Princess Charlotte Meets Her Great-Grandmother, Queen Elizabeth
— -- Princess Charlotte was introduced to the world just 10 hours after her birth on Saturday, but today the newborn had her most high-profile introduction to date -- meeting her great-grandmother, the Queen.
Charlotte, the daughter of Prince William and Duchess Kate, was given a middle name of Elizabeth, in honor of her great-grandmother, who was seen arriving today at Kensington Palace.
The Queen was away on an official royal engagement Saturday while Charlotte was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, but spent around 30 minutes meeting Charlotte today.
Prince William, Kate, Charlotte and her older brother, nearly 2-year-old Prince George, have been staying at their home in Kensington Palace but are expected to travel soon to Anmer Hall, their 10-bedroom home on the queen’s Sandringham Estate that was a gift to William on his 30th birthday.
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In addition to being the namesake of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Charlotte is also the namesake of another beloved royal, the late Princess Diana of Wales.
Prince William gave his first daughter the middle name of his mother, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997. Prince William’s father, Prince Charles, went on after her death to marry his second wife, Camilla, in 2005.
"All over the world, the princess is still remembered with respect and affection but in royal circles, you know, she’s the first wife, there’s a second wife now so she’s not really headline news in the palaces anymore,” said Patrick Jephson, Diana’s chief of staff for eight years. “But now by using this name, by deliberately recalling his mother’s legacy, it’s like Prince William got a hammer and chisel and banged her name into the front of Buckingham Palace.”
Jephson says that Princess Diana would often talk to him about his own two daughters and “would have loved” to have a girl herself. He said Diana would have served as an important mentor for her granddaughter.
“I’m sure she would have been a fabulous grandmother, very involved, not just on the domestic front but also teaching the little princess what it’s like to be a princess, that this is not a celebrity,” Jephson said. “You’re here to work. It’s your duty. And as Diana said, royal work is something she’s always going to be working at. It’s never finished.”
Prince William is expected to take two weeks of paternity leave from his role as an air ambulance pilot to spend time with his family at Anmer Hall. Duchess Kate is expected to take a much longer leave to spend time with her princess, whom Jephson says has a “particular destiny” in life.
“Princess Charlotte will never be able to remember a time when she was not a princess,” he said. “That’s a particular destiny she has."
