PRINCESS Elizabeth was 22 in May 1948 and on her first official visit to Paris with Prince Philip, whom she had married less than a year earlier.
To the outside world, it was business as usual. The princess smiled and waved to crowds, fulfilled all her official engagements, shook hands with dignitaries and leaders, made speeches and generally blew everyone away.
“The French are obsessed with our royal family,” Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper reported.
But what few people realised was the princess wasn’t at her best: she was suffering from morning sickness because she was four months pregnant with her first child.
There were different royal and social protocols in those days so there was no formal announcement that the princess was pregnant, as there are these days when a high-profile royal couple become parents-to-be.
And there was really no reason to suspect Elizabeth was expecting. She and Philip danced, dined out and stayed up into the small hours.
But there was no fooling newshounds for long. Soon reports started noting the princess was “in an interesting condition” and photographers were obliging when – no doubt acting on orders from Buckingham Palace – they were discouraged from taking pictures that might show the princess’ growing bump.
Then the palace issued a vaguely worded statement saying Elizabeth would “undertake no public engagements after the end of June”.
And it was all the confirmation the world
