Prince Louis’ eighth birthday portrait was taken on a boat off the Cornish coast

I totally forgot that today is Prince Louis’s birthday. It always sneaks up on me! Princess Charlotte’s eleventh birthday is coming up on May 2nd as well, not to mention Prince Archie’s seventh birthday coming up in two weeks’ time.

Anyway, the Prince and Princess of Wales posted a new birthday portrait of Louis on their social media. The photo was taken by Matt Porteous, because the palace has seemingly convinced Kate to stop releasing her own manipulated photos of her family after the Mother’s Day photo debacle in 2024. The photo was taken on a boat off of the Cornish coast during “a family holiday.” That’s the palace’s guidance on the photo, that the Wales family took a “family holiday to Cornwall” during the Easter holiday. We’ll have to wait and see how much mileage they get from this Porteous photoshoot – perhaps Charlotte’s birthday photo will be from the same holiday. Same with William’s Father’s Day photo.

Something to keep your eye on in the coming weeks is that William and Kate still haven’t announced which school Prince George will attend for his next school year. Will and Kate have been fighting over George’s education for more than two years, and Kate is seemingly incandescent with rage at the thought of packing up either of her sons and sending them to Eton. I’ve always said that if George goes to Eton, it’s very likely that Kate gets her way on Louis and Charlotte’s education though. Still, she’d prefer to send all of her kids to her alma mater, Marlborough.

Updated to add the Instagram video of Louis, probably made the same day as the photo.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Matt Porteous for Kensington Palace.