"Overjoyed" Harry and Meghan expecting second child

Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are expecting their second child, a spokesperson for the couple said on Sunday.

Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, stepped back from royal duties in January 2020 and moved with their first son Archie to Southern California to live a more independent life and escape the British media.

"We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child," the spokesperson said.

Archie was born in May 2019.

The Valentine's Day announcement was accompanied by a black and white photograph of a visibly pregnant Meghan lying on grass with one hand on her stomach and her head resting on the smiling prince's leg. The photo was taken by longtime friend and photographer Misan Harriman.

Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, Harry's father Prince Charles and the whole family were "delighted" and wished the couple well, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said.

Since ending their royal duties, Harry and Meghan have continued charity work and signed TV and other media deals, launching their debut podcast in December.

Last year, Meghan revealed that she had a miscarriage in July, in an extraordinarily personal disclosure coming from a high-profile British royal.

The couple married in a glittering ceremony in 2018 that captured the world's attention but later gave up their official royal roles following disagreements with other family members and in the face of huge media attention.

Their relationship with the British press swiftly soured and the couple have launched legal cases against several newspapers.

Last week Meghan won a privacy claim against Associated Newspapers after its Mail on Sunday paper had printed extracts of a letter she wrote to her father in August 2018.