Prince Louis turns six: Royal fans anticipating celebratory photographs are so far disappointed

The Prince and Princess of Wales’s youngest son Prince Louis has turned six today, but as yet, no photographs have yet been released to celebrate the occasion. Last year, the photographs were taken by portrait photographer Millie Pilkington. A photograph of a smiling Prince Louis being pushed in a wheelbarrow by his mother, the Princess of Wales, was one of two released to mark his fifth birthday. 

Photographer Millie Pilkington was naturally honoured to have been chosen to take the photographs to celebrate the fifth birthday of Prince Louis last year and wrote on her website: “So honoured to have been asked by HRH the Princess of Wales to take a birthday portrait of Prince Louis as he turns 5. Of my two portraits released by the Palace, this image of Louis in the wheelbarrow with HRH The Princess of Wales, laughing down towards him, is my favourite.”

In previous years, the Princess of Wales has taken photographs of Prince Louis to celebrate his birthdays. For his fourth birthday, he was photographed  at the beach in a grey sweater with stars and shorts.

 In previous years, Catherine, Princess of Wales, has stayed up late to make birthday cakes and revealed on the BBC programme A Berry Royal Christmas with Mary Berry that “It’s become a bit of a tradition that I stay up ‘til midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing and I make far too much,” she explained. “But I love it.”

Fans of the royal family have been sharing their birthday wishes to Prince Louis on social media, one said: “Wishing Prince Louis the happiest of birthdays today… 6 years already!! Wowzers,” whilst another one said: “Happy 6th Birthday #May you be surrounded by your loving family & friends, eating the yummy cake, your mummy always makes & playing  in the fresh air!”

The Prince and Princess of Wales may have decided not to release photographs of Prince Louis to celebrate his sixth birthday following the furore over the mother’s day photograph. Before the Princess of Wales revealed her cancer diagnosis, there had been a frenzy of speculation regarding her health following her absence from public life following abdominal surgery in January. This speculation was only compounded when she released a photograph of herself with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to mark mother’s day.

The photograph was then pulled by six picture agencies after it became clear that the image had been digitally altered which prompted the Princess of Wales to apologise for editing the picture.