Princess Charlotte was seen bursting into tears as she said goodbye to her great-grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, today (19 September).
The princess, aged seven, was comforted by her mother, the now Princess of Wales, after the service at Westminster Abbey seemingly got too much for her. Royals fans were quick to take to social media to comment on Princess Charlotte’s display of emotion for the late monarch. One wrote: “Charlotte crying today has broken my heart.”
“Princess Charlotte wiping tears has set me off,” added a second, while a third wrote: “Bless her……tears for Gan-Gan #PrincessCharlotte.” “So sad to see Charlotte burst into tears and George looking clearly distressed,” wrote a fourth. “It must have been so overwhelming for the royal children.” A fifth revealed: “That photo of Princess Charlotte crying has broke me.”
The young royal walked behind the Queen’s coffin with her brother, Prince George, who is now second in line to the throne, earlier today.
The children reportedly knew the late Queen as ‘Gan Gan’ and they were the youngest people following the coffin into Westminster Abbey for a service that was attended by around 2,000 mourners.
Princess Charlotte and Prince George were accompanied on either side by their parents, who walked behind the new King Charles III and the Queen Consort, Camilla.
Prince Louis, four, did not attend the service.
However, his mother did open up to one royal well-wisher about the youngster’s heartbreaking reaction to the news that his great-grandmother had passed away.
The Princess of Wales revealed Louis said: “At least Grannie is with Great Grandpa now.”
As reported by the Mirror, Prince William said his three children got to spend a lot of special time with the Queen and ‘create memories that will last their whole lives’. However, elsewhere the Princess of Wales said that Louis is so young that he is struggling to understand the finality of the Queen’s death. Australia’s Governor-General, David Hurley, said she told him: “The younger one is now asking questions like, ‘do you think we can still play these games when we go to Balmoral’ and things like that, because she’s not going to be there?” Prince George, meanwhile, is said to becoming increasingly aware of the important role his great-grandmother, who was the UK’s longest reigning monarch, had. The MailOnline reports that Kate said he is ‘sort of now realising how important his great-grandmother was and what is going on’.