Happy birthday!

For Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, turning five in the time of coronavirus proved to be all about giving back, writes Juliet Rieden.

- Juliet Rieden

Princess Charlotte will never forget the year she turned five. Birthdays in COVID-19 lockdown are challenging families all over the world to think creatively. Video-link parties and quiet at-home celebrations are the order of the day for most, but for the Cambridge family it’s also a time when duty calls.

Kate, William and their three children have been holed up at Anmer Hall, their country house in Norfolk, but royal work continues, and if anything we have seen more of the Cambridge children at this time. “There have been ups and downs, probably like lots of families,” Kate revealed in a BBC video interview discussing how the three siblings are coping with news of the virus. “George is much older than Louis but they are aware ... You don’t want to scare them and make it too overwhelming,” she added. “I think it is appropriate to acknowledge it in the simple ways and in the age-appropriate ways.”

Charlotte, the couple’s only daughter – called Lottie at home – has been raised not just with her royal role in mind, but with a keen sense of giving back. She’s a happy, inquisitive little girl who Prince William has joked rules their roost. Kate has talked candidly about her desire to pass on the qualities of respect, honesty and kindness that she learned from her own parents to her children. And so it seemed very apt that those initiatives were on display in a unique and charming set of birthday snaps shared to celebrate Charlotte’s fifth birthday on May 2.