Once upon a time there was a story the media dreamed of for months…
Finally, it came to pass that Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton became pregnant.
Soon after, the parody Twitter accounts were born
The predictions
BREAKING: #royalbaby is a girl. Well, it might be. If it is, I was first. If it’s not, well we all make mistakes.
— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) December 3, 2012
And, from BuzzFeed, “what to expect while Kate’s expecting”
The explainers
The puns (good and bad)
- Huffington Post UK
- Daily Caller
The tabloids that might have been right
The Storifys
The media scrum
- Members of the media position themselves, as a policeman stands guard outside the King Edward VII hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted with a severe form of morning sickness, in London, Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
And the overload
- The royals’ website crashed.
In case you need a refresher, here is a portion of the AP Stylebook on referring to nobility.
ROYALTY: Capitalize king, queen, prince and princess when they are used directly before one or more names; lowercase when they stand alone:
Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the queen. Kings George and Edward. Queen Mother Elizabeth, the queen mother.
Also capitalize a longer form of the sovereign’s title when its use is appropriate in a story or it is being quoted: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
Use Prince or Princess before the names of a sovereign’s children: Princess Anne, the princess; Prince Charles.
In references to the queen’s husband first reference should be Prince Philip (not Duke of Edinburgh, commonly used in Britain).
The male heir to the throne normally is designated Prince of Wales, and the title becomes, in common usage, an alternate name. Capitalize when used: The queen invested her eldest son as Prince of Wales. Prince Charles is now the Prince of Wales. The prince is married. His wife, Camilla, is called the Duchess of Cornwall.
Prince Charles’ eldest son is Prince William. Prince William’s wife, the former Kate Middleton, is the Duchess of Cambridge.
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