Duchess up the duff

[Gob]

The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby, St James's Palace has announced.



Members of the Royal Family and the duchess's family, the Middletons, are said to be delighted.

A spokesman said the duchess, who is thought to be less than 12 weeks pregnant, has been admitted to a London hospital with acute morning sickness and is likely to stay for several days.

The royal baby will be born third in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William.

He or she will one day be head of the armed forces, supreme governor of the Church of England, head of state of the UK and, subject to approval by the Commonwealth, 15 other countries.

Catherine and William, who are both 30, were married at Westminster Abbey in April 2011, and it will be their first child.

[The Hen]

Yay. A royal baby to a couple who appear to be in love.

I bet I can guess what kinds of stories will now appear on a daily basis in the Daily Mail.

I look forward to it all with relish.

(Which, coincidently, is how it is recommended that you eat your babies.)

[Daisy]

The Daily Mail will be as nothing to the simpering Diana tribute rag that us the Daily Express.

But good luck to them, they seem genuinely in love and happy, unlike his parents.

[Lord Jim]

Royal Twins?

Medical experts are buzzing that Kate Middelton's hospitalization with hyperemesis gravidarum, a violent version of morning sickness, could be a sign that the world's most famous mom and dad to be could be expecting twins.

Dr. Ashley Roman, of New York University Langone Medical Center, told ABC Nightline that women carrying twins had a 7.5 percent higher risk of experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum. If that's the case, which of the children would be the future heir? "The question of twins is an interesting one when you are talking about Royal succession. It has never arose [sic] before,” one constitution expert tells The Huffington Post. “The first twin born would be the heir no matter if it were a boy or girl given the new rules -- until now it was always the first boy that was first in line." Or, as royalty expert and ABC contributor Victoria Arbiter told E! News, "All it really means in one fail [sic] swoop we would have provided the nation with an heir and a spare. So job done really!"

But our royal source raises another important point: "What would be very interesting is if Kate had a caesarean section. Talk about pressure on the doctor -- he or she would effectively be the future Monarch. Can you image if Kate was carrying a boy and a girl and had a c-section? The conspiracy theories would begin.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/0 ... 40441.html

Gee, this could set up a Man In The Iron Mask situation....

[Crackpot]

DOes this mean Harry will lock them in a tower and eventually kill them in an attempt to usurp the throne?

[TPFKA@W]

DOes this mean Harry will lock them in a tower and eventually kill them in an attempt to usurp the throne?

Why not?

[oldr_n_wsr]

But where is Rupunzel?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Here you go oldr

[Scooter]

This turned out pretty horribly:

The nurse receptionist at a central London hospital that treated the Duchess of Cambridge for severe morning sickness has apparently committed suicide, only two days after falling for a prank by two Australian radio DJs.

The DJs, posing as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, called the King Edward VII Hospital on Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m. to inquire about Kate’s condition and were patched through to another nurse, who revealed private health details about the duchess.

Australian radio personalities Mel Greig and Michael Christian later apologized for the hoax — sheepishly noting that they were surprised that the call was put through and that their Australian accents were not detected.

Authorities found Jacintha Saldanha unconscious at 9:30 a.m. local time on Friday, according to UK media reports. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The hospital confirmed in a statement she was the employee who’d been the victim of a recent hoax.

“Jacintha has worked at the King Edward VII’s Hospital for more than four years,” John Lofthouse, the hospital’s CEO, said in a statement. “She was an excellent nurse and well-respected and popular with all of her colleagues.”

Lofthouse said the hospital had been helping Saldanha through a “very difficult time” after the prank phone call.

[Lord Jim]

Wow...

How bizarre...

I don't really see any way to blame the DJs though...

As practical jokes go, this one was fairly mild, and there's certainly no way they could have been expected to have foreseen that somebody would take their life over it....(nevertheless, those two must really feel awful....)

This seems like such an odd thing to motivate one's self to commit suicide over, I really have to wonder if there weren't other things going on in this poor woman's life that could have been involved....

[TPFKA@W]

I imagine that she took a great deal of "kidding" which can actually be quite cruel.

It's all fun and games till someone winds up dead.

[Joe Guy]

...I really have to wonder if there weren't other things going on in this poor woman's life that could have been involved....

No way!

She was a very well adjusted person with no problems in her life and the fake phone call killed her.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Between her and the football player who killed and then committed suicide, I think alcohol played a part in it. Many an alcoholic, and even a heavy drinker, will have remorse, regret and guilt the day after their drinking. Sometimes to the point of suicide. While I myself have not had feelings of suicide I have had many a morning of remorse, regret and guilt, very heavy in fact.

If one drinks due to outside influences and has a history of doing that, then the morning after (or whenever they get up from their bender) usually brings much of a downward attitude, sometimes very down.

But only guessing/speculating.
What do I know, I'm only and alcoholic.

[Gob]

Mrs Saldanha, a duty nurse who was married with two children, answered the telephone because it was 05:30 GMT and there was no receptionist on duty.

Oh god, that is sad.

[Gob]

JACINTHA Saldanha, the British-Indian nurse who was found dead in her lodgings after answering an Australian hoax phone call about the Duchess of Cambridge, had reportedly tried to kill herself twice before, and was suffering depression.

On the same day, India's Deccan Herald newspaper reported that Ms Saldanha had been hospitalised after twice trying to commit suicide within the space of nine days, during a family holiday in India last December and January.

The first time she was taken to a private hospital in Mangalore after an overdose of pills. The second time she was taken to Father Muller Medical College Hospital in the same city with head injuries after apparently jumping from a building.

Deccan Herald said Ms Saldanha was diagnosed as suffering a ''depressive disorder''. She received psychiatric treatment in hospital and was prescribed anti-depressants.

Ms Saldanha's brother, Naveen Saldanha, confirmed his sister was hospitalised after a serious fall, but said that she never sought to discuss her health and life issues.

In Shirva, where Ms Saldanha was buried last week, family friends confirmed to Fairfax Media that she had been depressed.

''She had a history of depression, you can judge this from the pictures of her. Recent pictures show a different Jacintha,'' one family friend said.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/hoax-call-n ... z2Fv9SGFye

[Gob]

British prosecutors said they would not bring charges over a hoax call by two Australian radio DJs to the hospital where Prince William’s pregnant wife Catherine was being treated.


The Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday there was no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter, despite the fact that Indian-born Jacintha Saldanha, 46, apparently committed suicide after answering the call.

It added that while there was some evidence of possible offences under data protection laws ‘‘no further investigation is required because any potential prosecution would not be in the public interest’’.

Malcolm McHaffie, Deputy Head of Special Crime at the Crown Prosecution Service, said police had handed them a file in December and asked advice about whether a prosecution should be brought.

He added: ‘‘It is not possible to extradite individuals from Australia in respect of the potential offences in question.

‘‘However misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank.’’

‘‘The consequences in this case were very sad. We send our sincere condolences to Jacintha Saldanha’s family.’’




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv- ... z2JhVwMyPj

[oldr_n_wsr]

Sometimes it only takes a tap to send one over the edge.

[Lord Jim]

This poor lady had apparently tipped twice before...

I think the authorities did exactly the right thing here...

They waited until the furor had subsided, and then announced the decision they probably had made much earlier. As unfortunate as this is, there was simply no justification for charging the DJs with manslaughter.

[Gob]

Agreed.