Why This Is Prince Louis' World and the Royals Are Just Living In It

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Son Prince Louis Debuts Photographer Skills in the Sweetest Way

For years, it so often looked as if Prince Louis just wasn't having it.

But he is the youngest of Kate Middleton and Prince William's three children, so there was no reason for him to have it.

And since, as of April 23, he's still only 7, he's still got some time before he has to at least pretend to have it. Though judging by Louis' present-and-candy-carrying poise while attending church with his family on Christmas morning, he gets it. 

"I keep thinking Louis is a baby, but he's a big boy now," Kate mused in October 2022 as her littlest prince 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, 2023, coronation as if he didn't have a care in the world. 

But the whole royal family was on the precipice of having exponentially more cares than any of them could have envisioned.

"As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know," she said in a statement, "it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead. There is much to look forward to."

It was even hard for the world to adjust to not seeing Kate all the time, her relatively brief retreat from the public eye last year leaving just enough time for all sorts of unhinged conspiracy theories to spring up in her absence. Meanwhile, she understandably wanted to keep her diagnosis private to focus not just on her treatment, but on her family. 

As she explained in her unprecedentedly candid March 22, 2024, video message, it had taken time to break the news to George, Charlotte and Louis "in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK."

"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 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.

As for the brass tacks of the third Wales (née Cambridge) child's day-to-day: Louis is attending 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 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.

In 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 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.'"

Louis 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 reached 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.

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