Kate Middleton and Prince William's Profiles Get a Surprise Update on the Royal Family's Website
The Prince and Princess of Wales aren't the only ones whose pages received tweaks
Kate Middleton and Prince William’s royal bios have received a digital refresh.
The Prince and Princess of Wales’ profile pages on the royal family’s official Royal.UK website have been quietly updated with new photos and information. The changes were made earlier this week and marked a subtle shift from the previous presentation.
The biographies of Prince William, 41, and Princess Kate, 42, have each been topped with photos taken within the last year. Courtiers updated William’s page with a picture of him on stage during the Coronation Concert held on the grounds of Windsor Castle on the day after King Charles’ historic crowning in May 2023, where he gave a special speech dedicated to his father. Kate’s profile has been refreshed with a smiling shot of her from her meeting with the Windrush Cymru Elders to kick off the start of Black History Month in Cardiff, Wales in October.
A click into each profile shows that the bios have been loaded with more background and pictures. Each main tab — “About,” “Biography” and “Supporting the Monarch” — are now longer reads than royal watchers may recall.
The Prince and Princess of Wales aren’t the only royal family members whose profiles have been changed — so have their kids' pages! Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, also received updates, and the bio photos are now the pictures released for each of their birthdays in 2023.
Prince George and Prince Louis’ solo solos were snapped during sessions with photographer Millie Pilkington, while Princess Charlotte’s picture was taken by her mom. The Princess of Wales has described herself as an "enthusiastic amateur photographer” and is known to hop behind the camera for her children’s milestone moments.
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis’ official royal bios are much shorter than their parents’, each featuring brief details on their births, full names and baptisms.
A close look reveals a slight discrepancy between Louis’ bio and elder siblings’ profiles, as readers will learn that he has not been on an overseas tour! The Prince and Princess of Wales' youngest child has yet to join his parents in representing the British royal family overseas, even though his brother and sister made their tour debuts as babies. Prince Louis' first tour likely hasn’t happened yet as a consequence of scheduling rather than a conscientious choice.
Prince Louis turned 2 in the spring of 2020 and might have had the chance to participate in a royal tour if the coronavirus pandemic hadn't hit. Like millions around the globe, the royal family stayed close to home during the health crisis. Prince William and Princess Kate wouldn’t make a joint official overseas tour until the spring of 2022 when they visited the Caribbean in honor of Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. At that point, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were busy with a duty of their own: school!
Courtiers have been slowly updating the Royal.UK website following the death of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022, and the shift to reflect King Charles’ reign isn’t entirely complete. For example, an explainer on proper protocol for greeting a member of the royal family still refers to the late Queen as the sovereign, but Buckingham Palace has hinted that the larger overhaul might take a while.
“The Royal Family website contains over five thousand pages of information about the life and work of the Royal Family. Following the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, content has been revisited and updated periodically. Some content may be out of date until this process is complete,” the palace said in a statement reported by the Express in August 2023.
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Since Queen Elizabeth's death, Prince Harry’s “His Royal Highness” title was stripped from the royal family’s website.
The Express noticed that the page had been tweaked to remove the two references to the title. Both references related to Prince Harry's work to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in 2016. The title was replaced with "the Duke" or "the Duke of Sussex" — although he did not receive his dukedom from his grandmother Queen Elizabeth until his May 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle.
Shortly after the couple stepped back from their royal roles in 2020, Buckingham Palace revealed, "The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the Royal Family."
Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, continue to hold their titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
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