Royal Baby Alert! Bhutan's King and Queen Are Expecting Their Second Child
Bhutan’s royal family is gaining a new member in the new year!
To celebrate Bhutan’s national day, King Jigme Khesar gave his annual speech — which included a surprise. He announced that his wife, Queen Jetsun, is expecting their second child.
The couple are already parents to 3-year-old Prince Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel — also known as the Dragon Prince.
The new baby will be second in the line of succession to the Bhutan throne. However, if the child is a girl, she could be displaced by a future younger brother. (The British royals followed similar rules until the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which made birth order, not gender, the determining factor for the next heir to the throne. It made its first impact when Prince Louis was born in 2018, as Princess Charlotte did not lose her place as fourth in line to the throne.)
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The name of the Dragon Prince — who has wooed the world with his cheeky smile and perfectly coiffed hair — was revealed a few months after his birth. As is custom in Bhutan, his name was not revealed until after a special Buddhist naming ceremony.
“When the time comes for Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck to serve his country, he must always place the concerns of his country above all else and serve his people justly with great love and dedication,” King Jigme said at a public ceremony. “It will be his sacred responsibility to build a harmonious and just society, and thereby, fulfill all the aspirations of his people. He must live such a life as a good human being and serve his country in a manner that it will be exemplary and worthy of emulation.”
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The King and Queen of Bhutan have been nicknamed the “Will and Kate of the Himalayas,” and gave birth to their first child a few months before Prince William and Kate Middleton paid them a visit in Bhutan in 2016.
As William and Kate are near the ages of the Bhutan royals – who studied in England before taking the throne – their meeting offered the chance to forge new connections between the nations.
