“Being this way is not taking anything from anyone. It’s just the way that we were raised.”
Another year, another birthday portrait for Princess Charlotte — who turns 10 today!
And in following tradition, Prince William and Kate Middleton are sharing a new photo of the young princess, a photo captured by Middleton.
The photo shows Charlotte sporting a big smile, while wearing camo sitting atop a grassy hill. "Happy 10th Birthday Princess Charlotte!" the proud parents captioned the post.
"What a beautiful child, so like her dad," one commenter suggested, and many more agreed. "Happy Birthday Princess Charlotte! Looks just like her father."
"Omigoodness her father’s daughter!"
"What a darling photo! Happy birthday Princess Charlotte!" shared another.
Charlotte, the second child and only daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton, was born at 8:34 a.m. on May 2, 2015 at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, according to The Royal Family.
She’s currently third in line to the British throne behind her father and brother, Prince George, who turns 12 in July.
RELATED: Kate Middleton and Prince William’s Youngest Prince Louis Is 7!
Her full name, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, honors both her grandmother, Princess Diana, who died in 1997, and great grandmother, former Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022.
William and Kate also share a second son, Prince Louis, who recently turned seven years old on April 23.
Charlotte, much like her brothers, has grown up right before everyone’s eyes — starting with the first photo William and Kate ever shared of their little girl just moments after she was born.
Two months later, Charlotte was christened at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham and baptized at the Lily Front with water from the Jordan River.
Her godparents, who were present at the christening, include Miss Sophie Carter, Mr. James Meade, Mr. Adam Middleton, The Hon. Laura Fellowes and Mr. Thomas van Straubenzee, per The Royal Family.
By September 2016, Charlotte was already accompanying her parents overseas — with her first trip being an official visit to Canada.
She started school in September 2019 at Thomas’s Battersea and has attended Lambrook School in the Berkshire countryside ever since her family’s move from London to Windsor in the summer of 2022.
Follow along as we take a look back at what William and Kate have said about their only daughter.
Charlotte is ‘cute’ with a ‘feisty side,’ says mom
Prince William and Kate Middleton aren’t shy when discussing their children’s growing personalities.
In July 2015, just a few months after Charlotte was born, William spoke with reporters as he prepared for his first day of work as an air ambulance pilot.
The then-father-of-two described his daughter as “a little joy from heaven,” but added that “it’s a lot more responsibility, looking after two little ones,” per Us Weekly.
Several months later, while speaking at St. John’s College at Cambridge University, William described his daughter as “very lady-like” and “delightful,” per Hello! magazine.
The following year, William opened up about what it’s like raising a daughter after not growing up with a sister.
"I adore my children very much and I've learned a lot about myself and about family just from having my own children," he said in a 2016 interview with “Talk Vietnam,” per ABC News.
“And Charlotte, bearing in mind I haven't had a sister so having a daughter is a very different dynamic,” he added. “So I'm learning about having a daughter, having a girl in the family."
As for Kate Middleton, she has described her daughter as “cute” but “feisty.”
“Oh, she is very cute but she has got quite a feisty side!” Kate said at a lunch celebrating Queen Elizabeth‘s 90th birthday in 2016, per People.
“I then asked her about George and she said he was a really lovely little boy. She said she hopes that George will keep Charlotte in order!” Glynis Double — who attended the event — added.
In 2020, William was looking at a photo of him as a baby when he made a shocking discovery.
During a visit to Bradford, William and Kate met a baker who used frosted baby photos of the royals as decoration on a cupcake.
“Is that me?” William asked the baker, per MSN. “Doesn’t it look like Charlotte? Doesn’t it look like Charlotte? Is that me? Oh, my goodness. Is that me?”
Middleton agreed as William continued to share his excitement over his look-alike.
"Oh my goodness that looks just like Charlotte. It's incredible, I haven't seen that before. Very alike in similarity. Well done you, that's a lot of hard work,” he added.
More recently, Us Weekly spoke to royal commentator Amanda Matta about the royal family and what Kate and William’s kids are like behind closed doors.
“She’s reportedly bright and diligent, and she’s said to be multilingual with a particular interest in Spanish,” Matta said of Charlotte, who goes by Charlotte Cambridge in school.
According to Matta, Charlotte loves Taylor Swift, watching movies (especially “Toy Story”), gymnastics, sports like tennis and archery, anything adventurous, baking and dancing.
Other royal insiders described Charlotte as the “boss of the family,” per Us Weekly.
A look back at Charlotte’s annual birthday portraits
As is tradition with Kate and William, every year they release a new portrait of their kids on their birthday.
It’s something they do with all three of their children and helps give their followers an ongoing look at how much they’ve grown over the years.
In 2016, the royal couple released their first birthday portrait of Charlotte.
The collage included four photos from their daughter’s first year — including a photo of them staring into their little girl’s eyes outside of the hospital moments after she was born.
One year later, they shared a photo of Charlotte on her second birthday.
In the photo, Charlotte is giving off spring vibes with a yellow button-up sweater. “The photograph was taken in April by The Duchess at their home in Norfolk,” the couple wrote in the caption.
In 2018, William and Kate turned it up a notch with two photos marking their daughter’s third birthday.
The first photo shows Charlotte sitting on a stone stairway wearing a red jacket and a pink scarf.
The second photo, which was shared several days later, shows Charlotte holding her younger brother Louis — who was just one week old — as she gives him a kiss on the forehead.
According to the caption, the image was taken by Kate at Kensington Palace.
The tradition continued in 2019 — this time with three photos to commemorate Charlotte’s fourth birthday.
The photos were taken by Kate — as they usually are — at the family’s home in Norfolk and at Kensington Palace.
Two of the photos show Charlotte wearing a gray sweater and a plaid skirt with blue leggings. She’s sitting on a wooden fence in one of the photos and running with a flower in her hand in the other photo.
In the third photo, Charlotte is wearing a blue floral dress and blue slip-on sneakers while sitting on the grass with her hands crossed over her knees.
In 2020, Charlotte’s resemblance to late Queen Elizabeth II became apparent as she gazed into the camera for her fifth birthday.
“The images were taken by The Duchess as the family helped to pack up and deliver food packages for isolated pensioners in the local area,” Kate and William wrote in the caption.
Charlotte brought back the floral-patterned dress — this time a dark blue with pink accents — for her sixth annual birthday portrait in 2021.
By the time Charlotte turned seven, she was already starting to take after her mother — and it showed with her wardrobe choice in her birthday portrait.
Charlotte was dressed in a pair of pants and light blue sweater. “Beautiful! Like her mother!” one user wrote in the comment section, while another added, “Spitting image of our Queen.”
For 2023’s annual birthday portrait, Charlotte sported a white floral dress while showing off her smile — which was missing a few front teeth.
The image was taken by Kate and shared on May 1, one day before Charlotte’s 8th birthday.
That brings us to last year’s birthday portrait, which showed Charlotte leaning up against a wall of flowers while wearing a jean skirt, a blue sweater and a red button-up sweater jacket.
The flowers she was next to were Clematis Elizabeth — one of the first flowers to be named after Queen Elizabeth II. They start to bloom in June, just in time for Charlotte’s birthday.
ALSO ON MOD MOMS CLUB: Prince William and Kate Middleton celebrate 14th wedding anniversary in Scotland
Join us in wishing Princess Charlotte a happy 10th birthday!
