A smiling Prince Louis has been photographed being pushed in a wheelbarrow by his mother, the Princess of Wales, ahead of his fifth birthday.
The photograph shows the young prince wearing a blue woolly jumper, shirt and blue shorts while sitting on top of leaves and grass and holding on to the wheelbarrow, as Kate laughs.
It is one of two pictures taken by photographer Millie Pilkington earlier this month on the Windsor Estate. They have been released to mark Louis turning five on Sunday.
The other is a close-up of the beaming prince, showing how quickly William and Kate’s youngest child is growing up.
The family live in Adelaide Cottage in Windsor’s Home Park and Louis attends the private Lambrook School near Ascot in Berkshire alongside his brother and sister Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
Louis is expected to accompany his siblings in the procession from Westminster Abbey which will follow the King’s coronation on 6 May, according to reports.
He was not at the Queen’s state funeral at the Abbey in September and is thought to have been considered too young to attend the service with his parents.
Louis is fourth in line to the throne and was born on St George’s Day – 23 April – in 2018 in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, London, weighing 8lb 7oz.
He was christened Louis Arthur Charles at 11 weeks old, by the Archbishop of CanterburyJustin Welby, at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, in front of friends and family.
The new photos come after it appeared Louis was given a hand-me-down shirt from his older brother Prince George in a new birthday tribute for the late Queen.
To mark what would be the Queen’s 97th birthday, the royal family shared an unseen photograph of the late British monarch surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In the photo, which was taken by the Princess of Wales during a family trip to Balmoral, Aberdeenshire last summer, the Queen is seen sitting on a couch joined by George, Princess Charlotte, and Louis.
The youngest Cambridge was seen standing off to the side of his great-grandmother and next to his cousin, Isla Phillips. Apart from the grin on his face, Louis also wore a button-down shirt with blue and white stripes and mandarin-collar shirt. In fact, the striped shirt appeared to be identical to the one worn by Prince George when he was the same age as his younger brother.
In 2017, Kensington Palace released a portrait of George in honour of his fourth birthday. The photograph, captured by royal photographer Chris Jackson, showed the Prince and Princess of Wales’ eldest child beaming in the blue and white striped shirt.
The long sleeve shirt – called the “Pereprine Shirt Seersucker Blue” – is from the Franco-Spanish boutique Amaia Kids, a favourite brand amongst the royal family. The shirt currently retails on their website for $74.25 (£58).
