Happy Birthday, Princess Charlotte! (And Prince Louis too!)
All the things we loved about the Charlotte's and Louis's birthday portraits
Hello Dear Readers!
Happy Saturday! Quite a lot has happened in the royal world in the past week. But before we discuss the self-immolating elephant in the BBC newsroom, let’s give a happy belated birthday to TRH Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis of Wales! This post will be free to all readers.
We always forget that Louis and Charlotte’s birthdays are just two weeks apart, so it’s always a delightful surprise when we realize we’ll be getting adorable photos of the kids one right after the other.
Prince William and Princess Catherine released the photos via their official social media accounts. The image of Charlotte was taken by Princess Kate herself.
There were so many things we love about this photo, we don’t even know where to start. The first thing we noticed from the onset is: Princess Charlotte looks so much like her father, Prince William. Out of their three children, Charlotte’s always resembled William the most. As she gets older, the resemblance becomes even more pronounced.
From the matching toothy grins to their cheeks, there’s very little doubt that Charlotte is her father’s daughter. It goes without saying, it’s inevitable that people will draw Princess Diana comparisons to Charlotte if she continues to take after her father, who is the mirror image of his mother. Decades after her death, Diana’s still a topic of conversation, so I do hope that William and Kate don’t play into that narrative, as attractive and nostalgic as it may be. As parents, they seem of a mind that their kids have their own personalities, interests and passions. William and Catherine from what we can see aren’t interested in embracing the past. Their children are their own people.
The second bit we loved? When people hear the word “Princess”, they often picture ponies, tiaras, ball gowns and diamonds. But this image defies those expectations entirely. It shows a confident ten year old girl in a camo-style jacket, her rucksack fastened tightly about her. She’s in the great outdoors, her hair askew from the wind. (We know the photo was taken earlier this year during a family trip to Cumbria). The huge grin on her face shows how much Charlotte’s enjoying herself in this element. It’s truly special that Catherine chose to photograph and share her daughter with the world in this way. The Princess of Wales’s spoken openly about the restorative power of nature and how it played a role in her healing journey after her cancer diagnosis. She appears to be passing that love of the outdoors on to her children.
If Princess Charlotte’s her father’s twin, then Prince Louis’s was Catherine’s way of settling the score. The photo released to commemorate his 7th birthday last month was taken by Josh Shinner, who’d taken the Wales’s Christmas 2023 family portrait.
The most obvious feature in the Louis birthday portrait are his missing teeth. He’s growing up so very fast! In the released portrait, Louis looked like the spitting image of Michael Middleton.
Wearing jeans, a checked shirt and a jumper, Louis appeared happy and relaxed. We later learned that the photo was taken in the gardens of Anmer Hall, the family’s Norfolk home on the Sandringham estate. William and Catherine also released a behind the scenes video of Louis playing on the grounds and we got to hear a bit of his wee little voice!
From the carefully chosen glimpses we see, these two children appear to be well-adjusted, happy and full of confidence. They are being raised in a warmer and more stable environment than William experienced, and then you have the Middleton influence as well. I'm also sure William and Catherine are preparing Charlotte and Louis for a world where they can either help support their brother or go into private life and build careers of their own.
Charlotte looks like a little Princess Anne in the making: Very dutiful, knows all the protocol and tries to look out for her brothers. Louis is a typical 7 year old wanting to show off his jumping skills. He reminds me a lot of my son with his antics.
I hope Prince Louis had an amazing day and I hope yesterday, despite the drama, was a great day for Princess Charlotte too.
Yours in Royal Tea,
Lady Sinclair