Happy Birthday Prince George! Stunning new images taken by Kate Middleton are released

468

View
comments

With his gap-toothed grin and cheeky expression, it is clear that Prince George is growing up fast.

Two pictures of the future king have been released by Kensington Palace to mark his seventh birthday tomorrow.

Gone are his chubby cheeks and the frilled Peter Pan-collar shirts that his mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, so loved to dress him in as a toddler and beyond.

Instead we see a little boy, tousled blond hair swept aside and grinning, wearing a camouflage green T-shirt.

An appropriate choice given he will one day inherit his great-grandmother’s mantle as Head of the Armed Forces. George is already said to be obsessed with helicopters like his father.

In another picture he is wearing a favourite olive green polo shirt and shorts.

The pictures were taken by his mother Kate at the family’s Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, where George and his siblings, Princess Charlotte, five, and two-year-old Prince Louis, have spent lockdown.

Kate and Prince William are planning a party for George at home tomorrow. 

Young George looks eerily like his uncle James, whom he adores, although hasn’t been able to see much this year due to lockdown.

And like James, 33, he is a sporty, outdoors type (his grandfather, Prince Charles, is particularly proud that his eldest grandson has inherited his love of the countryside). 

The lockdown period has been bliss for George and his younger siblings, Princess Charlotte, five, and two-year-old Prince Louis, as they have been able to spent so much time outside in the fresh air at the family’s Norfolk home, Anmer Hall.

That’s where the pictures were taken earlier this month by his doting mother, Kate, a keen amateur photographer who always seems to get the best out of her children.

She and her husband, Prince William, have been doing their best to home school the three youngsters, although they admit its been tough at times.

George, apparently has been very jealous of Charlotte’s homework from their school, Thomas’s Battersea, which is much more fun and less challenging than his.

‘George gets very upset because he wants to do Charlotte’s projects,’ Kate recently disclosed. ‘Because making things like spider sandwiches is far cooler than doing literacy work!’ 

Kate and William have done their best to shelter George from the future that awaits him, gently introducing him to the idea that his might be slightly more mapped out than his classmates.

‘It’s a delicate balance but they want to protect him as much as they can,’ said a friend. ‘As a result he’s turning out to be a really happy, well-adjusted little boy.’  

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: ‘The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to share two new photographs of Prince George ahead of his seventh birthday tomorrow.

‘The photographs were taken earlier this month by The Duchess.’

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge was born in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, at 4.24pm on July 22 2013, weighing 8lb 6oz.

He made his public debut in front of the world’s media on the hospital steps one day later, wrapped in a white merino wool shawl, cradled in his proud parents’ arms.

A great-grandchild to the Queen, he will be the 43rd monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England if, as expected, he follows the reigns of his grandfather, the Prince of Wales, and then his father, William.

In public George can sometimes come across as a serious little boy, who has already developed a clear wariness of the cameras that are part and parcel of his royal life.

But friends say that while he is definitely more cautious and sensitive in nature than his younger sister, Princess Charlotte, five, the little prince is actually a bundle of fun.

Prince George’s godmother Julia Samuels recently revealed that she buys the ‘feisty and cheeky’ royal ‘impossible’ noisy toys which take Prince William ‘days to put together’ in a running joke inspired by Princess Diana.

The psychotherapist, 60, London, became close to Lady Diana after meeting her at a dinner party in 1987, and is godmother to Prince George, who turns seven this month.

Speaking on the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, she revealed: ‘He is amazing. He’s funny and feisty and cheeky and God she [Diana] would have loved him so much. That is heartbreaking for all of them.’

She added that she follows in the footsteps of the Princess, who was godmother to her own son, revealing: ‘So I do to George what she did to us which is give impossible toys which are really noisy, take a lot of making.’ 

Apparently he has settled down well at Thomas’s Battersea, where he was joined by Charlotte in September last year.

However for the last few months during the coronavirus pandemic, the Duke, 38, and the Duchess of Cambridge, 38, have been home-schooling Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at their Norfolk home of Anmer Hall. 

William and Kate were familiar figures at the school gate before the pandemic and threw themselves into school life, helping out at coffee mornings and cheering their son on from the sidelines at sports day.

The couple were deeply touched by the sensitive way in which the school staff have handled his arrival, particularly with the other children and parents.

In April, the entire family helped out with a local initiative started by the monarch’s staff, who have been preparing and delivering meals for pensioners and the vulnerable in the area during the lockdown.

This time the Cambridges, all keen cooks, rustled up some home-made pasta which they separated into 12 large bags and tied up with raffia to add to the food parcels. Sources said all the children – even little Louis, two – were involved.

The following day, the family then helped to load bags of fresh produce into a van from the Sandringham Visitors’ Centre ready for delivery.

Sources say William, Kate, Charlotte and George spent two and a half hours driving around the area delivering food to those in need. 

Happy birthday, George! Celebrating the prince’s first seven years with glorious photos

Read more: