The man who will be overseeing the royal pregnancy is Alan Farthing who was Jill Dando’s fiancé.
The consultant, 47, has been gynaecologist to the Queen since September 2008 and is a key medical members of the royal household.
When he took up the role, the expert was one of the youngest of the group of royal physicians and this will be his first royal birth. Two years ago, Mr Farthing became a father to a boy born to his doctor wife Janet Stowell.
The couple met at St Mary’s Hospital, where he was a consultant and she was a trainee junior doctor. She is believed to have consoled him after Ms Dando’s murder.
Mr Farthing qualified as a doctor in 1986. He became a member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1991, and a Fellow in 2003. His expertise is in keyhole surgery which means women are not left with large scars from incisions and they also recover more quickly.
In his day job he has a private Harley Street practice and works at two London NHS hospitals, Queen Charlotte’s and St Mary’s. His predecessor, Marcus Setchell, is treating the Duchess of Cambridge for her severe morning sickness. A specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, Mr Setchell, 69, spent 18 years as the Queen’s surgeon and gynaecologist after taking over from Sir George Pinker. He delivered the children of the Countess of Wessex.
