For those keeping score, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have already produced an heir and a spare. But the royal kiddie count could double if there's any truth to the speculation over the arrival of twins this spring. The Duchess, better known among celebrity followers as Kate Middleton, was reported pregnant in October and is expecting delivery in April.
They currently have four-year-old Prince George, who's fourth in line to rule the Commonwealth, as well as two-year-old Princess Charlotte. But the brouhaha over the forthcoming brood came by way of a headline in one magazine that is predicting twin girls for Middleton, crediting its source as a leak from Kensington Palace. In response, spokespersons for the royal couple declined to comment on the rumor.
It's been a story that's been circulating around London for weeks already. Even Prince William weighed in on the possibility, saying that four children would certainly tax his mental state. According to the prince, who claimed he could handle two kids, being a father to three children would permanently exhaust him.
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One bookie in London has calculated the odds of Middleton giving birth to twins would be four-to-one, taking into account that both Middleton and the prince's families have had a history of having twins. Prince Williams uncle Charles Spencer fathered twin girls, while his great-grandfather (and grandfather to Princess Diana, his mother) was Lord Fermoy, who had a twin brother named Francis Roche. Middleton's paternal grandmother was a twin, while her father includes two twin great-aunts in his lineage.
Scandinavian researchers have determined that women who've experienced severe cases of morning sickness, a condition Middleton has endured on the previous two occasions when she was pregnant, are more likely to deliver twins, although the numerical odds of that happening could not be determined.
However, an evolutionary scientist went as far to say that odds of those with morning sickness have a 2.5 percent chance of delivering twins. Those who didn't experience the condition were only 1.34 percent likely to give birth to a duo. Still, commented Dr. Yan Wong, in a BBC interview, those chances were quite low.