By Mary Best
Managing Editor
It’s been four days, and the royal baby already has five parody Twitter accounts.
In an announcement which took over social media, their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge a.k.a. Prince Will and Princess Kate announced Kate’s pregnancy on their official website on Monday.
Granted, this is nothing compared to the overwhelmingly exuberant media coverage of the Royal Engagement and the adorable couple’s wedding in April 2011, but the general public hasn’t even known about the pregnancy for a week and it’s still, unfortunately, taking the world by storm.
You can follow the Royal Baby in what might be the longest-running live tweet in history — nine months of undoubtedly exciting action from Kate’s womb!
The best part is, you have plenty of options. @RoyalFoetus, @Royal_Fetus, @IamRoyalBaby, @UnbornRoyal and@HRHBaby are all Twitter handles probably created by obsessive fans of the royal family with far too much free time.
And that’s just the beginning. Kate’s pregnancy still made headline news across the world, and if you look at the array of headlines announcing the news, it’s not hard to deduce how each news outlet decided to throw a different spin on the story.
While People kept it appropriate with “She’s Pregnant! Kate and Prince William Expecting First Child,” there was the always discreet front page of the Huffington Post with “Preggers!” the expected “How Will Kate Dress Belly Bump?” from dish.com and, my personal favorite, the Daily Mail taking the cake with, “Queen DIDN’T KNOW Kate was pregnant: Rushed revelation of 1st child as Wills drives wife to hospital with acute morning sickness.”
Let’s just all breathe for a second.
Their Royal Highnesses addressed Kate’s hospitalization in their announcement, saying, “The Duchess was admitted this afternoon to King Edward VII Hospital in Central London with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, Her Royal Highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter,” according to their website. It also describes Hyperemesis Gravidarum as a very acute form of morning sickness requiring supplementary hydration and nutrients.
Kate’s just in the beginning of her pregnancy, and she doesn’t deserve to have fake Twitter accounts dictating the activities of her child, even if it’s just for fun.
If I were in the public eye, (although, who isn’t nowadays?), I wouldn’t want every detail of my pregnancy hashed out in various descriptions all over the internet.
There’s no denying Kate is beloved by the people, whether those people be her future subjects or her adoring fans across the sea. If we really loved her, shouldn’t we calm down and just let her relax and recover so she can enjoy her special time with Will and her family?
I’m sure the Royal Baby will be beautiful, and I am just as excited as the next person to learn about the name and gender, when Will and Kate choose to announce it.
Seriously though, we gotta take a breather before creating social media profiles for an unborn child. The last time I remember this much hype about a royal baby, an evil sorceress put her under a curse and tried to kill her with an ancient sewing machine.
