She is one of the most privileged toddlers on earth, with grandparents who run a children’s party business with enough princess-themed decoration to cover Kensington Palace. But Princess Charlotte’s second birthday party on May 2 will be a low-key affair. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are likely to host a small family party at their Norfolk home for the toddler, who has been photographed in public only a handful of times, most recently on Christmas Day.
Her parents and Prince Harry all have the day off from official royal engagements, although the Duke of Edinburgh, her great-grandfather, will be hosting a lunch reception at Buckingham Palace. The Prince of Wales, who also has no official engagements in his diary, is understood to be based predominantly in Scotland this week.
The Prince yesterday continued his campaign for organic food a month after his sister the Princess Royal advocated GM crops. “A lot of people still rubbish the whole thing,” he told The Sunday Times. “They say, ‘Oh, you won’t feed the world with all this.’ The trouble is, we can’t go on pouring every kind of toxic chemical into the land.”
Prince George’s second birthday was marked with the release of photographs by Mario Testino, and a birthday party at Anmer Hall.
Princess Charlotte’s first birthday saw photographs taken by her mother released. The birthday is the start of a busy month for the Middleton family, with Pippa, the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister, to marry James Matthews on May 20 at St Mark’s Church in Englefield, Berkshire.
The ceremony will take place at the church on the Englefield estate owned by Richard Benyon, the Tory MP, which, according to photographs, is already being spruced up for the event, with works planned for the gates under way. Princess Charlotte will take a starring role in the wedding, as a bridesmaid, while her brother is a pageboy.
The Middleton-Matthews wedding celebrations are at risk of being overshadowed, as all eyes fix on Prince Harry and his girlfriend Meghan Markle. Miss Markle, an American actress, was previously thought to have been omitted from the guest list, but has the week surrounding the wedding off work thanks to a break in the filming schedule of US drama Suits. Yesterday the Mail on Sunday reported that Miss Middleton was reconsidering welcoming Miss Markle to the party.
A source told the newspaper: “Pippa seemed like she’d had a change of heart because Meghan’s attendance has been discussed so much publicly.”
