Sunday, May 2nd was Princess Charlotte’s sixth birthday. I still remember when the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to Charlotte, and how different it was from George’s birth. It felt like we were waiting forever for Kate to go into labor with George, and then with Charlotte, Kate’s delivery felt somewhat sudden. Everything happened really fast that day – Kate checked into the hospital in the early morning, Charlotte came quickly and by early evening the same day, Kate and William were posing with baby Charlotte on the steps of the Lindo Wing. I remember Kate looked amazing too.
Kate took this photo of Charlotte for her sixth birthday, as Kate almost always takes the childrens’ birthday portraits. In recent years, Kate has been doing more outdoor photoshoots, perhaps because the light is better and she seems to favor more “action” shots of the kids. Charlotte’s coloring looks so different these days! She used to have much darker hair and much lighter eyes. Now her eyes look brown (or a very deep hazel) and her hair is very blonde/bronde. It could be that the kids have spent so much time in Norfolk over the past year, and clearly they’ve been outdoors a lot. Even my (Indian) hair got lighter in summer months because I was out in the sun a lot when I was a kid. Either that or Kate gave her child highlights! Who can say. I am curious about how her eyes became so dark though!
Interestingly enough, Prince William was trying to participate in the “social media boycott” to protest racism in football over the weekend. So instead of posting Charlotte’s portrait on the Kensington Palace social media, KP gave the portrait to British journalists to… post on social media. Which isn’t really adhering to the spirit of a social media boycott, but sure.
PS… I am asking you, from the bottom of my heart, to avoid the arguments and comments about who the child looks like.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and Backgrid.
Charlotte is such a pretty little girl.
I still find it funny how big a deal they make of Kate taking the kids’ pictures as though she’s an expert photographer. This is a nice but very run-of-the-mill photo, lol.
Exactly, her pictures are just like every parents picture of their kids, it’s nothing professional just nice . So their weird need to make her a professional photographer is ridiculous
Charlotte is not even rally smiling; it looks like more of a grimace.
As for her eyes, it is not unusual for eyes to darken over time. My brother was born with pale blue eyes but now has hazel-brown eyes.
Grimacing in the way her father does.
Wow you hate the parents so much you attack a 6 year old’s smile. Just wow
@Beck, hardly an attack – merely an observation.
Case’s original comment was pointing out that this is just a nice photo, hardly a professional’s level of work. Having studied photography, art, and design in the past, I would agree. This is not a photo I would have chosen, as the framing is odd and the cut off arms are distracting. And I would have certainly worked to make Charlotte genuinely laugh or smile at least.
Beck
Slow down. All facial expressions can be categorized and calling it what it’s identified as is not an attack on a child.
She probably smiled brightly at points, but got tired and this was the clearest photo Kate chose. Sound fair?
@Beck: I’ll have to side with anybody’s right to criticize anything and everyone, especially if the parents deliberately expose their innocent kids to public gaze. One way to avoid negative criticism would be to not post one’s minor clueless child’s photograph for potentially 8 billion of us to see! When Kate proudly displays her daughter’s portrait to the world, it is expected that the world will react to what is being slapped in their face: either you find little Charlotte beautiful, and you say it like you mean it or you find her mediocre-looking with a touch of unpleasantness around the eye and smile areas, like some us do, and we are legally and morally entitled to express that what the Duchess Middleton gave the world to admire is not exaclty in keeping with the visual standards (freshness of the smile, daintiness of the facial features) that define our vision of beauty.
The parents CHOSE to release their defenseless minor child’s photo on a globally accessible digital platform, knowing they would receive both rave and unenthusiastic feedback. Are we to self-censor to alleviate their risk-taking?
I don’t know that it’s a grimace, more of a fake big smile. Like Kate said “Smile big for the camera” and that was it.
It’s a cute photo. She’s going to be fun to watch when she gets older.
That’s what my hair looked like as a kid. As I got older it got darker until it was light brown in my 30’s. Now it’s getting lighter again. Only now it’s called gray.
@Bearcat Lawyer I agree about the arms being cut off. I thought maybe it was edited afterward for social media sizing or something and that was why.
I think it’s a terrific shot and Princess Charlotte is adorable at six. However we may feel about her mom, Kate Middleton has a great eye for photography. I’d love to see her turn that love for the medium into a patronage of some sort, maybe sponsoring aspiring photojournalists? Or running a national photo contest for teens? Anyway, Happy Birthday to Charlotte!
Kate historically has a terrible eye for photography, but has access to the best equipment and the best advisory help. And very cute subjects.
The only point of Kate being the photographer came after Charlotte was born in a closed door meeting with royal rota that leaked the details. All photos on the kids were banned. If you printed photos of the kids KP would freeze out your publications from future news drops. The only photos allowed would be owned by the photographer which was credited to Kate. And would only be released to those who write favorably of the Cambridge’s.
Also worth noting some photos (George on KP steps) were said to be Kate taking the shot, but were actually other professionals. This was seen by others nearby and documented on Twitter.
That would require Kate to put in effort & work, she is too lazy for that. This photo looks like any photo families take.
Snowdon was the expert professional photographer in that family he took really great portraits of family members, and had been a professional photographer before he married in. Kate pales in comparison.
Charlotte’s hair reminds me of mine as a child – it was/is brown, but when I was out in the sun for any amount of time it turned a lot lighter (and in the summer when I was on swim team it turned bleach blonde).
Anyway she’s a cute kid and I like seeing her look more like a kid – with slightly messy hair, a cute little dress, etc.
I remember when she was born and Kate came out and my first thought was “omg she’s brave for wearing a dress that is white on the bottom” considering how, um, messy, things can be after birth, lol.
That dress is one of the few of hers that I really like. I remember thinking “thank God it’s not pink” given her penchant for theme dressing. Charlotte is a pretty girl.
This is all I could think about. I won’t go into details about what my own post birth hospital room looked like but that dress was the most courageous thing she’s ever done.
I really felt for Kate that day. I mean I couldnt even get up a day after giving birth, forget about getting dressed up, made, up, hair up, and present the baby a few hours later. That broke my heart, I just thought it was inhuman to be asking that of a mother. I dont see how a new mom would want to share that precious time with photographers when you,re left with so little energy.
I’m the same. I’ve always had brown hair but I was blonde for a short period when I was a toddler, so I seemed to have this tendency to get very natural blondish highlights in my hair when I would spend my summers outside all day. Charlotte is cute–that’s about all I’ve got.
Word about the white (I think it was floral?) dress. And wasn’t she wearing heels also? After the births of my kids, it was more than enough of an effort to change into the hoodie and yoga pants I brought from home. And thank the Lord for those mesh undies, is all I have to say 😂
Charlotte is a cute little girl.
Same! I had brown hair that lightened considerably in the summer. Man I had some gorgeous highlights – too bad I didn’t appreciate them at the time. I also have green/brown hazel eyes that have ranged in colour from almost brown to a very brilliant nearly emerald green (when I lived in rural South America and I could taste the chemicals in the water lol). Usually they’re a kind of a muddy olive green, tho. Eyes are weird.
She is such a cute child. But those blond highlights aren’t from the sun. My hair gets lighter after a day at the beach and my skin gets a shade darker. Charlotte is not red in the face or darker, unless it was edited or filters were used. I won’t even comment on who she looks like, because it’s that clear.
Yes! Her hair has an orange tint (hello bleach). The sun has a natural effect on hair, not this. Beautiful girl.
We took our kids to Florida a few years ago and by the end of the week, my son’s brown hair was streaked blonde and my fairer child had gone white blonde. I remember going to a one day outdoor concert with my mom and she had her very, very dark hair pinned up and there was red streaks in it from the sun, her hair doesn’t lighten to blonde it lightens to a reddish color and again, this was in one day. My hair is naturally light but after a year outdoors it is several shades lighter, even now with winter just ending. I think the kids are likely spending most of their days outside and then possibly as someone said, swimming in an indoor pool.
This looks natural. Kate dyes her hair, but Charlotte is natural.
How sunny is it where they live? Florida I can understand but not where they live.
Ginger
They take regular vacations to sunny locations. When the press chose to cover the vacations they were a week vacation maybe every few weeks. It was insanity.
A tan goes away quickly. Hair that has been lightened by the sun and the outdoors stays that colour until it grows out. I seriously doubt they took a child that age to the hairdresser to have highlights done.
I don’t doubt they had it professionally highlighted at all, especially with their appeals to white racists (the trump family had their hair lightened as kids too, it’s a thing with certain people).
Charlotte is adorable and her hair is pretty, but it’s not natural. If it were, it would have been light like this every birthday portrait unless she never swam or played in the sun until this year.
I think she has professional hair colour /highlights. Doesn’t look natural even if it was endless summer at the beach. And it’s May. Not summer.
Happy birthday Charlotte. I only wish you good things.
@ chartreuse
Exactly. Even as a child growing up in Southern California my hair was not this bleached out in May. They expect us believe that in the UK the sun is shining in the winter months and then her hair looks like that? Give us a break! It totally looks like a very good professional job. Adorable child. I hope she has a ton of piss and vinegar in her like Harry when she’s an adult.
My brown haired granddaughter’s hair is getting lighter and lighter. She’s three and has amazing reddish blond highlights that have appeared in the last 6 months. Don’t be ridiculous. (Ugh once again a reminder to never open up a post about royal family.)
@Anne Call I’m with you. I have three children and six grandchildren. Their eyes and hair NEVER stayed the same through childhood.
My niece’s hair would go from very brown to really blonde, and then back to brown, and back and forth like that until pretty much until she was in her late 20s. My 3 sisters were all blondes as children and then dark brown hair once in grade school I always wanted to be blonde but had to wait until after high school to highlight it. I have green eyes and people say they can’t see me with brown hair because blonde suits my eye color.
Annie maybe you should not open up a royals post. Good call! The sun in England has been very weak since last year. Maybe say where you live? You are most like a us person whose never been to the UK. Regardless of your family, streaks like that are borderline impossible. But iI think you’re a Kate stan so whatever. Most of you haven’t been to the UK
Charlotte probably wears sunscreen when she’s outside for long periods and has a nanny to remember to reapply it.
And let’s not forget, with lockdown this last year, and kids at home, not in school, these kids have probably spent a LOT of time outdoors. Even winter sun can highlight/lighten hair.
They have a pool also so the chlorine in it may affect her hair color.
Possible but it’s an outdoor pool? I mean England in winter?
I wouldn’t be surprised if they have been visiting an indoor pool in London if any are open, or spending time at hotels that have indoor pools.
Or maybe they escaped for a long vacation during the winter and we didn’t know about it.
BP has an indoor pool and Kate’s been known to use it fairly regularly.
It’s a pandemic with limitations on where you can go. I still think it’s professional colour.
I doubt they’re from the sun too. The sun is very weak in the UK from October through April (it doesn’t rise very high and you can’t get enough Vitamin D from it during that time, for example), and it’s not normally much better in summer. She looks like she may have a bit of lip gloss on too. Maybe it’s the lighting.
One of the nice things about visiting the UK in May is that the sun doesn’t set before 8:30 pm, meaning it is high in the sky.
It could also just be a combo of sun making her hair lighter and then the additional color editing of the photo
I also think it’s coloured. She’s been outside in the sun the other years and her hair was still brown (it’s not after summer, keep in mind). Highlights from the sun or steaks, are just that, streaks, while all the hair appear lightened.
Lauren, you’re right: those are NOT sun highlights: they’re salon bought…
My hair is dirty blonde (or light brown) and has turned white completely from vacations in the Caribbean and being at the pool (outdoor) growing up. After it grows out or I cut it it goes back to dingy color. That’s why as I have aged I get it highlighted. My first thought is those are professionally done highlights.
as a kid, I had medium brown hair that naturally tended to ringlets with shocks of blonde through it – it was 100% natural but no one believed it and my mum got a lot of snide remarks from other mums about it (within my earshot no less). so I’m biased but inclined to believe this is natural until proven otherwise.
I think the reaction is because it looks slightly brassy which is something I’ve thought about George’s hair at times as well.
Williams hair at that age never looked brassy and he was/is a dirty blond or dishwater blond as they call it.
Sun will do that. My hair is now dark brown (and graying fast! lol), but with a convertible top down, my hair has picked up a LOT of red glints, and in the light (sun and indoors) looks lighter and reddish. I would think Kate set up a few ring lights around Char to light her more evenly, even outside, to ban shadows.
If in the next couple of pics the blonde is gone, then it’s time to think there was salon intervention.
I am by no means a Will and Kate stan but I do wonder if people who can serenely state they bleached their little girl’s hair, actually have children of their own. I have a 6 year old daughter with coloring similar to Charlotte’s, hair and skin, and she has gorgeous blonde highlights, winter or summer. She started naturally getting them as soon as her hair started growing out. And I assure you I would never bleach a child’s hair and I imagine neither would Kate nor William. For all their sins, they seem like decent parents.
agreed, my kid has crazy striped hair from golden to light brown. The hair places we go always remark about how much people pay to have hair like hers. I’m sure it will be boring and/or from a bottle by the time she is a teen, but for now it is all natural.
100%
Agree. She is also a cute little girl. I like her sass.
the pic has been exaggeratedly hightlighted, links from the rachel riley, the dress’ brand:
https://www.rachelriley.com/collections/girls-dresses/products/floral-button-front-dress
this filter will probably mess up her eye color, too.
Um. I’m not sure what you’re talking about. It looks like sun-bleached hair to me. And not everyone’s skin tans or stays tanned. Especially when they wear sun block.
Funny you think her eyes got darker. On a thread quite some time ago I was asking how those two made two brown eyes kids and this picture a the first time i saw that her eyes aren’t brown.
My parents had blue eyes and we’re all a mix. It’s a fallacy about eye colour’ having to be a certain way.
Right, I think the only “rule” is that is if both parents have genuine blue eyes, the child’s eyes will also be blue. Green/hazel does not equate to blue eyes. Kate’s eyes aren’t blue — only Will’s, I believe.
My husband has brown eyes and reddish hair, I have auburn hair and hazel eyes and my oldest son has blue eyes and copper hair and my second son has dark brown eyes and dark hair, no a hint of red. So, yes, the theory can be misleading.
Yeah, I thought Kate had blue eyes when I made the comment on the other post but it was pointed out that they were actually green. I’ve got a crazy genetic story too. My siblings and I are half Black and half white. Mom is damn near clear with a ton of freckles, red hair, and green eyes. My dad was brown skin with dark hair and eyes. So all of us came out with brown eyes, one brother with light brown eyes. All of us have visible red in our hair though I’m the only one you might consider ginger. The brother with the light brown eyes got with a woman is also half Black and half white. Her white side is of the dark Italian variety. My nephew came out super pale with blue eyes and copper hair which eventually turned blonde. The funniest part is that you still tell he’s Black.
Nah even blue eyed parents doesn’t have to equal a blue eyes child. There are several genes which contribute to eye colour. Not simple at all. Evidence if you need: my family. Blue eyed parents. 3 blue eyed children, 1 hazel eyed child. The hazel eyes one has a blue eyed daughter now (altho only age 2 so her eyes may change)
EVERYONE on my dad’s side has/d shades of blue or blue green eyes… except my uncle, whose eyes were brown. Genetics are a funny thing.
I have brownish dark hazel eyes and my hubby has blue. One daughter has green eyes (which were a bright blue until she was 3), the other has a deep chocolate brown (way darker than the brown in mine) and our son has his dad’s but that’s because he’s his clone. All their hair colors are different shades than each other’s and changed over the years as well. My son had chestnut hair until four, then it turned medium blond and now it’s a medium brown. My elder daughter changed from strawberry blond to light brown to auburn and my younger from blonde to medium brown.
I think we shouldn’t look too much into the change of hair colour. It happens a lot that kids are born with dark hair and then it gets lighter as they grow older. Also, the ends are always lighter than the roots and like kaiser said, maybe they’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors.
As for the social media boycott, i think it would have been a bit more of a statement had they held this picture for today. But i guess the tabloids want their pound of flesh.
My older son and I were looking at older photos where my younger son is blonde. Only four years ago and even I had forgotten how blonde he was (now light brown).
She’s a pretty girl and I hope she and Louis escape the raw deal the “spare” (what a terrible turn of phrase) gets in this family.
Louis might but im afraid charlotte won’t. I looked at some article headlines this weekend and they are already setting up a very competitive narrative in regards to her older brother. Seeing how jealousy seems to be a inherited disease among the windsors i think we are in for a few interesting years when george and charlotte are older. I can actually envision charlotte doing a harry so to speak.
I see comments on social media that she will “turn out” like Harry and are judging her already even talking about how George is “prepared to be King.” Starting up already.
Exactly, @Cecilia, if they had withheld the photo media would be asking why and then they could respond, “because of the boycott” and their supposed support of the boycott would have infinitely more meaning. Oh well, Cambridges will be Cambridges.
Exactly. My hair got lighter too at exactly the same age as Charlotte to the point it would have been a toss up to decide whether I had blonde hair or light brown hair. A couple of years later it was darker again. This is not uncommon at all.
Also, it would not be an upper class thing to highlight the hair of a child. So there’s that.
Kate is not, and never will be, ‘upper class’.
At least according to the British definition.
She is very photogenic, I think she will be a beauty.
I think see looks like a regular kid. I rarely see a child who isn’t photogenic.
exactly
So much for the boycott in support of the eradication of racism (in soccer).
Cute kid and happy birthday – the Windsor is strong in her, I see William and Edward.
Imagine if Meghan released a picture of her kid with hair looking like that.
(Which is perfectly fine for a kid but you know they’d call her a terrible mother if her kid had unbrushed hair in its face)
Thats harsh – her hair is fine. Looks like her hair was tied back and then let down for the photo – nothing wrong with that. She’s a child.
She’s not criticizing charlotte. She’s simply stating what would happen had meghan released such a picture and she isn’t wrong. Remember the mayhem last year with archies birthday because they had him in a onesie without pants?
I literally said it’s fine for a child.
You know Meghan would not get the same reaction. Remember when she was reading to Archie in a onesie and people said it was disgusting and undignified? Yet here we have the daughter of a future king with unbrushed hair and not a peep.
I do agree with this (that if Meghan released a pic of Archie with messy hair, the hounds WOULD have been baying about what a neglectful mother she was, etc. Plus all the ickiness that goes into commenting on a mixed-race child’s hair. That’s a fact.) I also agree that these are kids and it shouldn’t be an issue — children are going to play, run, jump, roll around and get messy. It’s how it should be.
Sarah the Vile would release an article about how it would directly affect her in some way, Wootty the Worst would release a DM exclusive (whilst licking Willileaks feet) of how It won’t threathen “Keen and Mean’s” relationship or some other Sh*t along those lines and Good old Camel Toe will come barging in yelling “SHe StiLl mADe KaTe CrYYYYyYyY!!!!!”
That pic is weird especially the blond highlights in her hair . She looked like wills in a wig. Also so much for SM boycott by giving the pic to the RF SM team to post it
I do think eyes can darken with age – my mom told me that I was born with much lighter eyes, and now my eyes are a deep dark brown.
Other than that, she looks adorable. That wonderful mischievous twinkle in her eye – I love it
Eye color can definitely change from infancy, both my kids were born with grayish eyes and now both are dark brown, but I don’t even think her eyes are that much darker – if you compare to the pic of her in the gray sweater (from last year or the year before?) her eyes look pretty much the same, I think its because her hair looks so much lighter and is around her face that it makes the eyes look darker.
Funny, I was reading an article yesterday saying that the “blue-ish” shade most babies are born with is because of the amount (or lack thereof) of melanin in the eye. Of course, some babies ARE born with brown eyes, too. But by around age 1 they *usually* have settled into the color they will be.
I had gray eyes until I was a year old and then one day they randomly changed to dark brown. My ex-husband’s eyes change from blue/green and he was so hoping our son would have his eye color…. nope he came out with brown eyes! (I was a little sad I wanted him to have the gray to brown thing happen)
Most babies are born with brown eyes, though.
Hazel eyes can change so much with what you are wearing and the lighting as well. My BBF’s eyes look brown, green or almost grey depending.
I used to have medium blue eyes, and through my 40s till now (55), the outer ring remains that med blue, but I now have central heterochromia (it’s kinda light tan), so my eyes now appear more greenish/ light teal, especially in bright light/small pupils. My hair was super blonde as a kid, got more reddish in my 40’s, now losing the warmth as I start to go gray. My mom had green-hazel eyes, and now in her 80s, they are more hazel-brown. She was a redhead, now more of a strawberry blonde. Whacky. Brother and sister were real coppertops, now both strawberry blondes. Funny how hair & eye colors change.
It’s the melanin fading as we age. I’m seeing it in my hair mostly, and my eyes, which were bluish green (more green, dep. on what I wore), are now a lighter shade, with a bit more blue (looking more turquoise). I’m sure eventually I’ll be down to the pale blue that my dad has now (at 93). As a young man, he had vividly blue eyes. Sigh.. oh well! 😊
Eye color can definitely change with age. My eyes were cornflower blue when I was little, and now they’re kind of aqua-gray, sometimes green, with brown spots in them. Charlotte’s eyes look hazel to me.
As to the hair, the color can change too. I can totally see those being natural highlights from being in the sun a lot. Again, my hair….was platinum blonde when I was little and is know basically brown. But when I was a child and teen, when I spent a lot of time in the sun, it could get a LOT blonder and stay that way until it grew out. Even as an adult it can lighten a lot in the sun.
She’s cute. She does look like her grandmother and Great Aunt Margaret.
Children’s eyes can change color all the way up to 8 years old. Especially with eyes that started out light colored.
She has William’s coloring.
I think the photo of Kate holding the kids after birth are some of the best of her. She is wearing her real smile, she looks way more relaxed than normal too.
I still think it is a special kind of torture to give birth and take public photos so soon after.
She looks genuine in those pics. She also still has a bit of baby weight which contributes to her “softer” look. But yes, real happiness will give you that smile 😊
As I said yesterday, the posting of the photo on the Royal Family’s twitter and giving it press despite the social media boycott shows that William is trapped.
I think there’s always going to be some “debate” as to who the kids look like because they don’t really look like either parent. I’m not really one to care, but Charlotte looks like a pretty girl.
The photos are never anything special but I guess we should applaud Kate for snapping some photos and sharing them with us?
Combined with PWT’s social media “boycott,” it just goes to show how useless they are at effective communication. When are the crisis managers starting? I do hope they hire their comms director sooner rather than later as well.
Charlotte is super cute and looks like HERSELF.
I’m surprised we get a picture for once where this child’s hair isn’t bound back or in ties or clips or a headband. Good to have a childhood as “messy” and normal as possible. Would be even better if we stopped foisting our expectations and dreams on children. “She’s going to be a beauty” etc. She is going to be rich and privileged and white for sure, I guess for some people there is no difference.
I’m pretty sure the ‘she’s a beauty’ comments aren’t some deep expectations and dreams — it’s just something nice people say when looking at photos of other people’s kids.
It just isn’t cool to go with “cute smile, but kind of looks like a frog”
This isn’t a cute personal picture your neighbor or coworker shared just because they’re proud and happy. It’s propaganda for the monarchy and the Tory establishment. It’s not about being polite to someone’s child, it’s about PR that draws on and twists our natural human instincts. This little girl is already being put out there as the “jointed doll” Hilary Mantel talked about. Of course as we all know, children aren’t dolls, they are real human beings with their own lives. So there’s a collision.
My hair always “bleached” out like that in the spring/summer from being in the pool and the sunshine. I was never indoors from morning to night. In my teens, I used to take bags of lemons to the beach to help “streak” my hair (and went home on the bus with icky, sticky, pitted hair lol).
But yeah…hair can lighten or darken from infancy to young childhood. Look at George. He was SO blonde as a baby, and now he’s kind of “bronde”. Definitely darkened. I think Char’s just spent a lot of time outdoors, and this is her hair doing it’s thing. We’ll see how she looks in the fall.
But an adorable girl: DEFINITELY a Windsor… I think she has Pippa’s eyes, and the rest is all Will.
My hair is very dark and as a child (around that age) with the pool, the beach and being outside all day – yes I had some very light color streaks in places. As I got older (high school) that was impossible to achieve, no matter the amount of Sun-In or lemons I used.
Thanks for the comment on resemblance. I know some kids change and some stay the same (some of mine did that). I agree, Windsor all the way overall.
Oh I hope not. I hope she’s more a Middleton, and is not Windsorized.
She is cute kid, emphasis on “kid”. Most of kids are cute especially those who have well-groomed appearance. This kind of cuteness attracts women’s hearts instinctively. Post the picture of baby or toddler in cute outfit – and we all are melting, myself included. That’s the reason our top CEO and TOB are so frequent in using their children’s images to improve their own.
I hope when the kids will grow up and we’ll see their personalities it would be more interesting to discuss them. This, of course, if we’ll be interested in Royal kids then.
Probably lightened her hair by photoshop, nice everyday photo.!
There is a version going around where her hair is even blonder and her eyes are blue. Ugh for the stans who are doing this to a photo of a child.
So they had to “Aryan” her up? Disgusting.
And this proves my up thread point that I totally believe they had her hair streaked professionally, because look who their base is. Disgusting thing for the base to do to her photo, but Charlotte is adorable.
this child’s hair isn’t professionally colored and some wackadoodle photoshopping a well known child doesn’t prove anything.
@SurelyNot you think her hair magically lightened in April when it never did that before? Sure. It’s totally unreasonable to believe people as image conscious as this family is would have their daughter’s hair lightened during a bad press period.
Their base being racist as hell enough to lighten her hair and turn her eyes blue certainly isn’t a good look, since they’ve been accused of being racists and are part of a colonial institution based on racism.
Charlotte is very cute and always seems very happy
Harry was right. William is trapped. That’s all I got from these pictures being released during KP’s supposed ‘boycott’ of social media.
Regarding Charlotte’s hair, who honestly knows what’s been done to it with a mother like Keen and a grandmother like Carol(E). It could be down to sunlight or just the maturing of hair. It’s normal. She looks cute, but all my reactions are still ‘meh’ when I see pics like these every birthday or christmas. There’s nothing really new being brought to the table and i’m sure the public are already bored from it.
Also, the pushing of Keen to be this professional family photographer never fails to crack me up still. Stop trying to make that happen! It’s not going to happen!
I think it is more of a mark for Kate to leave her stamp on historical pics. This came to mind when some of PP’s more private pics were released and her name was stamped with credit for taking the photo. It reminded me of the historical books I used to read of the royals in England and Russia – where the photographer was identified and credited. It made me wonder if that is why she is doing it.
Girlfriend is no photographer. She just has access to a really sophisticated point-and-shoot that for a few thousand bucks, SHOULD take pro-looking photos for you just by clicking the damn button.
The photos are fine and if the subject wasn’t a cute kid then perhaps there would be a real critique of her skill. As it is if anyone critiqued the photo they would be accused of criticizing Charlotte.
My mom’s birthday is also May 2. She turned 88 yesterday. If there is anything to astrology, then the royal family better fasten their seatbelts. My mom is bull-headed and a natural leader. She has zero tolerance for BS.
Happy Belated to Mom!
If you ever watched “The Royals”, I’d love to see Char like the Princess Eleanor character. She took life by the short-hairs on her own terms and just led her life. I hope Char does the same, and doesn’t get fed into the BM bottomless pit to get chewed up and spit out to prop poor George.
She is such a cutie girl. It is sad that in a few years her grandfather and parents will be using her as their own personal PR kickball. In fact, the Daiky Fail was already printing stories about why Charlotte be a better spare than Harry this weekend! It was gross. She is 6 years old!
I’m hoping that Kate steps up and doesn’t allow her daughter to be used as the “spare” punching bag for her Charles, William and George. Remember during the Attenborough visit, Kate chimed in and reminded William that Charlotte was interested in science too? Let’s hope that Kate keeps that up as Charlotte grows up.
Agreed. Fingers are crossed for her for sure!
Re: the hair. I saw a thing on twitter that showed the dress she is wearing and it is much darker. There must have been some type of filter used to lighten everything up.
Man she really looks a little female William.
As for her hair,many people are commenting that it’s due to sun or chlorine from the pool. Is it true? Or it’s just a white people thing because I’ve been out in the sun a lot but my hair remains firmly brown. Does it really turn blonde?
And now, that invisible contract on full display by the rota. I saw articles yesterday how Charlotte will be a better spare than Margaret and Harry 🤮 poor girl is set up for her brother’s fall.
I’m a brunette, one half Italian-American on my father’s side. But when I was a little girl, my hair got as light as Charlotte’s when I spent time in the sun. It stopped by the time I got to school age; maybe my hair would go a lighter shade of brown in the sun, especially if I helped it along with lemon juice or Sun-In (showing my age here!), but never again blonde. Charlotte’s much more than I am, so it’ll be interesting to see if she gets lighter in the sun throughout her lifetime or if it’ll stop as she gets older like it did with me.
Her hair would be light all over if it’s from the pool. Dark blond or brown hair wouldn’t lighten only in strategically placed streaks around her face like that. Pools also tend to give blond hair a greenish tinge.
I’m a 60yo natural blonde and my hair still turns the colour of spun gold in the summer. The colour usually lasts until the end of the year, then becomes darker blonde and grey. Once spring hits it starts to turn bright blonde and hides the grey again.
How is she 6 already??!!!
I’m surprised at how blonde she is.
She’s so cute. Really looks like William- reminds me of Sarah Chatto too. Happy birthday Charlotte
It’s pool hair! . My daughter had it a few summers when she was that age. She’s adorable! I always thought she looked like TQ. Now she looks like char!otte. And i hope she raises hell…..lol
Happy birthday Charlotte! She looks like her dad and great grandma Betty.
The first thing I noticed was the hair. Not in a bad way at all, I just didn’t think she would have blonde hair. Although hair and eye colour does change when kids get older.
Happy Birthday to Charlotte.
It reminding me of a friend I had in elementary school who’s mom started dying her brown hair blonde in the first grade.
She’s had highlights AND a blowout. She has the same “messy” hairline as Kate, and in this photo that’s been dealt with.
You are absolutely right!
Lipstick or lip gloss too.
This is just normal kid windblown hair, possibly taken during outdoor playtime. My girls had blondish highlights as children as well, even tho definitely brunettes.
Very cute photo.. I just hope the tabloid media leave her alone but already saw some disturbing headlines and looks like they are pegging her in the “prince Harry” role already. That is what people especially her parents should be concerned with. There is something truly wrong with the British tabloids and people who support them. It is a sick abusive cycle. I love seeing all the kids photos but not at the expense of their mental health and childhood.
I’m torn on whether they’re bleaching Charlotte’s hair or not. I have hair darker than hers, and recently I was looking at my kindergarten school photo and was shocked to see how my hair looked so sun sunstreaked! I know I never died my hair until I was 15, and didn’t bleach my hair for several years after that…
My niece just turned 7, and her mother has been dying her hair for a few years now. At first she just added a few highlights to my nieces hair (I think she was in denial that my niece was born with dark hair, since she comes from a family of natural blondes) then in the last year, she has been adding coloured highlights. My niece’s hair is currently half purple/pink, along with her natural medium brown hair.
I HATE the fact that they’re using bleach on her hair… but my niece seems to like the fun colours. Hard to achieve that on darker hair.
I’m stunned. Good way of teaching a child she is not as beautiful as she is.
I agree. It really REALLY bugged me when my niece had her hair dyed/bleached for the first time. What the heck is wrong with brown hair? Nothing!
Alas, I’m just Aunty Kelly and have absolutely no say in how her mom (who I really don’t get along with) styles her hair. I don’t have kids of my own, but if I did, I would not be dying a young child’s hair. If she was around 12, maybe going in to Junior High I would consider it, but my niece is too young right now (in my opinion).
ITA with you. As a non parent we can’t really do anything about things like this. What we can do as aunts is give our nieces and nephews loads of positive reinforcements to let them know they are perfect just the way they are, imperfections and all.
Not necessarily, especially in Charlotte’s case IF the highlights have been helped along by a professional.
I shared a birthday with my favorite aunt. I’d get to skip a day of school (if it fell on a school day) and do stuff with her. Around 8 it involved a beauty spa day. I got my nails done just like Aunt (just painted, no fake nails) and my hair highlighted (while she went to full bottle blonde). It didn’t make me question if I looked bad or not without it. It did become a treasured memory now that she’s gone.
Maybe Charlotte and Kate had a mommy daughter day, Kate went to get all her highlights and blow outs and Charlotte joined in.
I always got lighter blonde natural highlights around my face in the summer as a kid, so 🤷🏼♀️- it can happen!
Except it’s not summer and those aren’t natural highlights. They are evenly spaced.
Question for the Brits on here: a lot of ppl are saying the blonde can be from the sun. Is that really possible where they live by April? England seems perpetually gloomy to me, plus it’s very early in the season and those highlights start at the root so they aren’t last year’s.
We’ve had a very warm April. I can believe the highlights from the original photo (which Kaiser has linked too) were from the sun.
However there is a version circulating which some sites have used where someone has played with the exposure and her hair looks even blonder and her eyes are blue. I noticed it because the over exposure made her hair look fried and I had to take a second look and compare then I saw her eyes.
I think I may have seen that one. I was just scrolling but I remember thinking that she had really damaged hair for a six year old.
I think I may have seen that one. I was just scrolling but I remember thinking that she had really damaged hair for a six year old.
Oh come on – people can’t be seriously believing they would highlight Charlotte’s hair!?
I think the bigger issue here is the media boycott, or lack thereof.
You can’t boycott social media the very same weekend you rinse social media with birthday pics of your daughter. This is such sloppy PR. And I don’t even know anything about PR! Are Kate and William using separate people for their publicity who aren’t communicating with each other? Or are they stepping on each others’ narratives on purpose? For what end? How else could this narrative have become so muddled?
Do as I say, not as I do?
Don’t you know that Will-not is all about performing, not actually doing 😉
Lighting and editing can account for the difference in eye color, in addition to just a natural darkening with age. My older daughter had sparkling blue eyes and blonde hair for 3 years. Then her eyes were a light hazel until about 6. At almost 8, her eyes are definitely brown, but a very light brown that stands out. My younger daughter currently has light hazel eyes. We’ll see what happens. Both of them can appear to have darker eyes in photos, though.
Cute kid. I like her messy hair.
I hope charlote life will be easier than her uncle harry the spare since her grandpa will be the last monarchy.
Those Windsor genes are strooong…
She has 1/2 Middleton/ GOldsmith DNA and looks like them I hope she does not get Windsorized in features as she gets older.
I had very dark brown hair and green eyes until my 3rd birthday. That’s when my hair got consistently lighter and eyes got darker. I ended up having blonde hair and hazel eyes LOL
Eye colour can change so much, it’s wild.
PS. One time my mum was asked if she highlighted my 3 year old sister’s hair because her hair was literally every shade of blonde you could imagine. She didn’t colour my sister’s hair and to this day she is deeply offended every time she remembers.
She’s very cute! That is all to have to say.
She is a cute kid.
So much for the PS, Kaiser. Lots of comments about who she looks like.
I feel uncomfortable commenting on a child’s looks which is what these sort of things encourage….what else is there to talk about in regards to a six year old? Her accomplishments?
But that’s part of the invisible contract and what royalty is all about these days. PR and photos.
I really hope her parents protect her, especially as she grows older. Girls get judged on their looks, even in childhood.
Charlotte doesn’t have the big eyes, full lips or cherub face we associate with beauty. It wouldn’t at all surprise me if they lightened her hair, whether by editing or by bleach, to distract from that.
She’s your cute average little girl but for the British media that isn’t enough.
I think her face is pretty cherubic, actually. Her eyes aren’t big but they’re pretty, they sparkle. Anyway, she’s a cute kid, she’s fine.
I absolutely agree that we should be aware that at some point—perhaps much earlier than we think—Charlotte will start to read the media. She might just blunder into it, or she might be told about it at school. She is a child. When she figures out she is famous (which may already have happened) the social media could quite well feed her narrative or even partially create it. Something to think about for me.
I am not old enough to recall if they did this for Harry and William as kids. And at what point does it stop? Do they really want this done when they are teens? It just seems weird for kids who are not working royals to have this done to them.
Good question. I feel like there’s lots of pics of Harry and William from when they were kids. Is it more than we have now or just my memory playing tricks?
We got their first birthday photos & their first day at school photos, but not photos for every birthday every year.
Cute kid. She’s all William to me and has always been his mini-me. As for her hair, it looks highlighted. In the video, she had dark hair, very few blonde streaks. *shrugs* But she’s not my kid, so Kate can do what she wants with her hair.
Everyone says kids are born with blue eyes. White kids, anyway. I had blue eyes as a child (now they’re more like green, varies by day), but my husband has dark eyes and black hair and both my kids were born with brown eyes. Neither had blue or even gray eyes for a milli-second, even my daughter whose hair was kind of blonde.
Anyway, it’s a cute pic of a cute kid.
Q, l absolutely agree with you and other comments here, but when l saw this picture of Charlotte the first thing that that sprang to mind was how Kate styled the young girl way older than her years , styled blow out hair , ‘not child messy’ that was lightened by camera or other means…. Charlotte a sweet child, there was really no need , it’s April not August takes longer to highlight a child’s hair here !!
She’s cute, and this made me think of a picture of my sister from around the same age, and her hair did the exact same thing. You’d think looking at it that she was a natural blonde, but it’s literally the only picture of her where she doesn’t have dark brown hair. Some young kids who are naturally brunette go through a phase where their hair goes very blonde when out in the sun. I had blonde streaks as a small child for a couple years or so too.
But thinking of that picture, it struck me that it’s increasingly weird that these pictures of the Cambridge kids, that basically look like yearbook pictures or stuff you’d have on your mantle or whatever, are always getting released to the public and it’s treated as news. Like, this is just a normal picture of a kid that you’d have framed on an end table or something. The mass dissemination of it though tabloids and sense of public ownership is weirdly invasive.
She’s adorable…I too had those highlights. Now I have to pay for them! I see Elizabeth in her.
Charlottes is adorable. Her hair looks just like our two daughters’ after being in the sun and the pool. I don’t buy the ‘it’s dyed’ snark one bit. And her smile is lovely. She’s like any little kid, a bit self-conscious about being put on the spot and asked to stare into the camera.
Agreed. My niece is a full-on strawberry-blonde right now, very blonde in certain lighting, and she had Charlotte’s color hair before. All from the sun, chlorine, and ocean occasionally. It was startling to see my neice’s hair at first. It looked like a professional job.
Happy Birthday little Lottie love
She’s a cute kid and she looks happy. It’s a sweet picture of her. I don’t have it in me to drag her even if I think her parents are jerks.
She’s such a cutie. I hope she rebels hard against the royal expectations because those always feels worse for the women.
I did see someone say she looks like a young Sarah Chatto and I kinda see that. It’s always interesting when kids look like various family members as they get older.
Sarah has plainer features and is a Snowdon through and through. CHarlotte has a different chin and eyes and mouth shape.
Her dress is like for toddlers, not six year olds. Rick rack, buttons, flowers, Peter Pan collar, puff sleeves, yeegads she’s 6 years, not 6 months. There are darling clothes for her age, like cute shift styles. jmo
It looks like a dress that grandmother Carole wore.
It looks like a dress Keen Guevara would wear.
poor girl. I hope she can escape the curse of the spare and her family’s incredible dysfunction.
she looks like a copy of Will to me with Middleton eyes.
All kids are cute, I suppose.
As a previous poster mentioned, why do we need these pictures of each kid every year? I don’t know if there’s a history of all royal kids getting birthday portraits released. Guess it’s a cultural thing for royals? I say this, because while I feel invested in the Sussexes’ happiness, I have zero craving for pictures of Archie or new baby on the regular.
Anyway HBD princess. You seem to have a fun personality.
I used to have almost exactly the hair colour like Charlotte in that photos, and some years when my mom wanted my hair to get more highlights, especially in the summer, she would make me rinse them with camomile with every wash, it worked beautifully.
Can I ask what form the chamomile takes? Do you crush flowers or buy it?
My and my 3 sister’s hair looked EXACTLY like this as kids (California)
My kids hair ooks exactly like this.
They are called strawberry blonde highlights, I’d get just like this and lighter in the summer, it would darken over Winter and bleach out again.
Pools, the ocean, the hose in the backyard all contribute.
And how many times did they sneak off to an island holiday the last year?
Daily Mail was running coverage of the pic saying how much she looks like The Queen. And I just don’t see it… all the way along I thought she was a mini Carole Middleton. Now I see PW too but I feel like the “she’s the image of the TQ” is a push by the mids to show the lineage… when really she looks way more like the other non royal gran. And that should be just fine…. but somehow not for the keens.
Yes! Don’t get why is this a problem for them? It may not be saying much, but the Middletons are the more attractive family. However, the old Windsor genes seem to almost always prevail.
I never saw a resemblance to the Queen. The Queen had different facial features as a child. And she is only one ancestor out of many. I see a lot of Middleton in her and they contribute half of the DNA. The QUeen has a very small percentage in comparison.
I just know she’s going to be a live wire when she grows up. She radiates so much energy and spunkiness.
I think she looks like Carole. Carole had blondish hair as a child.
She has prince phillip, and Harry’s gap teeth. I don’t see william.
I am trying to figure out the eye shape. Carole’s or William’s?
I will not hold back on who Charlotte resembles – she is Anna Paquin’s doppelganger!!!
I almost posted the same comment. The resemblance is uncanny in that photo.
😀
I’ve been looking at some of Charlotte’s other pictures and her hair does seem to be lighter on the ends than it is at the roots. And when the light hits her hair or she’s photographed outside, her hair looks a little more golden. We often see her with her hair pulled back so we’re seeing a lot of the darker root hair, and maybe that’s why we think of her as being strictly brunette? Maybe the blonde hair is a combo is her hair being down so we can see the lighter bits, plus this being a really bright picture—like it looks like it was taken in sunlight and then also had the brightness turned up in editing. Maybe she took swimming lessons this winter and spring and that lightened up her hair a bit too.
Or do we know exactly when this picture was taken? Don’t they sometimes release pictures that are months old for their birthday portraits? Could this photo be from last September after after spending a whole summer outside? Though it seems like in the past year or so they’ve been releasing much more recent pictures of the kids because they’re showing the kids off more often (since they they need the good PR) and a six month old picture would be noticeably out of date given that we’ve seen the kids in person not that long ago.
Beautiful model, mediocre photographer
Kate need to buy the new samsung galaxy phone. their camera and features are GOOD. I follow some tiktok on how to take stars’ picture and it was good, as if I’m using fancy and expensive camera.
lol
I live in South Florida and have all my life. Before it turned gray and I had to color it, my hair was dark brown at the roots and gradually became lighter until the ends were a blondish red color I detested. My ponytail was a completely different color from the hair on my scalp. My daughters had lighter hair than Charlotte’s as babies/toddlers which grew dark with time, as did their eyes (slate blue to brown).
But we live in a tropical, sunny area, not the overcast British isles. And when our hair lightened in the sun, we tanned even with high SPF sunblock. I know mothers who use hair lightening spray on their kids when their hair gets darker as they grow. Coincidentally, are all Trump supporters who want to be the whitest white. Oh and Charlotte looks like Sarah Chatto (sp) with Kate’s top lip.
Just wondering why there isn’t much news articles about George. It’s always Charlotte. Even when the three children are out in public for official reasons the coverage is all about Charlotte. Nothing about George. Why? I know that Charlotte is more animated and cheeky but George is the future king. When William was his age the coverage was full-on. With George now it seems like the royal rota avoid to say anything about him at all. Crickets. Is something wrong ?
There are childhood photos of Carole Middleton and she had blonde hair.
Charlotte looks so much like William in this photo (her eyes especially) and because Will looks so much like Diana, I can see the comparisons starting when Charlotte is a teenager.
To me, the girl has alwaus been a copy of Carole Middleton.