Kensington Palace has released a brand new portrait of Princess Charlotte to celebrate her ninth birthday.
Taken by Princess Kate and uploaded to the Wales family's official social media accounts on Thursday, the portrait shows the princess posed in an outside setting, smiling broadly.
Captioned, "Happy 9th Birthday, Princess Charlotte! Thank you for all of the kind messages today. The Princess of Wales," the image has proven a hit with fans who have praised the young royal's style and development.
In the past year, Charlotte has attended a number of high profile events and engagements, including the coronation celebrations of her grandfather, King Charles III.
Despite this, the royal has so far not made any public appearance in 2024. This comes as the Wales family has taken a step out of the public eye while Princess Kate continues her treatment for cancer.
The release of the new birthday portrait through social media instead of the formerly established route though official photo agencies follows a precedent set on Prince Louis' sixth birthday and William and Kate's 13th wedding anniversary last month.
In previous years, images of the royal children were given to photo agencies by the palace the night before their birthdays so that they could be included in the following day's print media.
This new process of the palace releasing images directly to social media comes as Kate became embroiled in a photo scandal back in March after traces of editing were detected in an image released to mark Mother's Day in the U.K.
The photo of Kate surrounded by her three children was scrutinized as it was the first official image taken since she underwent abdominal surgery in January. After the editing traces were spotted online, photo agencies who distributed the image issued "kill" notices advising news outlets that it violated authenticity guidelines.
Kate issued a rare apology to social media, saying: "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing."
Phil Chetwynd, the global news director of Agence France-Presse, came out after the controversy to say that Kensington Palace was no longer considered a trusted source of information as a result.
Charlotte has become a popular member of the royal family among fans of the monarchy and social media users, with many photos and video edits of the princess reaching viral numbers.
In addition to the coronation in 2023, Charlotte attended the Trooping the Colour celebrations in June and made her Wimbledon debut as a spectator in July.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan Markle and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
