It's a girl! Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth to her second child following five hour labour.

Source: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have become the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl, a new little princess of the realm.

The long-awaited royal daughter was delivered at 11am at the private Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. 

It is understood that William was at the hospital with his wife while, the couple’s nanny, Maria Borrallo, looked after their eldest son, Prince George, who turns two in July, at Kensington Palace. 

William and Kate’s new daughter, a younger sister for Prince George, who was born at the same hospital in July 2013, is fourth in line to the throne.

Although she is unlikely to ever become queen, it is not unheard of for a second child in the direct line of succession to accede to the throne.

Mostly recently the Queen’s own father, King George V1, replaced his elder brother, King Edward V111, who abdicated over his love for the ‘unsuitable’ American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Thanks to a recent change in the law, the couple’s daughter cannot be superseded in her claim to the throne by any younger brother who may yet come along.

The Succession to the Crown Act, passed in 2013, means that male heirs no longer precede their elder sisters in the line of succession

A 2012 intervention by the Queen also means that the new baby will automatically become an HRH – Her Royal Highness – and be permitted to take the title of princess.

As the second child of the second heir to the throne she would, until then, only have been a Lady.

Her arrival will shunt his uncle, Prince Harry, down to fifth in the order of succession. Her great uncle, Prince Andrew, will fall out of the top five for the first time to sixth.

Many royal watchers had been desperately hoping for a girl – the last to be born in the direct line of succession was Princess Anne back in 1950.

Both Prince Charles and William’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, both openly longed for a girl to add to their family.

Indeed when congratulated by a member of the public about the news that he would become a grandfather again last year, he said candidly; ‘It’s wonderful to be a grandfather again. I’m looking forward to it. But I hope it will be a girl this time.’

Kate herself has said William was hoping for a daughter, although his brother, Prince Harry, joked William probably doesn’t realise what he is taking on

However it was made public only after the Queen and other family members had been informed, including Prince Charles, now a grandfather twice over, the baby’s uncle Prince Harry, who is currently on an army detachment in Australia, and, of course, Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who will play a dominant part in their new grandchild’s life.

The Duchess had been admitted to the Lindo, where Prince William was himself born and a natural birth can cost in excess of £12,000, in the early stages of labour at XXX [time].