How Prince Louis Rules the Royal Family’s World

It was even hard for the world to adjust to not seeing Kate all the time, her relatively brief retreat from the public eye in 2024 leaving just enough time for all sorts of unhinged conspiracy theories to spring up in her absence. Meanwhile, she understandably wanted to keep her condition private to focus not just on her treatment, but on her family. 

As she explained in her unprecedentedly candid March 22, 2024, video message, it had taken time to break the news to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that was “appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be OK.”

Louis’ 6th birthday was heralded with the release of a new portrait taken by Kate, as usual, though when it arrived on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ social media accounts a few hours later than in past years there was speculation that the family might be feeling a bit camera-shy after Kate’s U.K. Mother’s Day snafu. (She apologized for overdoing it with the Photoshop after a picture of her and the kids that she posted for the holiday was deemed too manipulated to be distributed by the Associated Press and other agencies).

But the family rang in 2025 with decidedly better news, Kate announcing that she was in remission while still focused on her recovery.

“As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know,” she said in a statement, “it takes time to adjust to a new normal. I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead. There is much to look forward to.”

Bit by bit, Kate’s schedule got busier, and earlier this month she and William attended the Easter Matins Service at St. George’s Chapel with their kids—alongside Charles, Queen Camilla and other members of the royal family—for the first time since 2023. 

As for the brass tacks of his day-to-day, Louis attends Lambrook School in Berkshire with his brother and sister, their parents enrolling all three in September 2022.

The family of five, which had been splitting time primarily between Kensington Palace and their Anmer Hall estate in Norfolk, took up residence at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor to be closer to their new school before moving last year into the more spacious Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

Sadly, the children started at Lambrook the day their great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II died, which is why Kate didn’t immediately accompany William to Balmoral in Scotland, where family members flocked after hearing the monarch’s health was failing.

At the time, Kate wasn’t averse to adding to the youngest generation, admitting she felt “very broody” during a February 2022 visit to Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum.

“William always worries about me meeting under 1-year-olds,” she said. “I come home saying ‘let’s have another one.'”

The Prince of Wales had indeed joked in January 2022, as Kate held a newborn during a visit to Clitheroe Community Hospital, “Don’t give my wife any more ideas! No more!”

Louis, at least, may have been all for having a little sibling.

Kate told BBC Breakfast in July 2020—when staying at home was still the order of the day during the pandemic—that her then-2-year-old “doesn’t understand social distancing. He goes out wanting to cuddle anything, particularly any babies younger than him.”