Happy Birthday Prince George: A New Photo Released as the Cambridges Celebrate on Mustique!

To celebrate Prince George's fifth birthday tomorrow, Kensington Palace released a photo of the future king taken in the Clarence House garden by Matt Porteous after Louis' christening. The release follows the pattern of 2015 when Charlotte was christened at Sandringham in July and a photo taken with the official portraits was chosen to mark the prince's birthday.

William and Kate chose Matt Porteous to take their private photos after the christening. The couple decided to release one of Kate and Louis and it has been widely praised as the best shot of the five official portraits. Porteous also took George's third birthday portraits in Norfolk.

I do enjoy his style of photography and think he does a splendid job of capturing moments. I imagine the photo of the smiling prince will be framed at KP.

The Cambridges will celebrate their eldest son's fifth birthday on the paradise island of Mustique. Royal reporters Emily Andrews and Omid Scobie confirmed reports the family of five are enjoying their first holiday together in the Caribbean. Rebecca English noted they left London on Monday with the Middletons, so it's going to be quite a party.

There's a special significance to this week - Mustique is celebrating its 50th anniversary and there's an array of events taking place with a week of craft fairs, a tennis tournament which will have held great appeal for Kate, jazz nights and gala parties. According to The Sun, the group attended a star-studded party with Mick Jagger on Tuesday night.

Mustique was bought by Lord Glenconnor, Colin Tennant in 1958 for the sum of £45,000 and two years later he gave Princess Margaret a plot of land as a wedding present in order to associate it with the Royal family. Since then, Mustique has become a popular hideaway for royals and celebrities.

William, Kate and the Middleton family have come to adore the island and have visited on multiple occasions since the Cambridges' pre-engagement days. The Middletons usually make an annual trip every January, which has led to William and Kate not joining them over the past couple of years. With George and Charlotte's school schedules, I expect we might see July becoming their chosen month for the getaway.

It is not known where the family are staying, however they have previously stayed at Aurora House, owned by royal wedding guests, hedge fund manager Mark Cecil and his wife Kate.

Guests can watch the sunrise and sunset in this contemporary colonial style villa with sweeping vistas of the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

The stunning property boasts contemporary bedroom suites, a pool, sun deck and sun lounges, and staff including a butler, chef, maid and gardener.

Indeed, Mustique was the location of the birthday boy's first holiday abroad. Kate took George for a holiday on the Island when he was six months old back in 2014.

To mark George's birthday, Rebecca English wrote a very insightful feature piece for the Mail: 'Revealing portrait of Prince George on his fifth birthday: Granny Carole feeds him chips and sweets, he is obsessed with volcanoes and is seeing more and more of grandad Charles':

'One day, the third in line to the throne — who wants to be a pilot, just like his adored ‘Papa’ who flew with the East Anglian Air Ambulance — will learn his life choices are somewhat restricted. For now, his parents are focused on providing him with the close-knit, carefree family life that mum Kate took for granted as she grew up — and that William’s own late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, fought to try to give her two boys.

Some have questioned whether William and Kate’s understandable protectiveness of their son, plus their instinctive wariness of the media, may have inadvertently rubbed off on George. But friends insist he is no different from other young children. ‘Just because he reacts more cautiously than Charlotte when there is a camera around isn’t an indication of what he is like behind closed doors,’ says one. ‘Your first day at school is a big enough deal without all these strange people watching you. He is a very happy little boy.’

‘They know there will come a time when they will have to sit down and talk to him about the implications of his royal status and why so many people are interested in him. He is becoming more aware of the cameras. But they are determined to do that at George’s own pace and feel that can all wait a bit.’

The piece included fascinating snippets on George's relationship with his grandparents:

'Charles’s ever-increasing workload — which now includes a number of duties that traditionally fell to the Queen, particularly foreign travel — means the time he has available is limited. But Prince Louis’s christening last week saw Charles host his growing family at Clarence House for what was described as a ‘really fun family afternoon’.

‘It is clear he is immensely proud of his sons and adores his grandchildren,’ one source told me. ‘I’d say things are better than they have been for a long time.’ Another said: ‘Charles understands that Kate gravitates to her mother and family and is actually very grateful for everything the Middletons do.

Carole, 63, and her husband Michael, 69, play a hugely significant role in their grandchildren’s lives — as their current Caribbean holiday together shows. She has taken George and Charlotte to work at the family’s Party Pieces HQ, a short drive from the Middletons’ Berkshire mansion, where they play at being shopkeepers. One visitor spotted George sitting in the ‘front of house’, exclaiming excitedly ‘Oh my gosh!’ as his indulgent granny gave him a bag of sweets for being a good boy.
Kate understands only too well that it is a grandparent’s prerogative to spoil their grandchildren — and still laughs about how she once called home from a foreign tour to speak to her mother, who was looking after George, only for him to tell her earnestly that his granny had given him ‘chips, again’ for dinner.'

Speaking of George's relationship with his grandparents, a splendid never-before-seen photo of Charles, William and George features in the summer exhibition - Prince and Patron - at Buckingham Palace.

I can still vividly remember the day in July 2013 when Prince George was born. Fast forward five years and the little prince has completed his first year of school and is now a big brother to two siblings. I thought it would be fun to take a look back on his birthday portraits. To mark George's first birthday in 2014, photos of the prince with his parents were taken at the Natural History Museum's 'Sensational Butterflies' exhibition. The photo of him looking both apprehensive and determined when touching a butterfly on William's hand is one of my favourites. Those cheeks...

To mark Prince George's second birthday, Kensington Palace released a new photo from Princess Charlotte's christening, taken earlier that month by Mario Testino. The prince is captured in his father's arms, smiling and leaning towards the camera.

Several lovely photographs taken by Matt Porteous were released for George's third birthday. The show-stealing photo from the set for me was the image of George and Lupo sitting on a rug outside; it captured a darling moment showing the Prince offering the family pet a taste of his ice-cream.

For George's fourth birthday, William and Kate chose a photo taken by Chris Jackson at Kensington Palace. Chris Jackson is married to Kate's assistant and stylist Natasha Archer and they have reportedly asked Chris to take a number of private photos over the years, so George was clearly very comfortable with him. Speaking of Chris and Natasha, congratulations are in order as the couple are expecting their first child in the coming months (click here for more). I love the natural smile in this photo.

I imagine celebrations will see the family enjoying lunch and cake, possibly on the beach and the children participating in the host of activities available on the Island.

Wishing George a very Happy Birthday!