The hidden royal dilemma: Why Duchess of Kent never had a fourth child

It’s 1975 and Katharine Worsley, the Duchess of Kent, is the proud of mother of three children – two sons and a daughter – but she has a ‘longing for a large and mutually supportive family’.

Writing in her biography of the Duchess’s life, royal author Mary Riddell claimed that it was around this time that Katharine – who died earlier this month aged 92 – was ‘consumed’ by her desire for another child. 

And due to this yearning it is likely the Duchess would have been thrilled when she discovered she was pregnant with her fourth child. 

However, tragedy struck and Katharine was left with a terrible dilemma about whether she should terminate her pregnancy.

Riddell, in her biography The Duchess of Kent: The Troubled Life of Katharine Worsley, discussed the terrible dilemma that Katharine faced.

In April 1975, The Times reported that The Duchess of Kent had contracted German measles – more commonly known as rubella – and would be ‘unable to carry out her engagements for the next few days’.

‘The story that she was also pregnant did not emerge until many years later,’ Riddell said.

While rubella is not considered dangerous normally, for pregnant women it can cause problems for the unborn foetus.

Riddell explained: ‘The facts surrounding German measles were stark. Rubella – if caught in the first eight weeks of pregnancy – was almost guaranteed to infect and damage an unborn child, causing multiple defects to the heart, the brain, the eyes and the hearing organs.

‘In many cases, the mother would suffer a miscarriage.

‘Though the risks diminished dramatically for women who caught the illness later on, the prognosis for those who contracted it early in the pregnancy was chilling.’

In light of this damning prognosis, a leading royal doctor told the Duchess that, in his view, she should have an abortion.

Due to her longing for another child, and her own strong views that all human life is sacred, Katharine turned to the Church for a second opinion.

Riddell said: ‘The advice mirrored that of her doctor. If medical opinion decreed that she should have her baby aborted, then Katharine would be committing no fault in following it. But ultimately it had to be her choice.’

With this advice she decided to terminate the pregnancy but it was a decision that haunted the Duchess for the rest of her life. 

Lord Coggan, a close confidant at the time, told Riddell: ‘She had to debate in her own mind whether it should be an abortion or not. It was an abortion, and I think that had quite troubled her throughout her life.’

Riddell added: ‘Losing her baby was the loneliest and hardest decision she had taken. So deep and enduring was her unhappiness that when, many years later, one of her best friends alluded to the abortion, Katharine, greatly distressed, temporarily severed all contact with that friend.

‘No doubt she told herself at the time, and on a rational level, that she had done the right thing.

‘She might have considered that royal life, difficult enough for healthy youngsters, was particularly inimical to the sick.’

Riddell uses the example of the Duke’s uncle Prince John who had epilepsy and ‘lived a life cloistered away from the world, and in the main, his family, before dying in his teens’.

‘Rumours that the Queen, mindful of such problems, put pressure on the Duchess to have an abortion are untrue. Nor is there any evidence that the Duke of Kent attempted to force his wife’s hand. 

‘The fact that it was her decision, made logically, with the blessing of the Church and in full awareness of a dismal medical prognosis for the pregnancy, did not – then or later – assuage the guilt and anguish.’

In 1994, Katharine became the first member royal in more than 300 years to convert to Catholicism.    

Royal experts in the past have speculated that her interest in the Roman Catholic Church started after the loss of her child.

Described at the time as ‘a long-pondered personal decision by the duchess’, Katharine was formally received into the Catholic church in January 1994.

Her conversion took place in a private service conducted by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume, with the prior approval of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Duchess of Kent would later go on to tell the BBC that she was attracted to Catholicism by the ‘guidelines’ provided by the faith.

She said: ‘I do love guidelines and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines. I have always wanted that in my life.

‘I like to know what’s expected of me. I like being told: “You shall go to church on Sunday and if you don’t you’re in for it!”‘ 

Other insiders suggested however that the duchess’s conversion came from changes occurring within the Church of England at the time, including the ordination of women.

But a spokesman for the duchess said this was not the case.

In a statement, he said: ‘This is a long-pondered personal decision by the duchess and it has no connection with issues such as the ordination of women priests.’

The point at which Katharine converted could however be seen as significant – given there was a growing public rapprochement between the monarchy and Catholic Church. 

In 1982, Queen Elizabeth II hosted Pope John Paul II during the first papal visit to Britain in more than 400 years – and the first at Buckingham Palace.

Meanwhile, in 1995 the Queen became the first monarch since the 17th century to attend a Catholic service when she was welcomed to Westminster Cathedral.