Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton marked firstborn son Prince George’s 12th birthday by sharing a new portrait of the soon-to-be teenager.
In the pic, a smiling George can be seen leaning against a fence in the countryside. He is clad in an outdoorsy gilet over a checkered shirt with the sleeves rolled up. “Happy 12th Birthday to Prince George! 
,” the official Kensington Palace X account wrote alongside the picture on Tuesday, July 22.
It has become a royal tradition that Kate, an amateur photographer herself, snaps her kids’ portraits on their special days, though it’s not clear if she snapped George’s latest portrait.
“You can see from the pictures she takes that she’s better, certainly better than your average person on the streets,” royal photographer Samir Hussein exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2020. “She’s got a good eye, and she’s a good photographer. I’m impressed by her pictures, absolutely.”
Prince George’s Royal Life in Photos Through the Years
William and Kate, both 43, welcomed George in July 2013 after two years of marriage.
“Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son at 4.24pm. The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz. The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth,” a statement from Buckingham Palace read at the time. “Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well and will remain in hospital overnight.”
George is the eldest son of the Prince and Princess of Wales — William and Kate also share Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 6 — and is currently second in the line of succession behind his father. William’s dad, King Charles III, assumed the throne in 2022 following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
As George has gotten older, William and Kate have been gradually preparing him for his eventual ascension. In addition to joining his parents at various walkabouts, George also served as a page during Charles’ coronation.
See Prince William and Kate’s Kids’ Birthday Portraits Over the Years
“I think it was very important that he played that part as a page boy at the King’s coronation,” royal expert Robert Jobson exclusively told Us in August 2024. “It gave him a real sense of the grandeur and all the expectation. I thought that was quite important, actually, for George.”
George is also taking after William, with the proud dad revealing at a 2024 garden party that he can see his eldest child as a “potential pilot in the making.” (William previously served in the Royal Air Force.)
George also shares his father’s passion for sports, often attending soccer matches with William in matching suits. The father-son duo recently expanded their sports fandom to tennis, stepping out at Wimbledon with Kate and Charlotte earlier in July.
George and Charlotte even got to meet men’s singles champion Jannik Sinner and persuaded him to autograph a pair of tennis balls.
“Thank you so much, that’s really kind,” Kate told Sinner, 23, per social media footage. “We brought one for their brother as well.”
Louis, for his part, was absent from the family’s outing at Wimbledon.
