Princess Charlotte is Prince William and Kate Middleton's second child. Will Warr/Kensington Palace/Handout via Reuters 2025-05-22T12:42:01Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Princess Charlotte turned 10 in May. As Prince William and Kate Middleton's second child, she's third in line for the British throne. Although her life is mostly private, Charlotte shows peeks of her personality at royal engagements. The roles of "heir" and "spare" have haunted royal siblings for centuries.The very existence of secondborn children in the British royal family is tied to a crown they'll ideally never hold, as they serve as backups to the direct heirs to the throne. Still, spares can play a critical role in the monarchy, as was the case for King George VI, who became monarch in 1936 after his brother abdicated. Even as it adapts to the modern world, the heir and spare dynamic continues to shape the monarchy, as evidenced by the title — and contents — of Prince Harry's 2023 memoir.In the latest generation of royals, Princess Charlotte is the spare to Prince George's heir. However, at just 10, Charlotte is already breaking the mold she was born into, charting a new path for the royals.Here's everything to know about Princess Charlotte.Princess Charlotte joins the royal familyIn a press release on September 8, 2014, Kensington Palace announced that Kate Middleton was expecting her and Prince William's second child. The statement also said that Kate had hyperemesis gravidarum, as she did with her first pregnancy, and would be missing an engagement in Oxford that day as a result.Charlotte was born on May 2, 2015, at 8:34 a.m., at the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in London, just like Prince George, Prince William, and Prince Harry were. Kate Middleton and Prince William posed with Princess Charlotte outside the hospital the day of her birth. Mike Marsland/Getty Images William and Kate debuted their daughter to the world during a photocall on the hospital's steps the same day she was born. Kate posed for photos on the hospital's steps after each of her children's births, following in Princess Diana's footsteps.Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, and at the time of her birth, her title was Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.Charlotte is the feminine version of Charles, her grandfather's name. Her middle names nod to her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and her late grandmother, Princess Diana.At her birth, Charlotte was fourth in the royal line of succession, behind her grandfather, father, and older brother.Queen Elizabeth II ensured Charlotte's position in the line wouldn't be affected by her gender through the Succession to the Crown Act in 2013. The act changed a long-standing rule that male siblings superseded their female siblings' position in the line to the throne. If it hadn't been passed, Prince Louis' birth in 2018 would have moved Charlotte down the line of succession. Princess Charlotte began attending Lambrook School in September 2022. Jonathan Brady/Pool/Getty Images After Queen Elizabeth died in 2022, King Charles III made William the Prince of Wales, so his daughter's title became Princess Charlotte of Wales. Likewise, she moved up to third in line for the throne after her great-grandmother's death. Princess Charlotte's royal lifeAccording to the royal family's website, the princess was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in July 2015. Prince George was photographed peering into her stroller at the ceremony.Charlotte has five godparents, including Kate's cousin, Adam Middleton. Prince George looked into his sister Princess Charlotte's pram after her christening in July 2015. Matt Dunham/Reuters Kate and William released a few photos of the princess as a baby, but she didn't join her parents on an overseas tour until she was 16 months old, in September 2016, when she went with her family to Canada.Charlotte and Kate wore color-coordinating outfits throughout the trip, a tradition they've kept up throughout Charlotte's life.Charlotte became a big sister in 2018 when Prince Louis was born, completing the Wales family. The princess attended Thomas's Battersea school in London from 2019 to 2021, and she began attending the Lambrook School after the Wales family relocated to Windsor full-time in 2022. Princess Charlotte has appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images William and Kate have balanced their children's royal roles with their privacy as they've grown up, allowing them to attend only a handful of royal engagements each year and releasing photos of them for special occasions, like birthdays or holidays.Charlotte appears annually at Trooping the Colour and the royal family's Christmas walk at Sandringham. She has also been present for milestone moments for the royals, like Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022 and King Charles' coronation in May 2023.Charlotte often appears to be the most comfortable of her siblings at royal engagements, speaking with members of the public and even correcting her brothers on royal protocol.The young princess has also been spotted attending less formal events from time to time, showing off a more authentic side of the royal family in the process.Kensington Palace shared photos of Charlotte at the Eras Tour in June 2024, smiling with William, George, and Taylor Swift. She also joined her mother at Wimbledon in July 2024, accompanying Kate to the first solo engagement she attended after announcing her cancer diagnosis. Princess Charlotte joined Kate Middleton at Wimbledon 2024. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images Charlotte's comfort in the spotlight, even compared to her older brother, differentiates her from royal "spares" of the past, who are often relegated to the role of wild child in comparison to the heir's steadiness. She seems calm and competent at public events, and she may already be taking after her great-aunt Princess Anne, whose steadfastness is an asset to King Charles.At only 10, it's clear Princess Charlotte's future in the royal family is bright.

See the First Visible Auroras Captured on Mars, Glowing a Hazy Green Above the Planet Scientists directed NASA’s Perseverance rover to take an image of the Martian sky after a solar storm in hopes that an aurora would show up Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor May 16, 2025 1:19 p.m. The first image in visible light of green auroras on Mars (left), compared to the night sky of Mars without auroras. NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / SSI On March 18, 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover, which usually examines rocks on Mars’ surface, tilted its camera upward. The planet’s entire sky glowed a soft green, and the rover snapped an image of the moment—capturing the first visually observed aurora on Mars. The photograph is the result of several years of planning, waiting and retrying to grab this shot. Researchers led by Elise Wright Knutsen, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Oslo, waited for the right conditions and commanded Perseverance to look up at exactly the right time. They reported their feat in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. “It took three unsuccessful attempts before we got it right, but when we did, it appeared exactly as we imagined it; as a diffuse green haze, uniform in all directions,” Knutsen tells Gizmodo’s Passant Rabie.Auroras can occur following a solar storm, when the sun suddenly blasts charged particles, energy and magnetic fields into the solar system. These particles can collide with gases in a planet’s atmosphere, energizing them and causing their atoms to emit light in different colors. On Earth, the charged particles from the sun are guided to the poles by the magnetic field, leading to the northern and southern lights. Mars does not have a global magnetic field, “so the charged particles bombarded all of Mars at the same time, which leads to this planet-wide aurora,” Knutsen tells Reuters’ Will Dunham. The Martian atmosphere is much thinner than Earth’s, and it doesn’t have as many gas atoms that could light up in an aurora. But Mars has atomic oxygen, and oxygen on Earth causes a green glow. So, astronomers thought its sky would appear green after a solar storm, although the hue would be fainter and harder to capture than auroras on Earth. Historically, Mars’ auroras have only been observed by orbiting spacecraft in ultraviolet light, which is not visible to the naked eye. An aurora seen from Abisko, Sweden, glows green due to emissions from atmospheric oxygen. Pavel.shyshkouski via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Perseverance’s photo surprised some scientists, who had anticipated an image of an aurora to come from a spacecraft instead. “I didn’t really expect it to be seen by one of the rovers,” planetary astronomer James O’Donoghue of the University of Reading in England, who was not involved in the study, tells the New York Times’ Perseverance’s mission is to sample rocks that may contain evidence of ancient microbial life, like “Cheyava Falls,” a rock discovered last year that scientists say bears a potential biosignature. To observe an aurora, researchers applied the rover’s rock-studying instruments to the sky. One of its cameras, Mastcam-Z, could spot green lights. An instrument called SuperCam would chemically analyze whatever was emitting that green light, potentially identifying an aurora. To get their photo, researchers had to accurately forecast the aurora by observing the sun, studying the Martian atmosphere and perfectly timing Perseverance’s movements. After several months, during a period of solar hyperactivity, Knutsen’s team found exactly the right moment. “It was so satisfying,” Knutsen tells the New York Times. NASA's Perseverance rover took this "selfie" on July 23, 2024, with a rock nicknamed "Cheyava Falls." NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS Perseverance’s instruments determined the aurora emitted light with a wavelength of 557.7 nanometers—a green glow that’s visible to the human eye—which told astronomers the source was oxygen. Data from NASA’s orbiting MAVEN mission confirmed the light came from an aurora caused by solar energetic particles. Capturing an aurora on Mars opens new methods of studying the planet’s atmosphere and weather. It also shows how scientists can continue to track solar activity, which is especially relevant as a solar flare caused radio blackouts internationally this week. For now, though, Knutsen’s team gets to celebrate capturing the first visible Martian aurora. She tells the New York Times about being one of the first people to see “a black horizon and a softly glowing green sky” on Mars, saying, “I cried a little bit.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Lena Dunham–following the success of her 2012 comedy-drama series Girls–is my Roman Empire. Everyone knows the story: the published essays dissecting the sudden end of her long-term relationship with producer Jack Antonoff; the widespread criticisms of Girls for its lack of diversity; the poorly received comments about abortion. We witnessed the public turn on Dunham, branding her one of the most controversial writers of her time. But what was she feeling during that wave of backlash?  On July 10, Dunham and her husband, Luis Felber, will offer a loose interpretation of what life was like when they first met in 2021. If it’s anything like her past work, the series will be packed with comedy, emotional honesty and sharp introspection. As Dunham put it in a Variety interview about meeting Felber: “When I met my husband, I was dazzled by just how much baggage two people could bring to the table.” The highly anticipated series, Too Much, co-written by Dunham and Felber, premieres on Netflix on July 10.  “Co-created by Dunham and Luis Ferber, Too Much centers on Jessica (Meg Stalter) a New York workaholic in her mid-thirties, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever and slowly isolating everyone she knows. When every block in New York tells a story of her own bad behaviour, the only solution is to take a job in London, where she plans to live a life of solitude like a Bronte sister. But when she meets Felix (Will Sharpe) – a walking series of red flags – she finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even as it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language?” Read more at Deadline A period romance about two young artists that fall in love in Paris just before becoming recognized as cultural icons– yes, please; plus, the Bill Pohlad directed project, Miles and Juliette, will be produced by none other than Mick Jagger– double yes!  Just in time for the recent wave of buzz surrounding new movies during the Cannes Film Festival, Damson Idris, who is currently filming opposite Brad Pitt in Paramount’s upcoming fantasy film Children of Blood and Bone, has been set to play Miles Davis, alongside Anamaria Vartolomei as Juliette Gréco in Pohlad’s latest project.  “According to the project’s description, Miles & Juliette follows ‘22-year-old Miles Davis (Idris) on a transformative trip to Paris in 1949, where he falls into a passionate romance with Juliette Gréco (Vartolomei), the French singer, actress, and Left Bank icon. What begins as an intimate affair blossoms into a profound connection between two young artists — just before they became cultural legends.’” Read more at The Hollywood Reporter On Sunday, Sony Pictures Television was able to secure global distribution rights to Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner’s relationship comedy series, The Miniature Wife.  The series features a star-studded cast of regulars and recurring characters, with Elizabeth Banks and Emmy-winner Matthew Macfadyen in the leading roles. You’re probably thinking: What do Ames and Turner mean by the miniature wife? The Media Res produced comedy series is actually based off of author Manuel Gonzalez’s short story of the same name about a man who accidentally shrinks his wife.  Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! “The relationship comedy series explores the shifting power dynamics between spouses as a technological mishap triggers the ultimate marital crisis, pitting them against each other in a battle for dominance. It will air on Peacock in the U.S.”  Read more at Variety Tuesday marked the start of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Long-awaited projects from Wes Anderson and Ari Aster are set to premiere as well as six female directed films in the Official Competition.  Last year, Sean Baker snagged the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm), which is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition, for Anora– which later won the Academy Award for Best Picture on March 2. Who will win this year’s Palm d’Or, and will the films featured at Cannes be an early indicator for the 2026 awards season like last year? We’ll have to see, but for now, even if you can’t attend the festival, keep a close eye on the daily happenings in Cannes over the next two weeks.  “Pundits complained last year’s Cannes was a light affair, but that had to do with the bottleneck created by the strikes, for one. Many auteurs return to the Croisette this year to make for a highly anticipated festival.” Read more at IndieWire The film that I’m the most excited to hear about following its premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival is by far Ethan Coen’s upcoming dark comedy, Honey Don’t! The film follows Margaret Qualley as Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, who looks into strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. Who’s the priest of that deadly church? Captain America, of course!  Though it’s not in competition, the film will premiere in Cannes on the final day of the festival, as part of the midnight screenings. Though I’ll have to wait until Aug. 22 to see the dark comedy in theaters, I have a feeling there will be a lot of buzz surrounding the film following its premiere.  “Once again starring Margaret Qualley, this time as a lesbian private investigator on the trail of a cultist played by former Captain America Chris Evans, Ethan Coen’s latest, co-written alongside longtime collaborator and wife Tricia Cooke, looks to be a dark comedy through and through, firmly of a piece with Drive-Away Dolls.”  Read more at Empire Watch the trailer of HONEY, DON’T! below: