Kate Middleton and Prince William might be done adding new little ones to their royal brood, but some people believe that they did get a new member of the family. Except, in this case, that new family member is a dog. Hey, pets are family too. In a Mothering Sunday post on Instagram, Kate shared a video that focused on nature, a montage of flowery fields and waves crashing, and even what appeared to be William walking through a field barefoot.
But aside from William with bare feet walking through tall grass in fading sunlight, the video featured two real dogs following close behind, with one of them likely being the family’s cocker spaniel Orla. This led some to wonder if the pair had added a new furry member to their family. To be fair, adding new royal pets doesn’t really require a whole announcement, but many people want to know what the deal is.
Kate Middleton hints at adding a new member to the royal family.
Kate shared the Instagram post on the official Prince and Princess of Wales account on March 30, 2025. In it, she wrote in the caption, “This Mother’s Day, let us celebrate Mother Nature and recognise how our bond with the natural world can help not only nurture our inner selves, but remind us too of the role we play within the rich tapestry of life.”
The video, however, raised the most questions about the addition of another dog running with Orla. Although Kate didn’t clarify in the caption or elsewhere that the family got another dog, that could be the case. Kate and William have always favored cocker spaniels, and their late dog Lupo was also a cocker spaniel.
The dog featured in Kate’s video could also just be one of the dogs owned by her brother, James Middleton, however. James bred Orla for Kate and William before the pup joined their family in 2020, not long before Lupo died. There’s even a recent video on James’ Instagram that shows him in a field with his dogs, and it was posted not long after Kate’s own video. But for now, the speculation about the royal family getting a new dog is very real.
Kate and William lost a dog in 2020.
In 2011, Kate’s parents gifted her and William with their dog Lupo for Christmas. This was before the couple started a family and, for all intents and purposes, Lupo was the beginning of their family together. In November 2020, the couple shared a statement on Instagram to announce his passing.
“Very sadly last weekend our dear dog, Lupo, passed away,” they shared at the time. “He has been at the heart of our family for the past nine years and we will miss him so much.”
They did not reveal at the time what Lupo’s cause of death was. According to PetMD, the average lifespan of a cocker spaniel is 10 to 14 years, so Lupo may have died of natural causes as an older dog.
Are Kate and William done having kids?
Kate and William have three children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Although Kate hasn’t made a definitive public statement about whether she and William are done having kids, that may be the case. In 2020, two years after Louis was born, Kate shared William’s thoughts on having more kids when she and the future king spoke with the public.
“I don’t think William wants any more,” she admitted.
She may have her hands full anyway – at least, according to royal author Tom Quinn, who told Fox News that “Kate treats William as the fourth because he occasionally behaves like one.” However, that claim has not been confirmed by the royal family.
