The Princess of Wales has wished the Prince of Wales a happy 42nd birthday by sharing a photo of William and their three children at the beach.
In the picture shared on social media, William is seen wearing a blue hoodie and pink shorts, jumping from a sand dune as he holds hands with George, Charlotte and Louis.
The caption said: “Happy birthday Papa, we all love you so much!”
William’s father, King Charles, also wished his son a happy birthday, with a black-and-white photograph of William as a baby shared on the Royal Family’s X account.
Happy Birthday to The Prince of Wales! 🎉
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 21, 2024
📷 @RCT pic.twitter.com/IEWU8ZeycE
It came the morning after William, president of the FA, was pictured alongside Denmark’s King Frederick as England drew 1-1 with Denmark in Frankfurt, Germany, in their second match of Euro 2024.
The day before that he was seen at the Royal Ascot, where he took a carriage with the Queen for the traditional procession along the course.
William has faced a challenging 12 months with both Kate and his father the King diagnosed with cancer.
Kate returned briefly to the public limelight at Trooping the Colour last weekend with William and their three children, marking her first official public appearance this year.
But in a personal message to the nation, the princess revealed although she is making good progress, she is “not out of the woods yet”.
She told how she has good days and bad days and is facing a few more months of chemotherapy treatment.
William’s birthday came amid speculation the future king supports his father’s slimmed-down approach to the monarchy and that William may not want his younger children Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to be working royals.
The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden wrote that a friend of the prince told him: “When the older members of the family retire, His Royal Highness won’t be inviting anyone else to become working royals.
“It remains to be seen if he will even want his two younger children to be working royals.”
Ten-year-old Prince George is a future king, but third in line Charlotte, aged nine, and fourth in line Louis, six, are spares to the heir and, therefore, not expected to ever reign as monarch.
Prince William was born second in line to the throne at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, at 9.03pm on June 21, 1982.
He was the first-born son of the then-Prince and the Princess of Wales.
His mother Diana, who separated from the then-Prince of Wales in 1992, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.
William was just 15 and his brother Prince Harry 12, and the boys walked behind the princess’s coffin during a funeral procession through London.
The prince met Kate Middleton at St Andrews University in Fife, and the pair married at Westminster Abbey in 2011 after dating for more than eight years.
They welcomed their first child George in 2013, followed by Charlotte in 2015, and then Louis in 2018.
After the death of the late Queen in 2022, the King announced in his first historic address that he had made William and Kate the new Prince and Princess of Wales.
William has a long-running rift with his brother the Duke of Sussex, with no sign yet of a reconciliation.
The fallout originated ahead of Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex, and worsened after the accusations Harry publicly levelled at his brother in his double tell-alls: his Netflix documentary and his memoir Spare.
When their joint friend the Duke of Westminster married in Chester Cathedral earlier this month, William acted as an usher, but Harry mutually agreed with the groom that he would not attend.
Since his last birthday, William has launched Homewards, his five-year drive to eradicate homelessness in six locations around the UK.
His other key focuses include raising mental health awareness, and the Earthshot Prize, his £50 million environmental competition to find solutions to help the planet.
