Stop asking whether Meghan's pregnant yet

As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle touched down in Sydney this morning, the locals had one question.

Not ‘What’s she wearing?’. Not even ‘What’s he wearing?’

The biggest query on everyone’s lips was ‘IS SHE PREGNANT YET?’

Fuelling the speculation, Meghan made the mistake of carrying a smart-looking pair of folders right in front of her tummy.

Obviously, the world instantly decided, here was a clear signal that she’s knocked up. After all, Meghan and Harry were married in mid May and it’s now October, which means they’ve had nearly six months – nearly half a year! – to get a baby happening.

God forbid she just had her travel documents in there and wanted to keep them handy. Maybe she’d been reading some trash mags and thought they’d look neater in a folder.

Whatever the reason, how about we show the woman some respect?

Hell, maybe she really is preggers and wants to keep it to herself for a little while, CC Babcock-style.

If that’s the case, then we should definitely recognise and accommodate her desire to keep the contents of her uterus to herself.

The tabloids get stuck in

If Meghan really was just carting round some of the weekly magazines in that folder, she would no doubt have been charmed by this week’s contents.

“THE ROYAL COUPLE HAVE A JAM-PACKED BABYMOON PLANNED!” screeched New Idea, while Woman’s Day went one further and genuinely suggested Harry and Meghan intend to announce their baby news while they’re here: “WE WANT OZ TO KNOW FIRST!”.

The key piece of evidence, apparently, is the fact that Meghan won’t be climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“It was as good as a pregnancy announcement,” a source allegedly told Woman’s Day.

To be clear, I realise these kinds of headlines do well at the newsstands. I spent many years working in weekly magazines myself. But surely, surely, this obsession with monitoring women’s fertility has reached the natural end of its life?

It’s not just Meghan. The Bachelorette‘s Ali Oetjen got to experience her own screamy tabloid headlines this week, with Woman’s Day once again getting stuck in.

“SHOCK SCANDAL: ALI’S PREGNANT!” it read, accompanied by a picture of Ali – I’m not saying it was photoshopped, but I’m not not saying it either – with a small abdominal pooch in her red evening gown.

Here’s the thing. There are so many reasons never, ever to speculate about a woman’s fertility. Maybe she’s had a series of miscarriages and doesn’t know you well enough to tell you about them.

Maybe she can’t fall pregnant at all.

Maybe she has uterine fibroids that make her look like she’s pregnant.

Maybe she’s put on weight and feels kind of shit about it and you making a big song and dance about the fact her stomach isn’t flat and taut like a Victoria’s Secret model is making her feel ten times worse.

Maybe she’s not actually interested in having kids but doesn’t really want to talk about that with you.

Maybe she’s in the third trimester and the only people who know are in her immediate family.

Or maybe she’s been photoshopped. Ahem.

Not only is it impossible to tell what’s going on, but all of the above examples – just a tiny sample of the myriad possibilities at play – are deeply personal and definitely not something that need to be up for public discussion.

So lets stop asking and teasing and speculating and wondering.

When they have something to tell you, they will.

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