For the first time in British royal family history, Princess Charlotte, 10, has taken on a role that no woman before her has — and it’s breaking a toxic royal family cycle, according to insiders.
The concept of royal families having an “heir and a spare” is not new, but it’s still one that deeply hurts. Just look at Prince Harry’s memoir, which he titled Spare after being called that his whole life. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to not have a purpose other than being a backup in case your older sibling couldn’t take on the family’s responsibilities one day. It would be almost worse to be the second-born sibling but not be a spare because you were born a girl — a centuries-old rule that ended in 2013, putting women in birth order in line for their throne, even if they have younger male siblings.
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Princess Charlotte is the first princess to be considered spare for the title, despite having a younger brother, making her currently fourth in line for the throne.
TOPSHOT – (L to R) Britain’s King Charles III, Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain’s Prince Louis of Wales, Britain’s Prince George of Wales, Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales and Britain’s Princess Charlotte of Wales, smile whilst standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after attending the King’s Birthday Parade “Trooping the Colour” in London on June 14, 2025. The ceremony of Trooping the Colour is believed to have first been performed during the reign of King Charles II. Since 1748, the Trooping of the Colour has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign. Over 1500 parading soldiers and almost 300 horses take part in the event. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP) (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images
“For the first time in British history, the spare is a princess, even though she has a younger brother,” Dr. Nige Fletcher, a political and contemporary historian, said in a Channel 5 documentary, per Daily Mail. “Princess Charlotte is in line after George, after a change in the law, and she now outranks her brother, Louis.”
Tom Quinn, historian and local author of Scandals of the Royal Palaces, said that this law change is making family dynamics better for Prince William and Kate Middleton, and their three kids, including Prince George, 12, and Prince Louis, 7.
“It will make things a lot easier because there won’t be two males like two deer clashing antlers anymore,” he said in the documentary.
Other insiders pointed out that this would give the three siblings a more “normal” upbringing, which is a “key to unpacking and shifting expectations of our heirs and spares.”
Last month, royal biographer Christopher Andersen told Harper’s BAZAAR that Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will bond more as the “spares.”
“They pretty much lavish equal attention on all three, while at the same time nurturing their distinct and different personalities,” he said about the Waleses’ parenting style. “[T]he good thing is that Charlotte and Louis can share the burden [as spares], if one wishes to call it that.”
It definitely seems like a healthier approach than what Prince William and Prince Harry previously went through!
Before you go, check out every time Prince Louis had his big sister in his corner.