The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’s two children are the late Queen Elizabeth’s youngest grandchildren and will one day have to face up to a bittersweet moment. Lady Louise Windsor, 21, and James, Earl of Wessex, 17, were especially close with both their grandmother and grandfather as they shared many of their passions, from horse riding to carriage driving.
While being among the youngest grandchildren can have some perks, as most families will know, for the young royals they are also set to have some difficult moments that their elder cousins will be unable to relate to. This is because while some of the late Queen’s oldest grandchildren like Peter Phillips and Prince William had got married and had children during her lifetime, this is not the case for Louise and James.
Instead, when Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie’s children find love and marry, they will be the only grandchildren of the late monarch who will not have had the privilege of having their grandparents at their future weddings.
They will also face more bittersweet milestones if they choose to have children, with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip both also not being around to witness this.
Instead, the last of Her Majesty’s grandchildren to have her and Prince Philip at their wedding was Princess Beatrice in 2020, when she married Edoardo Mapelli-Mozzi during the pandemic.
The late Queen and Prince Philip were present at all of their other grandchildren’s weddings. The absence of their grandparents on such big occasions is likely to be extremely hard-hitting for Louise and James as it is believed that they are the grandchildren who spent the most time with the monarch.
This is because their Surrey home Bagshot Park was just a short drive from Windsor Castle – one of the late Queen’s favourite residences.
Both Louise and her brother also had a lot of shared interests with the late Queen, with the family spending every summer at Balmoral with her and Prince Philip.
An insider once told The Sun years ago: “The (late) Queen loves the fact that Louise and James relish their time at Balmoral, and she has become particularly close to Louise, who seems to have become her favourite grandchild, closely followed by James.”
