Prince Louis is turning 6 on April 23, and Kate Middleton and Prince William’s youngest child is already the ruler of stealing the show wherever he goes.
“I keep thinking Louis is a baby, but he’s a big boy now,” mom Kate Middleton mused in October 2022 as her and Prince William‘s youngest child was busy dominating balcony photo ops and getting ready to crush his debut walk to church. Then, topping his previous scene-stealing prowess, he proceeded to nonchalantly yawn his way through grandfather King Charles III‘s May 6 coronation as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Which, he did not, having just turned 5 at the time.
Now, of course, the whole family has exponentially more cares than any of them could have envisioned a year ago. Charles announced Feb. 5 that he’d be undergoing treatment for cancer and—following weeks of oft-unhinged speculation regarding the true state of her health—Kate shared last month that she was having preventative chemotherapy after doctors found cancer when she underwent abdominal surgery in January.
Explaining in her unprecedentedly candid March 22 video message why she’d been out of the public eye for so long, she noted it had taken time to break the news to Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Louis “in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK.”
In a break from annual tradition, Louis’ April 23 birthday was not initially heralded with the release of a new portrait taken by Kate (who may understandably be feeling Photoshop-shy in the wake of the uproar over the U.K. Mother’s Day pic posted March 10 to her and William’s social media accounts that was deemed too manipulated to be distributed by the Associated Press and other agencies).
But while all three kids’ birthdays are usually celebrated privately in the best of times anyway (no Instagram pics of Frozen-themed parties for this famous family), Kate once shared a sweet tidbit about how she likes to mark the respective days she was delivered of George, Charlotte and Louis.
Samir Hussein/WireImage“It’s become a bit of a tradition that I stay up till midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing and I make far too much,” she told host Mary Berry on the BBC’s A Berry Royal Christmas in 2019. “But I love it.”
With his Kate and William taking pains to keep life going apace for him and his siblings, Louis’ cares aren’t of the grown-up variety yet. Nor will they ever be the kind that are going to monopolize George’s time once he reaches the age where he’ll be expected to act like a future king—as their father is, and as their granddad spent 50-plus years mostly doing before he assumed the position in September 2022.
Of course, Prince Harry has disabused us of the notion that being the spare to the heir ensures a carefree existence. But as the spare to the spare, Louis—who’s currently fourth in line to the throne—has the shot at senior-esque royalty that his Uncle Harold also probably never wanted but maybe could have at least stomached.
For the time being, though, ever since Kate and William presented Louis to the world on the steps outside the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, life has been a whirlwind of mugging for the camera and being doted on.
YUI MOK/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesAs for the brass tacks of the third Wales (née Cambridge) child’s day-to-day: Louis is attending school Lambrook School in Berkshire with his brother and sister, their parents enrolling all three in September 2022.
The family of five, which had been splitting time primarily between Kensington Palace and their Anmer Hall estate in Norfolk, took up residence at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor to be closer to their new school.
Sadly, the children’s first official day was Sept. 8, the day their great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II died, which is why Kate didn’t immediately accompany William to Balmoral in Scotland, where family members flocked after hearing the monarch’s health was failing.
While greeting those who’d come to pay their respects outside Windsor Castle on Sept. 10, Kate was overheard saying, “My little Louis, he’s so sweet, he’s like, ‘Mummy don’t worry, she’s now with great-grandpa.’”
As that preciousness sunk in, Kate added, “It just shows you how special she was to everybody, all generations.”
And that Louis is obviously an empath who’s wise beyond his years. (But being only 4 did mean he stayed home while George and Charlotte attended the queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey with their parents. Aware that there was a disturbance in the force, Louis also reportedly inquired whether their trips to Balmoral Castle would be different without Gan-Gan there.)
Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty ImagesIn October 2022, when Kate was reflecting on Louis’ big boy status, she was touring the maternity ward at Royal Surrey County Hospital, newborn health and child development being causes close to her heart.
But it wasn’t the first time she’d shared such a sentiment, having told staffers last June at the Brent outpost of Little Village, where families in need can stock up on baby essentials, “I keep thinking Louis is my baby, but he’s a proper boy now.”
And the Princess of Wales had admittedly been hot with baby fever in the past, William joking in January 2022 as Kate held a newborn during a visit to Clitheroe Community Hospital, “Don’t give my wife any more ideas! No more!”
On a solo trip to Denmark the following month, Kate quipped, “William always worries about me meeting under-1-year-olds. I come home saying, ‘Let’s have another one.’”
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty ImagesLouis also apparently loves babies, Kate telling BBC Breakfast in July 2020, when staying at home was still the order of the day during the pandemic, that her then-2-year-old “doesn’t understand social distancing. He goes out wanting to cuddle anything, particularly any babies younger than him.”
Meanwhile, William and Kate have their hands perfectly full with their existing brood. At the coronation, George, to reflect his second-in-line status, served as one of eight Pages of Honour once the procession reaches Westminster Abbey.
But Louis, who carried on an esteemed family tradition started by his elder siblings when he dazzled at his Trooping the Colour debut at a tender age (13 months old, in his case), surely stole the show right out from under the king, let alone the kings in waiting.
Rest assured, he looked as if he wasn’t having it—and we honor him all the more for it.