There was a tender moment during the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding ceremony which encapsulated their shared dream of starting a family.

When the Dean of Windsor spoke of marriage being the 'foundation of family life in which children are born and nurtured', Harry looked into his bride's eyes and smiled.

The pair both have long held ambitions to become parents.

Meghan once described motherhood as being on her 'bucket list', while Harry has often told how he would love to have children.

So it came as no surprise when Kensington Palace made the announcement, just five months after the royal wedding, that the duchess was expecting.

The topic had even cropped up in the couple's engagement interview.

'You know, I think one step at a time, and hopefully we'll start a family in the near future,' Harry said.

On a trip to Belfast less than two months before their big day, Meghan joked when she was shown an innovative range for newborns: 'I'm sure at some point we'll need the whole (lot).'

It was in an interview in 2016, that she said becoming a mother was on her 'bucket list'.

'I can't wait to start a family, but in due time,' she said then.

Harry revealed in 2015, before he met Meghan, that seeing his brother's family continue to grow made him wish he had children of his own.

'Of course I would love to have kids right now but there's a process that one has to go through,' he said. 'Hopefully I'm doing all right by myself. It would be great to have someone else next to me to share the pressure, but you know, time will come and whatever happens, happens.'

He is already godfather to five or six of his friends' children, and also more recently to Zara and Mike Tindall's youngest daughter Lena.

Harry has previously shown off his fatherly credentials in his interactions with nephew Prince George in front of Barack and Michelle Obama.

When the then-US president and his wife visited the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Harry in 2016 at Kensington Palace, they saw George and his uncle together.

Mrs Obama said about Harry: 'I have to say the most precious thing if you haven't already fallen in love with him, is to see him with his nephew.'