When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle welcomed their second child, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, into the world on June 4, 2021, much was made that she was the first of the late Queen's great-grandchildren to be born abroad. While this is the true, she wasn't the first young royal to be born in California.
There is another member of the family who has close ties to Prince George and Princess Charlotte who was born in Los Angeles in August 2013. While she sits at 53rd in line to the throne, the youngster in question has played a key role at a handful of royal events.
One young royal who very few people know about is Prince Michael of Kent's granddaughter, who used to attend the same school as Prince George and Princess Charlotte in London.
Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina Windsor is the daughter of Lord Frederick Windsor and British actress, Sophie Winkleman .
She was born on August 15, 2013, in Los Angeles, California - just a few weeks after her distant cousin Prince George. She was born in the US as that is where her mother was working at the time.
You may recognise Sophie best from her role in the sitcom Two and a Half Men, playing 'Big Suze' in Peep Show, having roles in the likes of Sanditon, Death in Paradise and This Is Going To Hurt or as the adult version of one of the child actors in The Chronicles of Narnia.
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Maud is the granddaughter of the late Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, which makes her the great-granddaughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent and the great-great-granddaughter of King George V.
Maud is named after several of her royal ancestors. Her first name is after Queen Maud of Norway who was a daughter of King Edward VII and Elizabeth is in honour of the Queen.
Her other middle name, Daphne, is after Sophie’s beloved grandmother and Marina was the name of Lord Frederick’s grandmother, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark.
Little Maud has a younger sister named Isabella Alexandra May Windsor and she shares a very close relationship with her royal cousins, Prince George and Princess Charlotte as they went to the same school, Thomas’s London Day School in Battersea.
In an interview with HELLO! Magazine, Sophie gave details on how close the royal cousins are: "We were invited to tea at Kensington Palace just before Princess Charlotte was born. Maud and George got on very well… He is a very clever, articulate little boy and was speaking long before other toddlers his age."
Maud was also pictured next to Princess Charlotte when they both served as bridesmaids at Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank on October 12, 2018. She later repeated this job at her aunt Lady Gabriella's wedding to Thomas Kingston in 2019 and at Lady Flora Ogilvy's wedding to Timothy Vesterberg in 2021.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced Lilibet had been born, they released a statement to their Archewell website.
It read: "It is with great joy that Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcome their daughter, Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world. Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 a.m. in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA."
It continued: "Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honour her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales."
