Family dynamics were on display as Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, ten, and Prince Louis, seven, joined their parents to watch the military procession and flypast to mark VE Day on Monday.
The youngsters watched the parade from the dais on the Queen Victoria Memorial with the Prince and Princess of Wales, before joining the senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony to view the flypast.
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George was seen using an affectionate name for his father, as they played a guessing game with the aircraft during the display.
According to lipreader, Nicola Hickling, young George asked William: “When should they start, Papa?”
The Prince, bending down, replies: “It’ll start in a second.”
It’s not the first time the Wales children have used the name, Papa, for their father in public.
In their first personal social media post to mark Father’s Day last year, alongside a photograph of them with their arms around William, the children wrote: “We love you, Papa. Happy Father’s Day. G, C & L.”
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Family Nicknames
Queen Elizabeth II was affectionately known as Lilibet during her childhood, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing the name for their daughter, born in 2021, as homage to Harry’s late grandmother.
Meanwhile, the Wales children sweetly referred to their great-grandmother as ‘Gan-Gan‘.
William has a pet name for his daughter as he was overheard at Catherine’s Back to Nature garden calling Charlotte ‘mignonette‘, a French word which means ‘cute’ but can also mean ‘little darling’ or ‘cutie’.
And in 2019, it was confirmed by a member of the public that the Princess of Wales calls her daughter ‘Lottie‘.
Catherine also uses a term of endearment for her youngest child – Lou Bugs for Prince Louis.
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She was heard using the moniker as Louis carried out his first official engagement with the Scouts in 2023, and during a clip from a family-focused video to announce the end of Catherine’s chemotherapy treatment in September 2024.
