Photograph bears signature of the Princess of Wales
The Prince and Princess of Wales published a photo of a radiant Princess Charlotte to mark her ninth birthday. The celebratory photo was posted on the couple’s official social media accounts on Thursday with a note of thanks “for all the kind messages today.” The photograph is attributed to Catherine, Princess of Wales.
It is the second photo in a few weeks of the couple, who last week celebrated the sixth birthday of their youngest son, Prince Louis. Prince William and Kate have a tradition of publishing portraits of their children every year to mark their birthdays.
This is the second time we have seen a change in the dissemination of photography by the princes. Previously, Kensington Palace sent the portrait to the media under embargo, so that the press could prepare for its release. Following the uproar caused by Kate’s recent Mother’s Day photograph, which was discovered to have been digitally altered, the palace’s publicity process has been adjusted. The new photo has not been verified by CNN.
Kensington Palace appears to be regaining some control and the narrative, posting only on social accounts on the day, aware that any lack of honesty or feeling of inauthenticity will spark all sorts of conspiracy theories, as happened last time. turn.
The start of 2024 has been difficult for the British royal family. Kate has been away from public duties since Christmas and is currently receiving treatment for cancer.
Princess Charlotte was last seen in public during the British royal family’s traditional Christmas Day walk to church on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The nine-year-old girl was also seen in early December, alongside her parents and siblings, at her mother’s annual Christmas concert at Westminster Abbey in London.
On a visit to a school in the UK’s West Midlands last week, Charlotte’s father, Prince William, shared his favorite joke with pupils at St Michael’s Church of England Secondary School – a “knock” joke. knock” involving a cow that interrupts.
Charlotte is third in line to the throne, after her father and older brother, Prince George. And while she may be one of the youngest members of the family, in 2017 her mom revealed that she’s “the one in charge.”
Royal watchers may remember a clip of Charlotte at her grandmother Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022, where she appeared to remind older brother George to bow as the late monarch’s coffin passed by them in Wellington Arch. She was also seen at a previous Trooping the Color parade in London, stopping her younger brother, Prince Louis, from waving perhaps too enthusiastically to the crowds as the carriage passed.
Meanwhile, the little princess won hearts last year with her royal bond with her mother as they attended King Charles’ coronation. For her grandfather’s big day, Charlotte wore a mini-me version of her mother’s ivory silk dress and silver headdress.
Charlotte is the first British princess who has not been supplanted in the line of succession by a younger brother. This is because her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, changed the rules with the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, so that all royal children born after 2011 would have an equal right to the throne, regardless of gender.
Two years later, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born on May 2, 2015 at St. Mary’s Hospital in West London. The change allowed him not to lose his position in the line of succession after the birth of Prince Louis in 2018.
CNN’s Max Foster and Cat Nichols contributed to this story.
