The royal baby is almost here.

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, was admitted to a London hospital in the early stages of labor shortly before 6 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), a palace official confirmed. Her husband, Prince William, was at her side. "Things are progressing as normal," a spokesperson for Kensington Palace told NBC News.

Middleton is inside the historic, luxurious Lindo Wing at St. Mary's Hospital -- the same location where her husband Prince William was born.

With all eyes on London, many are comparing the scene outside the hospital to be similar to when Princess Diana gave birth to William on June 21, 1982.

At the time, Prince William "had to be induced, because I couldn't handle the press pressure any longer, it was becoming unbearable," Diana later told her confidant, journalist Andrew Morton.

"It was as if everybody was monitoring every day for me," she said.

"Anyway," Diana told Morton, according to transcripts of his taped conversations with her (that led to his 1992 bestseller, Diana: Her True Story, published five years before her death), "we went in very early. I was sick as a parrot the whole way through the labor, very bad labor."

Diana went on to say: "They wanted a Caesarean, no one told me this until afterwards. Anyway, the boy arrived, great excitement."

Watch a flashback video of Prince Charles announcing the arrival of Prince William in 1982.

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Tags
Prince William, Kate Middleton, Princess Diana