Kate Middleton's Father's Day Post Offers a Rare Glimpse at William's Silly Side

She shared two new photos of her husband and their children.

The Gist

• June 15 marked Father’s Day in the U.K., and Kate Middleton posted a tribute to Prince William on their shared Instagram account on Sunday.
• In the first photo, William posed with their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. In the second, the family giggle together on the ground.
• Father’s Day falls just one day after Trooping the Colour on June 14 and just one week before the Prince of Wales’ 43rd birthday on June 21—making June a banner month for the future king.

Prince William has called fatherhood his “biggest life-changing moment,” and he has proven over the years that nothing comes before his commitment to wife Kate Middleton and their kids Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.

The Prince of Wales’ commitment to being a dad was celebrated on Father’s Day on June 15, with the Princess of Wales sharing a tribute on Instagram and two never-before-seen photos taken by Josh Shinner. The first photo was more traditional and featured William standing with his three children outside in the garden. All three wore different shades of green paired with denim. William had his arms around George and Charlotte, while Charlotte hugged Louis, who sat in the front. The second photo was more of a candid moment, and saw the group laughing in a heap in the grass.

"Happy Father’s Day, Papa (before and after!) We love you! G, C & L 💖," wrote Middleton in the caption.

The shoutout Sunday followed a never-before-seen photo of William with his three kids, their backs to the camera and looking out at a beach landscape, in a photo taken by the Princess of Wales and shared for Father’s Day in 2024. “We love you Papa. Happy Father’s Day,” the caption read alongside a heart emoji. It was signed, sweetly, “G, C & L.”

In the 2020 BBC documentary Football, Prince William, and Our Mental Health, William shared that becoming a father was “one of the most amazing moments of life, but it’s also one of the scariest.” He also told ABC News in 2016 that, when it comes to being a dad, “There’s wonderful highs and there’s wonderful lows. It’s been quite a change for me, personally.”

“I worry about the future more,” he added. “When you have something or someone in your life to give the future to, I think it focuses the mind more about what you’re giving them and are you happy that you’ve done all you can to leave it in a good state.”

Though, like him, William’s kids were born into royal life, William and Kate are attempting to give them as normal a life as possible under the circumstances: “As far as we’re concerned, within our family unit, we are a normal family,” William said, per The Telegraph. “I love my children the same way any father does.”

He added, “I take my duties and my responsibilities to my family very seriously, and I want to bring my children up as good people.”

In 2017, he told British GQ that “Stability at home is so important to me. I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world, and that is so important to both [Kate and I] as parents.”

William has proven that his kids come first—and his schedule as a royal reflects that. He honors George, Charlotte, and Louis’ breaks from school—as does Kate—and a senior royal insider told The Daily Mail that “of course, he acknowledges his significant duties as a working royal” but “he believes those duties can be worked around his role as a hands-on father.”

“So, for example, when timing engagements, wherever possible, school pickup times will be factored in,” they continued, adding that scheduling is planned so that either William or Kate “can be there to pick up the children.”

The source added that “It is his overarching, unquestionable mission and motive in life to be the best father possible, especially when his children are this age. He is unapologetic about that.”