Royals Who Look Nothing Like Their Parents

It's intriguing to follow the royals as they age. Like anyone, as they get older, the royals evolve, sometimes taking on a new look in their evolution. But unlike others, the royals are part of an old and large network of public-facing people, and as they grow, the world is able to analyze their family tree in search of a doppelganger. And in discovering that there are lots of royal children who look just like their relatives, it's also learned that there are many royals who look nothing like their parents, as well as royals who look just like one of their parents and nothing like the other.

Not all of the royals fall into these categories, of course. Anne, Princess Royal famously looks just like her late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. And Prince Harry is a healthy mix of both his parents. But their siblings, children, and cousins are all proof that genetics abide by their own laws. Find out more about the royals who look nothing like their parent(s), and see which of their relatives they favor instead.

Since he was a young boy, the public has determined that Prince William looks like his mother, Princess Diana — it's been an overwhelming consensus. Their facial features are wildly similar, as is their coloring. And every few years, an old video or photo appears or resurfaces to serve as further proof (as if it's needed) that the mother and son look alike. In 2022, for example, a video was posted to TikTok cutting videos of William and Diana together, using specific angles to highlight their resemblance. William knows what the public thinks, too. As a royal fan once told Us Weekly, "I said to [William], 'You look like your mum,' and he said, 'I think my mum was better looking.'" 

Although Diana's death was tremendously hard on William, he does his best to keep her memory, beyond just looking like her, alive, especially with his own children. In the documentary "Diana, Our Mother," William shared exactly how he honors his mother at home. "We've got more photos around the house now of her and we talk about her a bit and stuff ... I do regularly ... it's important that they knew who she was and that she existed," William said (via Town & Country).

The future king has also spoken about the non-genetic impact his mother had on him, particularly regarding social causes. As a senior royal, William has shown great compassion for those facing homelessness, and his actions in response to the issue have been influenced by his mother. "I have taken some guidance from what my mother did," William said in the docuseries "Prince William: We Can End Homelessness," as told by People. 

Most families are lucky if they have one photo of an old relative that their child bears a resemblance to. But in the case of the Windsors, there are videos, photographs, and paintings dating back centuries. If a member of the royal family doesn't closely resemble their parents, the public can turn to history to search for the source of their looks. This practice has been employed numerous times, including with Prince Andrew, one of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's sons. According to hobby historians, the royal looks more like one of his ancestors than he does his own parents. As one English citizen told the Daily Mail, "As members of the Royal Family age, the likeness to some of their predecessors can be quite striking. For example, Prince Andrew, with each passing year and [in] his expanding girth, looks more like Edward VII" (via the Scottish Daily Express).

However, their looks might be where the similarities between Andrew and Edward begin and end. Edward, of course, was Britain's monarch for a time, and he was quite popular with the people. Meanwhile, his progeny Andrew's relationship with both the public and his own family grows more tenuous by the day. Andrew has had a string of controversies in his life, most notably his connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and reports claim that he will not be a working member of the royal family when Prince William becomes king.

Some of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's children look like they did, but not all of them do. Like his brother Prince Andrew, Prince Edward looks more similar to an ancestor of his than he does to his parents. Over time, the public has noted more and more often that Edward looks like his grandfather, King George VI. As Edward continues to age, it will be more difficult to see how closely he resembles George because the king famously died when he was just 56 years old (Edward has already lived longer than George did). But pictures of a middle-aged Edward do seem to favor George near the end of his life.

Maybe the royal family's genes skip a generation. Just as Edward looks like his grandfather, his son, James, Earl of Wessex, looks more and more like his grandfather, Philip, every day. Like Philip, James is tall and a bit lanky. James' facial features are quite similar to Philip's, particularly his nose and eyes, as are his ears. Not much is specifically known about James' relationship with his late grandfather, but considering how close Edward and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, were with Elizabeth and Philip, it stands to reason that James and Philip spent a lot of time together. Unfortunately for Edward, he and his lookalike grandfather never met due to George's untimely death.

Prince William's relationship with his oldest son, Prince George, appears to be rock solid. William has always spoken fondly of his son, and from the outside it seems that he's a present parent. In turn, George always looks comfortable around his father, and he's often smiling when they're together in public. The two have shared interests, and William brings George to outings on his own quite frequently. William and George are two peas in a pod, and do they ever look like it. George is the spitting image of William (he takes after his uncle, Charles Spencer, too), and he looks nothing like his mother, Princess Catherine. 

In many ways, George appears to be morphing into his father. As royal expert Robert Johnson wrote in the book "Catherine, the Princess of Wales: The Biography," "George, who insists on dressing like his father when he accompanies him, is even beginning to copy William's mannerisms." (per the Daily Mail) Others agree. As body language expert Judi James told The Mirror after analyzing William and George at a soccer game, "Their mirroring is as strong as ever here, with their style of clapping and their poses and facial expressions looking twinned. Mirroring is an intense trait with William and Kate, defining like-minded thinking and mutual respect and the same increasingly applies to William and his young son." Time will tell how much more like William George becomes.

If Princess Catherine dreamed of one day having a daughter who looks just like her, she'll have to keep dreaming. Her middle child, Princess Charlotte, looks just like her father, Prince William. In fact, she almost looks more like William than her older brother, Prince George, does. Her coloring and facial features are identical to her father's, and she even has his smile, right down to his teeth. The family knows it, too. In 2020, the family looked at pictures of themselves on a cake, and when William spotted a photo of himself, he mistook it for one of his daughter. "Is that me? Because that looks just like Charlotte. That is incredible," William said, as reported by People. Catherine echoed her husband's sentiment. "It looks so much like Charlotte," she said.

The public also notices how much Charlotte looks like her grandmother, Princess Diana — unsurprising considering how much William looks like his mother. And according to sources, there are many ways in which Princess Charlotte is like Diana. Beyond just their looks, the two share an affinity for fashion, both like to dance, and have similar body mannerisms. Diana and Charlotte reportedly have a similar personality, too. "Like Diana she gives the initial impression of shyness but beneath that appears to be an outgoing, fun personality," body language expert Judi James told Express of Charlotte. "She also picked out several of the cameras with her eyes, as Diana always remembered to do," she said. Charlotte isn't totally a Spencer, though. Lots of royal fans have claimed to see some of Queen Elizabeth's looks in the young princess, too. 

The third time's the charm ... if that charm is delivering a lookalike baby. After striking out with Prince George and Princess Charlotte, two children who look strikingly similar to their father, Princess Catherine had Prince Louis, and the little Windsor reads all Middleton in the looks department. And it isn't just his mother whom he resembles — the public has also pointed out that Louis looks quite similar to his grandfather, Catherine's father, Michael Middleton. According to reports, Catherine likes that Louis looks like her. As a friend of the royal family told People, "Everyone always comments on how Louis is the spitting image of Kate. She loves it and thinks it's very sweet — she often jokes that he's the only one of her kids who actually looks like her!" 

Though Catherine and Louis look alike, they don't act alike, at least not in public. Since taking her relationship with Prince William public, Catherine has built a reputation of being the perfect fit within the royal family. She's always popular and polite, rarely letting anything frazzle her. Meanwhile, Louis is known for being a firecracker. Louis is always stealing the show and making the public laugh, even when the members of the royal family, including his siblings, are imploring him to rein it in. But nothing has stopped Louis from being himself yet. "[Louis is] a cheeky monkey — a typical third child. It's nice that the world got to see him enjoying himself," a family friend said.

Princess Eugenie isn't top of mind for most people when considering the royal family. She earns a living separate from the royal family, didn't have a televised wedding, and is lower on the line of succession to the throne than many of her cousins, as well as her sister. But Eugenie is still just as royal as anyone in her family, and her looks prove it. Though Eugenie doesn't look much like her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, she does look quite similar to another important royal figure, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Queen Mother, who married King George V and gave birth to Queen Elizabeth II, was born to the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and earned HRH status in marriage, making Eugenie's familial lookalike all sorts of royal.

But for the most part, unlike The Queen Mother, Eugenie's life is royal in name and in looks only. As noted, the princess is not a working member of the royal family. Instead, she works with various charitable organizations to help them further their causes. Eugenie does credit her call to help others and her work ethic to the royal family, though. "My mum always taught me that giving back to others is the most important thing in life ... My grandmother's sense of duty was also instilled from a young age; we watched my parents, my granny and other family members working very hard," Eugenie said in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

Princess Beatrice has received lots of criticism for her looks in the past, but like many who are bullied repeatedly, the princess is the one who has the last laugh because she gets her looks from a former monarch (her detractors can't say the same). Rather than looking like her mother or her father, Beatrice looks like a young Queen Victoria. The resemblance has been particularly noticeable at times when Beatrice has dressed in a more Victorian fashion.

Making Beatrice's physical similarities to Queen Victoria even more interesting, the princess was named after Victoria's youngest child, Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg. Princess Beatrice almost went by a different name, though. Her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, reportedly wanted to name their daughter Annabel, but Queen Elizabeth wasn't a fan and insisted Andrew and Sarah choose a different name. The former couple obviously went with Beatrice, and they used a slew of other royal names, making for a very stately moniker. "She's Beatrice Elizabeth Mary, so Beatrice has the names of all English Queens since 1910," royal commentator Wesley Kerr shared with Express.