The adored DOZEN

Like every head of a family, the Queen takes great delight in her 12 gorgeous great-grandchildren

- CHRISTABEL SMITH

The Cambridges

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have George, who’s nine on 22 July, Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Louis. As a tot, George got away with calling his greatgrandmother Gan Gan, a breach of protocol happily overlooked by the Queen.

In 2018, Her Majesty revealed to a young guest at Sandringham that Charlotte liked to boss her older brother around. When, aged two, George met President Obama at bedtime, the dressing gown he was wearing sold out.

According to their mum, the Queen always leaves a gift in the children’s room when they go and stay.

Charlotte (nicknamed ‘Lottie’ and ‘Mignonette’) has now been trained to stop sticking her tongue out at photographers and pulls off a perfect regal wave instead. She giggled winningly in the carriage on the way to Trooping the Colour, as she tried to encourage brother Louis not to wave quite so much. When he was on the balcony with the rest of his family watching the flypast, he was seen in chatting away with his great-grandma.

The Sussexes

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are parents to Archie, three, and Lilibet, one. Any great-grandmother knows that family life isn’t always plain sailing, yet despite the inevitable fallouts and clashes, Her Majesty always holds her family close to her heart.