How Kate Middleton is Honoring Princess Charlotte’s Birthday

The British royal family is celebrating Princess Charlotte's ninth birthday with a new portrait taken by her mother, Kate Middleton.

The image—shared to the official Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales on Thursday morning—shows Charlotte in a garden, smiling beside a pink flower bush. 

“Happy 9th Birthday, Princess Charlotte!,” the caption reads. “Thank you for all of the kind messages today.” 

The young princess is William and Kate’s second of three children, alongside her older brother Prince George, 10, and younger brother Prince Louis, 6. She is the couple’s only daughter and third in line to the British throne.

The family has taken some time away from the spotlight as Kate undergoes “preventative chemotherapy” for an undisclosed type of cancer. On March 22, the Princess shared a video message in which she revealed she had been diagnosed following a planned abdominal surgery.

“We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space, and privacy while I complete my treatment,” Kate said in the video.

 The royal couple has maintained their social media presence in recent weeks, sharing a number of personal images.

On Monday, William and Kate shared a previously unseen image from their wedding—taken by Millie Pilkington—to mark their 13th anniversary. The couple shared a portrait of Louis on April 23, also taken by Kate, to celebrate his sixth birthday. 

Kate is known to enjoy photography and captures a lot of the images used in royal communications about her family. In March, a Mother’s Day photograph captured by William was withdrawn from a number of prominent photo agencies over concerns that the image had been digitally manipulated.

“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Kate said in a statement on March 11. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”