Princess Charlotte Is All Smiles in 9th Birthday Portrait Taken by Mom Kate Middleton

Princess Charlotte turned nine on Thursday, May 2, and to celebrate the special day, Kate Middleton took a snapshot of her daughter.

"Happy 9th Birthday, Princess Charlotte! Thank you for all of the kind messages today," the Prince and Princess of Wales shared on their official Instagram account.

Fans were excited to see a snapshot of the youngster.

"William said copy and paste hahaha," one fan commented, referring to how she resembles her father.

"Happy birthday dear Princess Charlotte. Such a beautiful photo taken by your very talented mother," another added. "Have a wonderful day!"

"What a beautiful picture taken by our talented Princess of Wales! Princess Charlotte is all grown up! And look at her big smile for her mom," another person wrote.

Despite Kate's Mother's Day editing scandal, she returned to sharing family photos online during Prince Louis' sixth birthday. OK! previously reported royal experts wondered if the controversy led the Princess of Wales to interact differently with the public.

“I do think that people might be a little bit disappointed," Kinsey Schofield told GB News. "I don’t think it’s unfair if the Prince and Princess of Wales decide to set new boundaries after what they experienced at the beginning of 2024."

"I think that they were disappointed with the online speculation about what was going on and how some of those conspiracy theories translated onto mainstream media," the commentator continued. "I think that was frustrating for them and they just might be setting some new rules that we’re going to have to abide by."

There were reports of the Wales releasing an official portrait for their youngest child's celebration, but they decided to use a less formal snapshot instead.

"We did hear from sources last month that they did intend to release a photo of Prince Louis," Schofield stated. “That obviously hasn’t happened. But I think one of the reasons for that is maybe because Catherine is usually the photographer."

“She was heavily criticized over the photoshopped photo and it might just not be a priority this time around," she noted.

When Kate was slammed for sharing an altered image, royal insiders believed the outrage was aligned with the future queen being a millennial.

"There was no malintent. But it unleashed up a pent-up feeling that people wanted information — unfortunately, that’s the curse of being a modern royal, It was a complex reaction," a former palace aide told an outlet.

Kate quickly apologized for the mistake on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day," Kate wrote.

Aside from the blunder, Schofield noted that Kate enjoys giving her kids baked goods on their big days.

“What we do know is typically the Princess of Wales stays up all night to bake the cake and jokes that she makes way more cake than the family can consume," the podcaster explained. “That’s a tradition she really enjoys and she loves the look on their faces when they wake up the next morning."

“That sugar rush is waiting, ready to go, and Louis is everyone’s favorite royal," she shared. “Of course, you’re going to roll out the red carpet for this guy because he is fun on wheels.”