The royal family appear happy and at ease in new video from behind the scenes at Saturday’s Trooping the Colour ceremony.
Clips of the royals looking relaxed as the monarch’s official birthday celebrations unfolded in central London have been shared on the Princes and Princess of Wales’ Instagram account.
They show senior members of The Firm clearly comfortable in each other’s company, with a smiling William and Kate exchanging a tender moment with their children and King Charles III.
The video also shows other royals clearly enjoying the occasion, including Queen Camilla who appears to share a joke with the King in a carriage which carried them past huge crowds of supporters along The Mall to Horseguard’s.
Princess Anne and the Duchess of Edinburgh also appear relaxed and smiling in the footage.
Notably by their absence, of course, were William’s brother, Prince Harry, who attended the NBA Finals hours in San Antonio, California, hours after Trooping the Colour, and the King’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has been ostracised over his links to late paedophile banker Jeffrey Epstein.
The celebrations were topped with a Red Arrows fly-past as grandson Prince Louis delighted royal fans with his antics.
Charles’ anniversary was celebrated with a display of military pomp and pageantry that showcased the best of the Army’s ceremonial prowess on Horse Guards Parade in front of the royal family and thousands of spectators.
All eyes were on the Prince and Princess of Wales youngest child Louis, who is famed for his playful nature on big royal occasions.
He was spotted ducking down to look through a half-open window to catch a glimpse of Trooping the Colour, and later leaning sideways to get a better view of the celebratory fly-past.
The eight-year-old prince was watching events from the first-floor window of the Duke of Wellington’s former office with siblings Prince George, 12 and Princess Charlotte, 11, and other royals including the Duchess of Edinburgh and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.
Below in the parade ground on a royal dais were the King, Queen and Kate, who wore a striking wide-brimmed blue and white Philip Treacy hat and matching Catherine Walker outfit.
The royal women paid tribute to their regiments, with Kate sporting the brooch of the Irish Guards, of which she serves as Colonel, while Camilla is Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and wore a red Fiona Clare dress based on their uniform and a black beret with white plume by Treacy, featuring her regimental cap badge.
The national celebration is one of the highlights of the royal calendar.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Duke of Kent were also gathered on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the traditional fly-past of RAF aircraft.
The aerial display roared over the palace in 10 waves and featured Typhoon jets, Chinook helicopters, C-17 large military transport planes and the Red Arrows trailing their trademark red, white and blue smoke and joined by four F35-B short take-off and vertical-landing jets.
Louis was smartly dressed in a shirt, trousers, tie and double-breasted jacket for the event and at one point pulled at his collar as he tried to loosen it.
As the waves of aircraft thundered past, the young royal leaned at an acute angle to his left as he tried to see past the Queen Victoria Memorial and during another moment, opened his mouth in astonishment at the RAF spectacle.
Crowds had gathered in The Mall to see the royal family but the area directly in front of Buckingham Palace was kept free of spectators.
Anti-monarchist group Republic staged a demonstration while the royals were on the balcony, opening umbrellas that spelled out the words “Stop The Reign”.
