The Princess of Wales
The Prince and Princess of Wales have released a photo of Princess Charlotte to mark her ninth birthday on Thursday, May 2. It has not been verified by CNN.
London
CNN
—
A photograph of a beaming Princess Charlotte has been released by the Prince and Princess of Wales to mark her ninth birthday.
The celebratory snap was posted to the couple’s official social media accounts on Thursday with a note of thanks “for all the kind messages today.” The photo is credited to Catherine, Princess of Wales, and was taken in the last few days in Windsor.
It’s the second photo in as many weeks from the Waleses, who last week celebrated their youngest son, Prince Louis’ sixth birthday. Prince William and Kate have made it a tradition to release portraits of their children each year to mark their birthdays.
This is the second instance where we’ve seen a shift in the release of the photograph from the Waleses. Previously, Kensington Palace would send the portrait out to media outlets under embargo so that the press could prepare for its release. After the furor over Kate’s recent Mother’s Day photo, which was found to have been digitally altered, the palace’s release process has adjusted. The new photo has not been verified by CNN.
Kensington Palace appears to be reclaiming some of the control and narrative by only posting to social accounts on the day, aware that any lack of honesty or sense of inauthenticity will spark all sorts of conspiracy theories like it did last time.
It’s been a difficult start to 2024 for Britain’s royal family. Kate has been away from her public duties since Christmas and is currently undergoing 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 was also seen earlier in December alongside her parents and siblings at her mother annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey in London.
At a visit to a school in the UK’s West Midlands last week, Charlotte’s father Prince William shared her favorite joke with students of St Michael’s Church of England High School - a “knock knock” gag involving an interrupting cow.
The Duchess of Cambridge/Getty Images
The late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip pose with seven of their great-grandchildren in this photo taken in 2018. The children, from left, are Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips, Lena Tindall and Mia Tindall.
The Princess of Wales
The Prince and Princess of Wales have released a photo of Princess Charlotte to mark her ninth birthday on Thursday, May 2.
Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images
Prince George, the eldest son of William and Kate, attends a Christmas Day church service in 2019. George is second in line to the British throne, behind his father.
Pete Souza/The White House/Getty Images
US President Barack Obama talks to Prince George while visiting Kensington Palace in 2016.
Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
Prince George was born in London on July 22, 2013. He is the first of William and Kate's three children.
The Duchess of Cambridge via Getty Images
Princess Charlotte, William and Catherine's middle child, is seen in this handout photo released on May 1, 2021, a day before her sixth birthday. She's third in line to the British throne, behind her brother Prince George.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Princess Charlotte playfully sticks out her tongue while attending a King's Cup regatta with her mother in 2019.
Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Kate holds newborn Princess Charlotte while speaking to the media outside a London hospital in 2015.
The Princess of Wales/Kensington Palace/AP
This photo of Prince Louis, taken by his mother Kate, was released on April 23, 2024 to celebrate his 6th birthday. Louis is fourth in line to the throne.
The Duchess of Cambridge/Kensington Palace/Getty Images
Prince Louis, William and Kate's youngest son, rides his bicycle before leaving for his first day of nursery school in April 2021.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
William and Catherine leave the hospital with Prince Louis after his birth in 2018.
Toby Melville/Pool/Getty Images
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, visit South Africa with their son, Prince Archie, in 2019. Archie is sixth in line to the throne, just behind his father.
Dominic Lipinski/WPA Pool/Getty Imagesetty Images
Prince Archie of Sussex was born in May 2019.
Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank/Getty Images
Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, hold their newborn son, August, in February 2021. August is 12th in line to the throne, behind his mother, his aunt Princess Beatrice and her daughter, Sienna, and his grandfather, Prince Andrew.
Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images
The Queen's son Prince Edward poses with his son, James, Earl of Wessex, in September 2020. Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, have two children: James and Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.
Steve Parsons/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Louise is currently 16th in line to the throne.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Cousins Mia Tindall, left, and Savannah Phillips attend the wedding of Princess Eugenie in 2018. Mia and Savannah are two grandchildren of the Queen's only daughter, Princess Anne. Mia is one of three children born to Mike and Zara Tindall. Savannah is one of two children born to Peter and Autumn Phillips.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Isla Phillips, Savannah's sister, plays on an inflatable slide during a festival in 2018.
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images
Mia Tindall attends the Gatcombe Horse Trials in March 2019.
Steve Parsons/Press Association/AP
Zara Tindall's younger daughter, Lena, is seen in 2019. Zara gave birth to another child, Lucas, in March 2021.
Charlotte is third in line to the throne, after her father and older brother Prince George. And while she may be one of the younger members of the family, her mom revealed in 2017 that she is “the one in charge.”
Royal-watchers may remember a clip of Charlotte at her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral in 2022, where she appeared to be reminding her elder brother George to bow as the late monarch’s coffin passed them at Wellington Arch. She was also spotted at a previous Trooping the Colour parade in London stopping her younger brother, Prince Louis, from waving perhaps a little too enthusiastically to the crowds as their carriage drove by.
GET OUR FREE ROYAL NEWSLETTER
•
Sign up to CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.
Meanwhile, the little royal won hearts last year with her regal twinning with her mother when the pair attended King Charles’ coronation. For her grandfather’s big day, Charlotte wore a mini-me version of her mom’s ivory silk dress and silver headpiece.
Charlotte is the first British princess who wasn’t overtaken in the line of succession by a younger brother. That’s because her grandmother, the late 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 meant that did not lose her position in the line of succession after Prince Louis was born in 2018.