Royal Babywatch Fans and bookies await baby news as WillKat celebrate first wedding anniv

Royal Babywatch

Fans and bookies await baby news as WillKat celebrate first wedding anniv

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine will this weekend mark a triumphant first year of marriage as a hopeful nation waits for news of a royal heir. The couple has lost none of their popularity in Britain and abroad, 12 months after their fairytale wedding drew cheering crowds and two billion TV viewers, with one royal expert crediting them with “saving the monarchy”. But fans are still awaiting word that they are expecting a baby, and the former Kate Middleton appears to have bucked a royal trend. Royal biographer Andrew Morton told a year ago: “If Kate is not pregnant in the next nine months, she’ll be defying 200 years of royal tradition.” Press speculation has been feverish and bookies are offering narrow odds on a new arrival in 2013, while succession rules were changed last year so that any daughter of the couple would be equal with boys in the queue for the throne. “William has said he'll take things one step at a time,” informed royal writer Robert Jobson. “But Kate is at 30, I'm sure she wants to start a family as soon as she can. She's been with this man for eight years of her life, she's clearly in love with him.” The pair will celebrate their anniversary on Sunday “privately”, a spokeswoman said, ahead of public appearances for the Queen's diamond jubilee in June and a joint trip to Singapore, Malaysia, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands.