entertainment ownership group AMI, and the magazine’s new ownership group has apparently decided that what works for the lowest common denominator is good enough for all of the magazines it owns. And so it was that when In Touch Weekly reported that the two Duchesses are both pregnant it was just doing what its sister celebrity gossip magazines do: misleading readers (or, to be less charitable, lying through its teeth).

Tabloids: This week, the duchesses (duchessi?) are pregnant! And due on the same day! And Meghan’s having twins! https://t.co/rA1S8IjYNL pic.twitter.com/d92S3AYYZU

— Hamilton Spectator (@TheSpec) July 16, 2018

“Kate and Meghan bonded over the men they married. Now they’re bonding over being pregnant together… While the pregnancies are the subject of plenty of palace buzz, the duchesses have only shared their news with a small group of friends and family.”

Now at this point it bears noting that both of the Duchesses could be pregnant, but they’re almost certainly not, for reasons you’ll read below. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that one or the other or both may have a bun, or buns, in the oven, and that Kensington Palace is keeping mum (so to speak). But…

Meghan and Prince Harry were spotted in Dublin this week having a meal at a pub, and Meghan was drinking Guinness. It’s all but certain that the Duchess of Sussex is fully aware that pregnant women shouldn’t drink. And as for Kate, the ink is barely dry on Prince Louis’ birth certificate, and her history of pregnancies demonstrates that she likes to space them out a bit more. Also, she’s already had three. As People reports, that in itself is something of a shocking break from Royal tradition (“an heir and a spare,” as the old saying goes). A fourth would lead to so much gasping and pearl-clutching around the Realm that there would be a rift in the space-time continuum.

So no, the two Duchesses are almost certainly not pregnant.