Kensington Palace Speaks Out About Latest Meghan Markle Baby Report

Kensington Palace rarely has anything to say when there are daily reports about the royal family from unnamed "sources" in media outlets across the internet. Instead, the offices of both the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex prefer to meet most stories with stony silence. But every once in awhile, they speak up when a particular rumor appears to be gaining traction. For instance, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry might not raise their baby to be "gender fluid" as Vanity Fair recently reported. Because Kensington Palace actually deigned to speak on the subject this time around.

So here's how things got started: Meghan Markle had a short visit to New York last week to attend a baby shower thrown for her by her friend Serena Williams and others. It seems that a guest at the party reportedly told Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl that the Duchess of Sussex, who is around seven months pregnant, mentioned that she was planning on raising her child without gender boundaries. This person reportedly said the Duchess of Sussex specifically used the words "gender fluid," a type of parenting that allows for more freedom in gender identity and encourages the use of the pronoun "they" as opposed to "he" or "she," as per Merriam-Webster.

As the source reportedly told Vanity Fair:

Meghan has been talking to some of her friends about the birth and how she and Harry plan to raise their baby. Her exact word was fluid. She said they plan to raise their child with a fluid approach to gender and they won’t be imposing any stereotypes.

According to Kensington Palace, this is not actually happening.

In a rare move, Kensington Palace told Hello! magazine that "this story is totally false." Now it's perfectly possible that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have some ideas about gender roles as they prepare to welcome their little one (while there have been reports that the couple are expecting a son, nothing has been confirmed by Kensington Palace as of yet). For instance, they might be considering a gender neutral decor for the nursery. And since they appear to both be sensitive, intelligent human beings one would hope they would avoid forcing any sort of gender stereotypes on their little one.

But this report that they are planning to raise their baby as "gender fluid" is apparently untrue.

The last time Kensington Palace spoke out about news reports was back in December, during the height of the supposed trouble between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. A report from The Sun alleged that Kate Middleton "slapped down" Meghan Markle for berating one of her staff members. Kensington Palace told The Daily Mirror, "This never happened." And now that I think about it, the tides seemed to turn ever so slightly after that.

Perhaps Kensington Palace has the way of it when it comes to speaking out. Pick your moments, because that way anything you say people will listen. Meghan Markle didn't say she's planning to raise her baby gender fluid. Fine.

But I bet she'll be pretty evolved about avoiding gender stereotypes. Just saying.