This past year has seen Prince Louis take part in a ton of royal firsts: His first Sandringham Christmas! His first Easter service! His first Trooping the Colour! His first royal engagement! Now that he is five, the door has opened for Prince William and Princess Kate’s youngest to take part in more and more royal events (though not Wimbledon this past weekend, much to his chagrin)—but there’s still one royal milestone that eludes him, despite his older siblings Prince George and Princess Charlotte already hitting this milestone long before they were five, The Mirror reports.
What has little Louis not yet done? He has not yet gone on a royal tour with his parents, though George went on his first one when he was just eight months old (to Australia and New Zealand), and Charlotte when she was 16 months old (in her case, to Canada). Both George and Charlotte joined their parents on a visit to Germany and Poland in 2017, the year before Louis was born. (This was the last time any of William and Kate’s kids joined them on tour.) Comparatively, Louis is five, and no royal tours yet—so why? The pandemic, for starters, and school term schedules, The Mirror reports.
In 2019, William and Kate visited Pakistan on a five-day tour, which none of the children joined them for; at the time, Kensington Palace said the tour was the pair’s “most complex tour” to date. Then came 2020 and COVID-19; William and Kate didn’t take part in an international tour until 2022, when they visited the Caribbean for 10 days (and didn’t bring any of the kids then, either, because it was during school). Same situation for William and Kate’s trip to the U.S. in late 2022—the kids were in school.
This will happen again when his mom and dad visit Singapore in November of this year for the third year of William’s Earthshot Prize Awards—Louis will be forced to miss out again because he will be in school.
Kensington Palace hasn’t announced any other royal tours in 2023 for William and Kate—so it remains to be seen if this year is the year that Louis can finally check this milestone off of his list.
Any predictions where Louis’ first royal tour will be, and when?