The second child of Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi is born eleventh in line to the throne.
The royal baby will be a sibling for the couple’s three-year-old daughter, Sienna, who is currently 10th in line to the throne.
Beatrice’s younger sister, Princess Eugenie, is currently in 11th place, but will drop to 12th once the baby is born.
The late Queen’s granddaughter, 36, and Mr Mozzi, 40, are preparing to welcome a new addition to their family in early spring.
The baby will also be a sibling to Mapelli Mozzi’s son and Beatrice’s stepson, eight-year-old Wolfie, who is not in the line of succession.
The second child of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi becomes eleventh in line to the throne
Today, a new photo was released of Princess Beatrice – wearing a black puffer jacket – smiling at the camera as she is embraced by Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who stares at his wife
Their new child will not be an HRH (His or Her Royal Highness) or Prince or Princess – nor will they need the monarch’s permission to marry.
For hundreds of years, the Royal Marriages Act 1772 meant that descendants of George II had to seek the sovereign’s permission before marrying or their marriages were considered invalid.
But this law was repealed by the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which limited permission to only the first six people in the line of succession.
Because the new baby is eleventh in line, they don’t have to ask permission from a monarch to get married at this time.
George III, grandson of George II, had ordered the 1772 Act after his younger brother, the Duke of Cumberland, secretly married Lady Anne Horton, who was considered a very infamous widow of a commoner.
Beatrice is the eldest daughter of the Duke of York and his ex-wife Sarah, and the new baby will be the Yorks’ fourth grandchild.
He or she will also be the late Queen Elizabeth II’s fourteenth great-grandchild, and the second to be born since her death in 2022, following the arrival of Eugenie’s second child Ernest last year.
Mapelli Mozzis’ daughter Sienna, whose middle name Elizabeth bears in honor of the late Queen, was born at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on September 18, 2021, weighing 2.8 kg.
Beatrice married millionaire property magnate Mapelli Mozzi in a secret lockdown wedding in 2020, attended by her grandparents the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, after her planned ceremony was postponed due to the pandemic.
Mr. Mapelli Mozzi, known as Edo, is the son of former Olympic skier Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi and Nikki Williams-Ellis.
His son Christopher Woolf, nicknamed Wolfie, was born in 2016 to his then girlfriend, the American architect and designer Dara Huang.
Another new family photo has been shared to mark the announcement, showing blonde-haired Sienna from behind as she walks down a country lane, holding hands in the middle of her dad and big brother Wolfie. The little boy, with a red bow in her hair, is dressed in bright yellow boots and an all-in-one blue waterproof pee suit decorated with cloud and bird motifs
Princess Beatrice’s younger sister, Princess Eugenie, is currently ranked 11th, but will drop to twelfth once the baby is born. The sisters are pictured together at a garden party at Haven House Children’s Hospice in Woodford Green on September 10
Beatrice has described Wolfie as her ‘bonus son’ and he joined the Mapelli Mozzis at Kate’s Together At Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey last December, holding his stepmother’s hand when he arrived.
The princess, who is not a full-time working royal, is a consultant for Afiniti, an artificial intelligence software company, and co-founder of The Big Change Charitable Trust.
She has a number of royal patronages including the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Center.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement: ‘Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are very pleased to announce that they are expecting their second child together in early spring; a sibling for Wolfie, eight years old, and Sienna, three years old.
“His Majesty the King has been informed and both families are delighted by the news.”