Prince Louis has attended nursery for the first time ahead of his third birthday.
The youngest child of Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, turns three on Friday (23.04.21), and in an adorable new picture shared on his parents’ Kensington Royal social media accounts, it was confirmed he started attending nursery this week.
Alongside an image of a beaming Prince Louis riding a bike – which was taken by Catherine and shared to mark the youngster’s birthday – the Kensington Royal Twitter account wrote: “Three tomorrow!
“Taken earlier this week by The Duchess before he left for his first day of nursery, The Duke and Duchess are pleased to share a new image of Prince Louis.”
Louis is following in the footsteps of his older sister, five-year-old Princess Charlotte, in attending Willcocks Nursery School, which costs £14,000 a year to attend full-time and is located close to the family’s home at Kensington Palace.
The little royal’s first day in nursery comes after his father, Prince William, recently sat him down with his siblings to explain to them that their great-grandfather, Prince Philip, had sadly passed away at the age of 99.
William reportedly told his three children – including eldest child, seven-year-old Prince George – that Philip “is an angel now” as he wanted to break the news to his brood as “gently” as possible.
A source said: “William told George, Charlotte and Louis that Prince Philip has ‘gone to heaven’ and ‘is an angel now’. They’re still so young so he and Kate wanted to let them down gently.
“Naturally, the children are very upset, particularly George and Charlotte. Louis is still very young and had only met Prince Philip a couple of times.”
Meanwhile, William previously said he is keen for his children to “talk about their emotions”, as part of his continued work to make mental health less taboo.
In 2017, before Louis was born, he said: “Catherine and I are clear that we want both George and Charlotte to grow up feeling able to talk about their emotions. For too long there has been a taboo about talking about some important issues. If you were anxious, it’s because you were weak. If you couldn’t cope with whatever life threw at you, it’s because you were failing. Successful, strong people don’t suffer like that, do they? But of course – we all do.”