Princess Kate Raised Eyebrows with the Occupation She Listed on Prince George’s Birth Certificate

Prince William and Kate Middleton introduce baby Prince George to the world

(Image credit: Getty)

published 19 July 2023

We’re doing a lot of reflecting today on July 22, 2013—the day that Prince George came into the world (he turns the milestone age of 10 on Saturday). Even though he may be a future king, he needed a birth certificate just like the rest of us, and the occupation his mom listed was one that, well, isn’t seen very often, per The Mirror.

“Like all other birth certificates, it features George’s full name, the date of his birth, where he was born—St. Mary’s Hospital’s Lindo Wing—and who the informant was, which was dad Prince William,” the outlet reports.

But it was under the section for the mother’s occupation that the unusual answer came, “probably one that has only ever been written a handful of times,” The Mirror writes. Kate listed her line of work as “Princess of the United Kingdom.” Again, not one the public records office likely sees every day.

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Congruently, William’s job is listed as “Prince of the United Kingdom,” even though he was a helicopter pilot in the RAF at the time and could have used that occupation instead.

Back in 2013, this sparked confusion in particular, more than it would today: Back then—and from her wedding day in 2011 all the way up to September 2022, after the death of Her late Majesty—Kate was known as the Duchess of Cambridge, not the Princess of Wales, as she is today. “This led many to question at the time if she really was a princess, given her title was duchess,” The Mirror reports. “But from the day she married William, she technically did become a princess—but not in her own right. In fact, she is still Princess William of Wales; however, back then, her title of Duchess of Cambridge took precedence, while now her Princess of Wales style does.”

And princess though she may be, Kate is a mom first, not just to George but also to Princess Charlotte, born in 2015, and Prince Louis, born in 2018. Per The Daily Express, we know exactly what Kate will be doing after the kids go to bed on Friday night, in preparation for George’s big day on Saturday—baking a birthday cake.

“I love making the cake,” Kate said on Dame Mary Berry’s Christmas special “A Berry Royal Christmas.” “It’s become a bit of a tradition that I stay up until midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing and I make far too much. But I love it.”

The outlet reports that, other than eating birthday cake, George will spend Saturday hosting a “close-knit” group of school friends for a birthday party on the Windsor estate, where the Wales family lives. This is more low-key than in previous years, where the family of five spent George’s birthday on the private Caribbean island of Mustique—a favorite of the late Princess Margaret’s when she was alive.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.