If Princess Charlotte gets a crown, younger brother Prince Louis gets a crown too, okay? When Charlotte, Louis, and their mom, the Princess of Wales, visited the set of the U.K.’s Strictly Come Dancing last year, head judge Shirley Ballas told The Sun “They had an absolute ball.” But, as it goes with siblings, there was a bit of a squabble over how, if one kid gets a souvenir, the other must as well.
The show is to the U.K. what Dancing with the Stars is to the U.S., and the royal trio visited the set in a private capacity in late 2023. “They are beautiful,” Ballas said. But not above struggles that befall every family with multiple kids close in age: “When they visited, we had these crowns on set, so It thought it would be a nice idea to give the little girl [Charlotte] a crown, and I got him [Louis] a nice box of sweets,” she said. “Then he went, ‘I want one of those,’ and pointed at the crown. So we had to go and find him a little crown.”
The dance professional added of Charlotte and Louis that “they’re beautifully polite children.” Apparently, when it comes to the royal family, they “all watch Strictly”—including, also, Queen Camilla, who sent Ballas a handwritten note after Ballas sent her a copy of her novel Murder on the Dancefloor, which came out in October of last year.
“Camilla wrote me back the most beautiful note, which I will get framed,” Ballas said. “She’s an avid fan.”
Princess Anne is apparently a fan too, and one of the show’s dancers, Nadiya Bychkova, said the Princess Royal told her that she wanted to be a contestant on the program. (It likely won’t happen, but we can dream.) “She is a Strictly fan, and she wants to go on the show—she told me,” Bychkova told The Sun. “She did say that. I think she would be good—there’s a lot of personality there, isn’t there?”
Bychkova expanded on the royal family as a whole’s love of the show, telling the outlet “They love it. They watch it all the time. Whenever you see royals at events, they all know what’s going on.”
Back to Louis, who just turned six on April 23: apparently the youngest of William and Kate’s three children tried on a crown during a tour of the costume department, and “Charlotte and Louis got to sit in the judges’ seats and deliver scores with the show’s signature paddles after a performance by some of the professional dancers on the show,” People writes. Kate apparently “took pictures of the children in the judges’ seats,” a source speaking to The Sun said, adding of the visit last year “She seemed really relaxed and was all smiles. She was polite, sweet, and charming with everyone and made sure Louis didn’t get over-excited.”
The family field trip was missing Prince William and Prince George, but would likely have been a dream come true for Charlotte, who turns nine on May 2. She enjoys dancing “ballet and tap,” Kate said last September; William has also previously mentioned that his only daughter “loves dancing” while at a Commonwealth Day reception in 2018.
Of Kate’s recent video message that she has been diagnosed with cancer—and of King Charles’ own message that he too is battling the disease—“I think it was very brave of Charles and Kate to come out and share their stories,” Ballas said. “Lovely Kate, sat on that little park bench in a little striped jumper. It’s a memory I will have for a long time, and I think it’s great for women.”
