In honour of Prince Louis‘ sixth birthday, Kate Middleton and Prince William have shared a new photo of their youngest son, apparently taken by the Princess of Wales.
It is the first image released by the family since last month’s photo-editing scandal.
Louis, fourth in line to the British throne behind his father and siblings Prince George and Princess Charlotte, is seen lying on a while blanket placed on the grass. He shares a toothy grin while wearing a brown, blue and white checked button-up shirt.
“Happy 6th Birthday, Prince Louis! Thank you for all the kind wishes today,” said the post accompanying the image shared on Kensington Palace’s social media accounts.
The photo was taken in Windsor in the “last few days,” the BBC reports, with the Palace assuring the public the picture has not been edited.
Kate and William often release portraits of their children to mark their birthdays, with many of the images taken by the Princess.
However, this year’s photo of Louis is under heavy scrutiny after last month’s release of a family photo that was found to have been edited in several places and subsequently pulled from circulation by some of the world’s largest photo agencies.
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Kate later apologized for the “confusion” caused by the photo, but issues of transparency and honesty had already been raised.
“Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” she said in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter) on March 11.
“I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.”
Shortly after the altered photograph was killed, the Princess of Wales announced that she had begun chemotherapy treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer, which was found during tests carried out following a major abdominal surgery in January.
Kate said it had “been an incredibly tough couple of months” in a personal video message during which she asked the public for privacy.
The family has kept a low profile since the announcement. William resumed official duties last week.
King Charles III has also stepped back from many public-facing duties over the past months after revealing his own cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
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