Princess Charlotte's Big Smile In Birthday Snap Is A Departure From Her Usual Boss Behavior

Princess Charlotte is officially double digits! Her parents commemorated the special birthday with a royal shout-out on the Prince and Princess of Wales' official Instagram page on May 2, 2025. The candid image is a sign that we could be seeing a whole different side of Charlotte as she crosses this milestone — her smile is our first clue.

Charlotte's royal demeanor is consistently poised and professional; the daughter of Prince William and Princess Catherine has the etiquette of a future queen. Although tradition says her brother, Prince George, will take the throne after William is king, Charlotte has proven to be quite the example to her siblings when it comes to royal rules, making her adept for monarchical leadership. Her boss energy, however, was absent from her birthday photo, which showed a grinning Charlotte dressed in a camouflage jacket for what appeared to be a hike. Her tousled hair, tied loosely in a ponytail, juxtaposed with the princess's normally proper image.

It is refreshing to see the abnormally prim child let her guard down, all the more reason to compare Charlotte to her beloved grandmother, Princess Diana. However, Charlotte looked more like the spitting image of her father in the post on Instagram. "Gorgeous!! She looks exactly like [her] father!!!" one Instagram user commented, while another added, "So much like her Dad!"

The last decade of Princess Charlotte has likely been nothing but joy for Prince William and Princess Kate. The young royal is the couple's first and only daughter, who was born on May 2, 2015. But like every parent, Charlotte's birthday is another reminder that she is blossoming out of childhood; they could be picking out their daughter's wedding dress as quickly as her tenth birthday snuck up. That is why one royal expert believes William and Kate may shed a few tears for her birthday.

Phil Dampier, a seasoned British journalist who covers the royal family, told the Daily Express, "Like all parents, William and Catherine will delight in Charlotte growing into a teenager and fine young woman, but that is always tinged with a feeling that time flies by and she won't be a child for much longer." The celebration could be a bit existential for the family as well, according to Dampier, who noted that Kate and King Charles' health issues have already put an emotional damper on the last year.

Even so, the family must be ecstatic to celebrate such a milestone. Based on past birthday festivities, we can guess that Kate will be making her daughter a special homemade dessert. "I love making the cake," she revealed on "A Berry Royal Christmas" in 2019, per People. "It's become a bit of a tradition that I stay up 'til midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing, and I make far too much. But I love it." It's lovely to see Charlotte coming out of her shell, and hopefully, she'll be just as smiley at her birthday celebration as she was in this photo.