Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage(LONDON) — Meghan Markle made history when she wed Prince Harry last May.
Now, Meghan, 37, is due to give birth to the couple’s first child. The baby will be seventh in line to the British throne.
The child of Meghan and Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, could hold dual American and British nationality, a first for a royal baby.
Meghan, a California native, will reportedly still be waiting for her British citizenship application to be approved by the time she gives birth.
Kensington Palace announced that Meghan would become a naturalized citizen of the U.K. after her engagement to Harry was made public in November 2017.
Kensington Palace said in November that Meghan would retain her U.S. citizenship as she undergoes the process of becoming a British citizen, which can take several years.
“From what I understand, Harry and Meghan will have to acquire documentation for their child to prove U.S. citizenship and it’s not clear if they will do that but of course the option is there,” said ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy.
Baby Sussex could also be the first mixed race child born into the royal family, although historians are divided.
Some royal historians have pointed out that when Queen Charlotte married King George III in the 1700s, he was believed to have descended from the black branch of the Portuguese royal family. The couple had 15 children, according to the British royal family’s website.
Meghan was born to a white father and a black mother and grew up as a biracial child in Los Angeles.
“There is no doubt that the British royal family has been, for centuries, made up predominantly of white Europeans and this baby’s arrival is a milestone in making the modern royal family more diverse,” Murphy said. “Modern Britain is multicultural but our royal family has not really reflected that themselves until now.”
When Harry and Meghan’s engagement was announced last year, black women celebrated having Meghan on the world’s stage.
“Black women miss Michelle Obama and I think we’ve been looking for somebody, something to be excited about,” Tykeia Robinson, co-host of the adulting podcast “Gettin’ Grown,” told ABC News in November. “We’ve not had someone to represent us in the media recently, and it’s just good to see something good happening to a woman, a black woman specifically, amidst all of the challenging news that we’ve been faced with this last few weeks.”
The diversity Meghan brings to the royal family was also noted at her wedding to Harry, which included a gospel choir and a sermon by Rev. Michael Curry, the first black leader of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and the first American to preach at a British royal wedding.
“The love between those two people, between that loyal couple, was so powerful, not only did we all show up, but it brought all these different worlds together,” Curry told ABC News’ Good Morning America last May. “It brought different nationalities, different ethnicities, different religious traditions, people of all stripes and types, people of different political persuasions.”
He continued, “Their love was a sign of God’s love and what that love can do in our lives. It brought together our African heritage, our British heritage, our American heritage.”
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