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Royal News Roundup: Kate Middleton’s Birthday Pics, Prince Harry’s Potential Move & More

Here, all the royal news you need to know for the week of January 13, 2022.

  • Over the weekend, Kate Middleton released a trio of gorgeous portraits in honor of her 40th birthday. The royal also revealed that these photos will be hung in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
  • As People pointed out, Middleton is wearing pearl drop earrings that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana.
  • Fans couldn’t get enough of the red one-shoulder dress that Middleton wore in one of the photos, mainly because it featured pockets. “You know dress pockets are a big deal when even the Duchess of Cambridge herself uses them in her official portrait,” one person wrote.
  • To obtain the candid shots, professional photographer Paolo Roversi revealed that he asked Middleton to dance in front of the lens, so the birthday images would look less staged. “In the end, I wanted to take pictures in motion, so with that wonderful wide skirt I made her dance in front of my lens, a kind of accelerated waltz mixed with a pinch of rock ‘n roll,” he told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
  • Roversi also confirmed that Middleton’s three children—Prince George (8), Princess Charlotte (6) and Prince Louis (3)—helped pick one of the final photos to be released. They chose the dreamy black-and-white close-up shot of the duchess smiling in her one-shoulder dress.
  • Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles celebrated the Duchess of Cambridge's birthday with a series of intimate photos on the official Clarence House page. The caption read, “Wishing The Duchess of Cambridge a very happy 40th birthday today!”
  • Queen Elizabeth also shared a birthday post on the royal family’s Instagram account, which seemed to have a special meaning. Instead of posting a generic assortment of pics featuring the duchess, the four snaps capture the close relationship between Middleton and the queen.
  • Middleton penned a rare personal message on Twitter to Mila Sneddon (who is battling leukemia). The 6-year-old filmed a special video for the royal, where she wished her a happy birthday. The royal responded, “Thank you Mila!”
  • Tracy Rennie (director of East Anglia Children's Hospice) spoke with People about what it was like to work with Middleton. “She has this natural, quiet confidence. When she smiles, her whole face smiles,” Rennie said.
  • Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, posted a vintage photo of their grandmother, Cynthia Spencer, on Instagram. It didn’t take long for royal fans to notice that Cynthia is posing with a slight head tilt, which was one of Diana’s go-to moves.
  • A source told The Daily Mail that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle may move out of their mansion in Montecito, California. “They want to stay in the neighborhood or nearby, but they aren’t over the moon about the house or the location,” the source said.
  • After turning 20 in December, Japan’s Princess Aiko attended her first official outing. The royal wore a formal white gown, along with matching opera gloves and a pearl necklace.
  • During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Lily Collins recalled the time she met Princess Diana as a child. Referencing a photo of herself and the royal, Collins explained, “I am giving Diana flowers, but the second that she went to take them, I then tried to pull them back. So, as you can imagine, all the air was sucked out of the room.”
  • Queen Letizia learned a lesson last week, when she experienced a major mishap on her first royal outing of 2022. The Spanish royal was donning Queen Ena's brooch, which ended up falling off of her navy blue gown.

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greta

Senior Editor

Greta Heggeness is a California-based editor at PureWow and has been writing about entertainment since 2015. She covers everything from awards shows to exclusive celebrity...