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Queen Elizabeth II has four children – Princes Charles, Andrew and Edward, and Princess Anne. But despite having four children and a plethora of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the Queen has never been pictured when she was visibly pregnant – and her pregnancies have always been shielded from the public for a bizarre reason.

The UK is obsessed with royal pregnancies and babies, and recent years have satisfied royal fans, with plenty of new royals joining the firm.

The birth of Prince George in 2013 started a wave of new royal babies, including his little sister Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis after him, and their cousin Archie Harrison.

But the Queen had a very different experience in the spotlight with her four pregnancies, having never gone public with the happy news due to a supposed ‘taboo’.

At the time, she did not even announce her pregnancies formally, like how it is now done with the younger royals.

While the taboo is not fully explainable, the monarch was not allowed to publicly display her pregnancy at all – and this is why no pictures of the Queen visibly pregnant have ever been made public.

It goes a step further – with the monarch not even being permitted to tell the public of her good news.

Whenever the Queen was pregnant, Buckingham Palace would only announce that she would no longer be undertaking royal duties for a period.

According to The New York Times, when the then-Princess was pregnant with Prince Charles, Buckingham Palace released a statement in 1948 which read: “Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth will undertake no public engagements after the end of June.”

Press and royal fans have consistently waited outside the hospital for the Duchess of Cambridge to present her children to the world for the first time – but this was not the same for the Queen.

Princess Diana was the first royal to give birth in hospital instead of at a royal residence.

On June 21, 1982, Princess Diana broke with tradition to give birth to Prince William at the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital.

She stepped out onto the hospital steps to a barrage of reporters and royal fans, all eager to see a young Prince William.

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This started the tradition of those in the direct line of succession presenting their new addition on the hospital steps.

Another key difference is that there were no post-birth public photos, such as the well-known hospital step photo, which royal fans eagerly await whenever a new royal baby is born.

Her Majesty only presented her first son Prince Charles to the world a month after he was born on the day of his christening.

The Queen is currently staying in Balmoral for her summer holiday, with her husband Prince Philip, after spending four months at their Berkshire residence during the pandemic.

It is the first time the 94-year-old Queen and Philip have travelled away from Windsor since relocating on March 19 from Buckingham Palace and the Sandringham estate shortly before the UK lockdown began.

The Queen is said to be most at home on the Aberdeenshire estate where she can relax away from the royal bubble.

She has also been enjoying visits from family members and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren following the coronavirus lockdown.

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