In 2015, a photo of a dress divided the internet. For days, people argued on social media about whether that dress was blue and black or white and gold. It was wild to realize that people could look at the same image and see totally different colors. (For the record, the dress was blue and black.) But recently, a new portrait of Princess Charlotte was released by her parents in honor of her birthday, and it has low-key turned into the royal version of that infamous dress debate!
For some people, the picture of Charlotte shows a cute 7-year-old who looks exactly like her dad, Prince William. For other people, Charlotte's face is the spitting image of a young Queen Elizabeth. And then there is the vocal minority who are certain they can see the Middleton genes in Charlotte's face.
So who does Charlotte most look like? Well, we're going to try to solve that mystery by doing a deep dive into the ways that the royal DNA is so strong in the many generations of the Windsor faces. It turns out that once we start trying to figure out who looks like who, it seems the British royals all have a mini-me or a clone in the family tree. And as to the mystery of Princess Charlotte, we're not sure if that one can be solved.
Prince Harry & Prince George
Here's our first dive into the royal gene pool, and what do we see? We've got a tiny Prince Harry and a little Prince George, who both have the same button nose, rosy cheeks, and pale coloring. We're not sure if the mischievous energy is genetic, but we do love to see it.
Princess Charlotte & Queen Elizabeth
OK, here's the first entry in the "Who does Charlotte look like?" contest. This is a side-by-side comparison of a very young Queen Elizabeth and her great-granddaughter Princess Charlotte, who totally stole her nose. We also love the visual proof that a cute pair of Mary Janes never goes out of style.
Prince Harry & Princess Diana
We've always thought that Harry is the son who most seems to have Princess Diana's energy and spirit, but can we talk about the fact that they look like twins in these photos? Twins who are not afraid to throw a shadeful glance, it turns out. We're so here for the "over it" energy of these images.
Prince Harry & Prince Philip
OK — this complicates things. Yes, we just said that Harry looks like his mom. But then we see these pictures of Harry and a younger Prince Philip and, honestly, we can kind of see a resemblance between this grandfather-grandson duo. But maybe we are just distracted by a bearded hunk in a uniform?
Prince Harry & Archie
Ahhhhh! We can't talk about our favorite ginger prince without taking a moment to remember the cuteness of seeing two generations of Windsor redheads in this sweet family photo of Harry and his son, Archie. Look at those sweet curls on Archie! Given that he has that Windsor DNA, we hope he enjoys his hair as long as he has it, which, judging by his uncle Prince William, will probably be about 30 years.
Meghan Markle & Archie
While we are talking about sweet Archie, we do have to point out that he did get some DNA from his mom, Meghan Markle. We totally see Meghan in Archie's nose and the shape of his eyes. We can't wait to see more photos of Meghan's other little one, daughter Lilibet, in the future to see who she most looks like.
Prince William & Princess Charlotte
OK, back to the Charlotte question. Here's the argument for her looking like her dad: The crinkle and shape of her eyes look a lot like William's when he smiles, and we can see a lot of him in the shape of her face, especially in the chin.
Queen Elizabeth & Princess Anne
Although their coloring looks different in this black and white photo from 1954, it is easy to see the resemblance between a young Princess Anne and her mother, Queen Elizabeth. They have such similar facial shapes, especially around the mouth and nose, and Anne grew to look even more like her mother when her hair darkened and her face thinned out as an adult.
Queen Elizabeth & Prince George
Another great-grandchild who is a little mini-me of Queen Elizabeth is future King of England George. We see it in the Windsor family eyebrows, nose, and chin shape. No word on if the Queen would also look adorable in red overalls, like George did as a baby in these photos.
Princess Beatrice & Queen Victoria
Although we've been showcasing the modern-day royals who look alike, Princess Beatrice is a good reminder that a family resemblance can pass down through many generations. She looks a lot like Queen Victoria, who is her great-, great-, great-, great-grandmother, especially around the eyes.
Prince William & Princess Diana
Although Harry is more often thought to look like Diana, there's no denying that you can see her on William's face too. And little George looks a lot like the younger version of his dad in these photos. According to historians, both Diana and William and Harry's father, Prince Charles, were descendants of Henry VII and were actually (very) distant cousins, so maybe it is possible that William's chin is actually from both his parents.
Princess Charlotte & Kate Middleton
Turning back to our Charlotte mystery, let's look at a side-by-side comparison of Kate Middleton and her daughter. The brown hair and eyes are for sure from Kate's side of the gene pool, but we're still thinking that the nose, smile, and face shape are all Windsor. Don't believe us? Wait until the next photo!
Prince William & Princess Charlotte, Take Two
Yeah, fine. This one is pretty hard to argue with! The lips, the facial expression, and even the shape of her little eyebrows makes a very persuasive case that Charlotte is very much her father's daughter where DNA is concerned.
William, Harry, Charles, & Diana
Just when we think we have it figured out that Harry looks most like his mom and William looks kind of like his mom, we see this picture which makes us question everything! Does Harry look like Charles? Is it just the beard? Does everyone just look like everyone else? Make it make sense!
The Cambridge Kids
Looking at these images of William and Kate's three kids makes it very clear that the family only makes one model of nose. Without the names on the photos, we could swear that this was three shots of the same baby. And, yes, all babies kind of look a little bit alike, but this is next level.
Princess Charlotte, Once & for All
Here is the last chance to solve the "who does she most look like?" question for sweet Charlotte. Based on this picture, we're going to have to give it to William after all. We suspect she may grow to look more like her royal great-grandmother as she matures, but right now, she's William's mini-me.
