Prince Harry thrilled with royal pregnancy news
Prince Harry thrilled with royal pregnancy news Reuters

Catherine Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, announced her pregnancy, early in December and for the first time, her brother-in-law, Prince Harry has spoken about his excitment over the good news.

"Obviously I'm thrilled for both of them," Prince Harry, who serves as an Apache helicopter Pilot said in a pre-taped interview at the end of his four-month military tour in Afghanistan, "It's about time. I can't wait to be an uncle."

"I spoke to my brother and her, and they're both very well and both very happy obviously," he added.

The Duchess has been ordered by her doctors to rest as much as possible, after being released from the King Edward VII last month. Kate Middleton was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (acute morning sickness), which is a "potentially serious" ailment causing vomiting and a bodily reaction against intake of food and liquids. This sickness is commonly found in pregnant women carrying twins but an earlier release from St James' Palace has confirmed the Duchess is not expecting twins.

However, Prince Harry was not happy that the pregnancy news had to be released just at the 12 week stage.

"I literally am very, very happy for them, but I just only hope that she and him-but mainly Catherine-hopefully that she gets the necessary protection to allow her as a mother-to-be to enjoy the privacy that that comes with. I seriously hope that's going to be able to happen," he said.

The pregnant Duchess, who is expecting her first child in July, was last seen in public on a visit to Starbucks in Kensington, accompanied by a security guard and her cocker spaniel Lupo.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry had caused a royal stir after naked images of him playing strip pool during a trip to Las Vegas leaked online.

"I probably let myself down," he said about the nude scandal, "I let my family down, I let other people down. At the end of the day, I was in a private area and there should be a certain amount of privacy . . . The way I was treated by [the media] I don't think is acceptable."

Prince Harry also confessed that he killed Taliban rebels during his 20-week duty.

"Yeah, so, lots of people have. ... Yes, we fire when we have to, take a life to save a life, but essentially we're more of a deterrent than anything else," he said, "If there's people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we'll take them out of the game, I suppose," he said.