Pictured: Prince Louis's thank you card to fans who sent well wishes on his second birthday
An unseen picture of Prince Louis has been sent to royal fans by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to thank them for marking his second birthday.
Photographs released by the couple as he celebrated his birthday on April 23 showed the youngest of the three Cambridge children covered in rainbow coloured paints as he made posters in the garden at Anmer Hall, the family’s Norfolk home.
By contrast, the new picture, apparently taken by the Duchess, 38, on the same day, depicts the Prince looking smart, hair swept to one side, and smiling dutifully for the camera in his blue checked shirt.
The image was printed on the back of a short thank you note reading: “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appreciated your kind thought in writing to Prince Louis as you did on the occasion of his second birthday.
“This was greatly appreciated by Their Royal Highnesses who send you their best wishes.”
The Cambridges spent most of lockdown in Norfolk, where Prince George, seven, and Princess Charlotte, five, were home-schooled, with, as their parents admitted, varying degrees of success.
Last month, the Duchess admitted it was tricky to explain the importance of social distancing to her second son during the coronavirus pandemic.
She said Prince Louis was too young to understand the notion and wanted to “cuddle everything”.
“I was just saying, Louis doesn’t understand social distancing,” she told parents in a film shown on BBC Breakfast.
“So he goes out wanting to cuddle everything, particularly any babies younger than him.”
The family is said to have spent last week on holiday on the Isles of Scilly, where they cycled cycled across Tresco.
The family reportedly stayed at Dolphin House, a six-bedroomed property owned by the Prince of Wales on Tresco, a tiny island which the Duke will one day inherit from his father.
In 2016, the Duke relived happy childhood memories on the Isles, where he spent holidays with his mother.
He told one of the islands' oldest residents 89-year-old Gladys Perkins how he enjoyed breaks with Diana, Princess of Wales when a small boy. The young princes holidayed with their parents in the Isles of Scilly in 1989.
