In other words, there are no images of a royal cuddling a growing baby as there are of Princess Diana, Kate Middleton, and Meghan Markle. The Queen has never been photographed while she was pregnant.
So why are there no pictures of a Queen Elizabeth II who is quite pregnant?
Well, the manners used in the past to handle royal pregnancies have a lot to do with it.
It has been customary for there to be a big announcement of a royal pregnancy, followed by months of photos of the expecting royal attending public events, culminating in a hospital step shot that has taken on a life of its own.
The longest-reigning monarch of Britain, though, didn’t experience it.
Her pregnancies were never made public. A statement from Buckingham Palace declared, “Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth will undertake no public engagements after the end of June,” in 1948 when the Queen became pregnant with Prince Charles.
It’s not exactly being yelled at from the rooftops.
The palace did not just conceal the Queen’s pregnancies; there were also no public images of the newborn children taken right after birth.
The Queen gave birth at Buckingham Palace, and the media was not allowed to photograph her newborns.
Princess Diana was the first to depart from the custom of giving birth at the palace when she delivered Prince William in a hospital in 1982.
Diana reportedly stated that the constant press attention was the reason she chose the hospital rather than the palace: “I couldn’t tolerate the press pressure any longer, it was becoming terrible. It was as if everybody was monitoring me every day for me.”
Charles’ first official photograph was taken during his Christening in December 1948, many months after his birth.
The fact that there were so few photos of the Queen looking obviously pregnant startled many people, with one commenter lamenting, “The Queen had four children yet I’ve never seen any photos of her looking obviously pregnant! I did some reading and at the time it was “improper” to display her stomach!
She would pretend she’s not taking on any royal duties for a while, then resurface with a baby! She never even announced her pregnancy!
Another person added: “Apparently being pregnant was forbidden, so she would go into hiding.”
What’s your speculation?
