{"id":913969,"date":"2026-04-23T21:10:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/913969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:10:37","slug":"prince-louis-portrait-for-his-8th-birthday-leads-to-remarkable-family-comparison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/913969\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince Louis\u2019 Portrait For His 8th Birthday Leads To Remarkable Family Comparison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Louis Arthur Charles<\/b>, officially referred to as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Wales, turned 8 years old<\/b> on April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

Born in 2018 at St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Paddington, he is the third and youngest child of Prince William<\/b> and Princess Catherine<\/b>, after Prince George<\/b>, 12, and Princess Charlotte<\/b>, 10.<\/p>\n

The British Royal Family<\/b> marked the occasion by continuing a long-held tradition of sharing a new photo<\/b> of the boy with the media.<\/p>\n

The new photograph prompted the internet to compare Prince Louis with a senior member<\/b> of the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s lucky to take after the Middletons. They\u2019re such a handsome family,\u201d one user said online.<\/p>\n

Netizens compared 8-year-old Prince Louis to Kate Middleton\u2019s father\"\"<\/p>\n

Image credits: Samir Hussein\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

The picture, taken earlier in April during the family\u2019s trip to Cornwall, was captured by Matt Porteous, one of William and Catherine<\/a>\u2019s trusted photographers, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n

It shows Prince Louis with wind-swept hair, smiling and wearing a blue zip-up sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.<\/p>\n

The Prince and Princess of Wales also shared a video montage of the young prince having a blast on vacation, running on the beach, playing cricket, digging in the sand, and diving into the sea.<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Max Mumby\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

After the photos and videos were shared online, comparisons with his maternal grandfather, Michael Middleton, resurfaced.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looks exactly like Catherine\u2019s father,\u201d one user said under the birthday portrait. Another said, \u201cHe looks like his maternal Grandpa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he takes after his mother more than his father,\u201d a third offered. \u201cA lot of Middleton in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image credits: blodaublue<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image credits: brozovicbasic<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Louis is a Middleton through and through,\u201d a fourth wrote. \u201cHe looks like his grandfather, Michael!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s all Middleton with Diana\u2019s smile!\u201d voiced one more.<\/p>\n

Prince Louis<\/a> has been compared to Michael Middleton several times before, most recently after his public appearance with his parents and siblings at St. George\u2019s Chapel, Windsor, for the Easter morning service.<\/p>\n

A few netizens have also said that Prince Louis is a \u201cspitting image\u201d of his father, while others have claimed he looks more like Kate.<\/p>\n

A former Royal Family employee found a detail in Prince Louis\u2019 birthday portrait that \u201csurprised\u201d him<\/p>\n

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Grant Harold, a former member of King Charles\u2019 household who served as a butler, reacted to Prince Louis\u2019 birthday photograph.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Kate and William love being by the sea, so I\u2019m not surprised they shared a photo of him from the seaside,\u201d he told British outlet Reach plc. \u201cBut I\u2019m surprised the photo hasn\u2019t been taken by Kate, as has become their most common approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Kate has been the one behind the camera<\/a> for several birthday photographs of George, Charlotte, and Louis.<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Axiosxhristos<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking about Louis\u2019 position within the Royal hierarchy, Harold noted that the recent alterations to the laws of succession<\/a> would mean less stress for him in representing the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanges in the laws surrounding the line of succession mean he sits behind Princess Charlotte, so he\u2019s fourth in line to the throne, and it\u2019s very unlikely that he will ever be King,\u201d Harold said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there isn\u2019t as much pressure on him as there is on his older brother, George, who will be very aware of his future role by now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image credits: SLantz55820<\/a><\/p>\n

Harold was referring to the Succession to the Crown Act (2013) that ended the system of male primogeniture, under which a younger son could displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. The amendment also ended the provisions that disqualified those who married Roman Catholics from the line of succession.<\/p>\n

Harold spoke with another outlet, speculating how the Royal Family<\/a> would celebrate Prince Louis\u2019 birthday.<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Jewls45816368<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image credits: sarah_delore<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think William and Kate will throw Louis a party with his friends, just like any other child that age, really,\u201d he told The Mirror UK, adding that the Prince and Princess of Wales want their kids to have a \u201cnormal\u201d childhood.<\/p>\n

He also suggested that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might send presents to Louis, and it would \u201chopefully not be something from Meghan\u2019s new range.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince William is determined to avoid the consequences of \u201cprimogeniture\u2019s cruelty,\u201d according to reports\"\"<\/p>\n

Image credits: Neil Mockford\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Princess Diana<\/a>\u2019s biographer and former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief, Tina Brown, claimed in her Substack, Fresh Hell, that Prince William is focused on setting up \u201cindependent lives\u201d for Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am told that the heir to the throne, Prince William, is preoccupied with the built-in risk of primogeniture\u2019s cruelty,\u201d Brown wrote in her column.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is determined that his second- and third-born children, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, are well-prepared and well-financed for independent lives and will not fall into the same cycle of thwarted freedom,\u201d continued the author of The Diana Chronicles.<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Karwai Tang\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

This refers to what the media calls the \u201cspare problem\u201d of royal succession, in which the younger sibling(s) of a firstborn heir are often treated as substitutes<\/a>. It has shown to create a sense of purposelessness and resentment, as highlighted in Harry\u2019s 2023 memoir, Spare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the shadow, the support, the Plan B,\u201d Harry wrote in the book. \u201cI was brought into the world in case something happened to Willy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Max Mumby\/Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s report comes amid William and Harry\u2019s alleged estrangement, which intensified when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back<\/a> from their royal roles in 2020 and moved to the U.S.A.<\/p>\n

Despite the rift, Prince William seemingly does not want his children to go through a similar experience as Harry.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir resemblance is so sweet.\u201d The internet was head-over-heels with Prince Louis\u2019 resemblance to his mother and grandfather<\/p>\n

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Image credits: ChristineRinal7<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image credits: rociotorres1959<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince Louis Arthur Charles, officially referred to as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Wales, turned 8 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7708],"tags":[243828,24078,7794,1761,447,7283,532,26926,1762,5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":["post-913969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-royals","tag-image-credits","tag-michael-middleton","tag-prince","tag-prince-george","tag-prince-harry","tag-prince-louis","tag-prince-william","tag-princess-catherine","tag-princess-charlotte","tag-royal","tag-royal-families","tag-royal-family","tag-royals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116456079501774802","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}