Prince Louis Is Wearing Royal Hand-Me-Downs In This Unseen Photo With Queen Elizabeth

The Prince and Princess of Wales have posted a precious memory in honor of what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s 97th birthday on April 21. In a previously unseen photo, the late monarch is sitting with many of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren at her Balmoral estate in Scotland. And nestled in that photo, taken by Kate Middleton, is a sweet little detail: Prince Louis is wearing a hand-me-down from his older brother Prince George.

“Today would have been Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s 97th birthday,” the Prince and Princess of Wales captioned the picture on Instagram. “This photograph — showing her with some of her grandchildren and great grandchildren — was taken at Balmoral last summer.” Queen Elizabeth died on Sept. 8, 2022 at the age of 96.

In the photo, Queen Elizabeth is seen with Prince William and Middleton’s three children: Prince George, 9; Princess Charlotte, 7; and Prince Louis, 4. Mike and Zara Tindall’s children — Mia (9), Lena (4), and Lucas (2) — as well as Peter and Autumn Phillips’ daughters Savannah (12) and Isla (11) are also pictured. Standing in the back row are the queen’s grandchildren and oldest of the bunch, Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, 19, and James, Earl of Wessex, 15.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s two children, 3-year-old Prince Archie and 1-year-old Princess Lilibet, are notably missing from the photo as well as Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s son August and Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s daughter Sienna.

Beyond the big smiles, royal fans also quickly spotted that Prince Louis is wearing his older brother’s shirt. As royal blogger Gert’s Royals pointed out, Prince Louis is wearing the same blue and white striped button down shirt that Prince George wore in his 4th birthday portrait.

As the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Louis is no stranger to a hand-me-down. For example, Prince Louis wore an adorable sailor suit his father wore three decades earlier at the Trooping the Colour in 2022. And in 2019, Prince Louis wore Prince George’s red shorts in photos celebrating a garden Middleton designed for the Chelsea Flower Show. A year later in 2020, Louis also wore his older brother’s blue cardigan when he and his siblings met David Attenborough.

Moral of the story, if there’s an opportunity to break out the hand-me-downs, the Princess of Wales is going to do it. And having a family detail like that included in a precious photo with their beloved Gan-Gan makes it even sweeter.