Prince William spoke¹ openly yesterday of his concern for his poorly wife – just hours after royal officials were forced to announce that the couple are expecting their second child in the spring.

 

The Duchess of Cambridge is today being cared for by doctors at the couple"s Kensington Palace apartment after suffering from a debilitating² bout³ of hyperemesis gravidarum.

 

It is the same extreme sickness that blighted⁴ the early weeks of her pregnancy⁵ with Prince George, now 13 months old.

 

After an engagement at Oxford⁶ University, William said: "She's feeling okay. It's been a tricky⁷ few days – [well] week or so – but obviously we are basically thrilled. It's great news [but] early days. We"re hoping things settle down and she feels a bit better."

 

He added: "I"m going to go and look after her now."

 

Kate, 32, was last pictured in public little more than a week ago, arriving at King"s Cross Station with William and their dog Lupo after a break in Norfolk. The duchess, by then in the early stages of pregnancy, was laden⁸ down with bags.

 

She is now little more than six to eight weeks into her second pregnancy – well below the 12-week "safe" point at which mothers-to-be traditionally announce that they are expecting. The new baby is due in the spring, around April.

 

Only a handful of the couple"s closest family and aides – including the Queen and the Middletons – had been told of the news, and only then because her sickness came on again so quickly.

 

By Sunday afternoon, however, it had become apparent that she was in no fit state to continue with the busy programme of public engagements planned this week.

 

Staff were informed that she would have to pull out of yesterday's high-profile visit to Oxford University with her husband to open a centre devoted⁹ to the study of China, a country the couple have been mooted¹⁰ to visit next year.

 

University officials were made aware of the development shortly before 10am yesterday, but not told why until the media had been informed just over 15 minutes later.

 

A source said: "They really didn't want to make this news public so soon. The duchess is not even 12 weeks pregnant yet.

 

"But when it became clear that she would not be able to attend the visit and that a number of forthcoming engagements would be affected¹¹, the duke and duchess made the difficult decision to be fully¹² open about the pregnancy.

 

"It wasn't a decision they were comfortable with having to make but they felt they couldn"t just keep saying all week that she was ill."

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