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Britain's Prince William posing with his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and their …
When Kate returns to north Wales with Prince William next week, she will begin married life with the knowledge that whatever roles she takes on, she has one definite responsibility -- producing an heir.
"If Kate is not pregnant in the next nine months, she will be defying 200 years of royal tradition," said Andrew Morton, a biographer of William's late mother Diana who has just written a book about the newlyweds.
After years of waiting for her prince to propose, the 29-year-old will be expected to move quickly to produce an heir for the second-in-line to the throne, to ensure there is no break in the line of succession.
Her predecessors certainly wasted no time -- William was born barely 11 months after his mother Diana married his father Prince Charles in 1981.
And Charles himself, the heir to the throne, was born almost exactly a year after his parents Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married in 1947.
Kate readies for royal life with heir in mind
