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See How the Royal Family Wished Princess Anne a Happy Birthday (Hint: Emojis Were Involved)

Another day, another royal birthday.

Today, the royal family celebrated Princess Anne’s 69th birthday and you better believe there were throwback photos and emojis galore.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip kicked the festivities off on Instagram with a stunning portrait of Her Majesty and her only daughter, the Princess Royal. The photo, which the queen (or, um, her people) shared via @theroyalfamily handle, was captured by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. 

Gorgeous, right? The 93-year-old queen and 98-year-old Duke of Edinburgh’s caption began with a balloon and party hat emoji. It went on to read, “Wishing the Princess Royal a Happy Birthday! Born on this day in 1950, Her Royal Highness is the second child of her majesty and the duke of Edinburgh. #HappyBirthdayHRH.” They also gave Leibovitz photo credit with the camera emoji. They’re basically influencers now with all that emoji use.

Then, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s other middle child, Prince Andrew, joined in on the well wishing. He, however, didn’t use a single emoji. (Gasp!) Instead, the 59-year-old Duke of York shared a photo collage complete with baby pictures and relics from the ’80s.

As you see above, the far left shows a 10-year-old Princess Anne posing alongside Prince Andrew and Prince Philip outside of Balmoral Castle in 1960. Interestingly enough, he cut Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles out of the photo, as well as of one of the queen’s faithful corgis.

The top right of the collage features a photo of Prince Andrew and Princess Anne standing above the Queen Mother in what appears to be all their ’80s glory. The bottom left shows Prince Andrew and Princess Anne chatting at Buckingham Palace and the far right shows them riding horseback in the 2019 Trooping the Colour. Prince Andrew is the Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and Princess Anne is the Colonel of the Blues and Royals regiment.

Prince Andrew captioned the collage, “Wishing Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal a very Happy Birthday! #happybirthdayhrh.”

Prince Charles, often the jokester, added some levity to his birthday wish for the Princess Royal. The 70-year-old Prince of Wales shared a candid photo of himself and his younger sister cracking up inside Buckingham Palace.

He wrote, via his @clarencehouse handle, “Wishing The Princess Royal a very Happy Birthday [party hat emoji] #HappyBirthdayHRH.”

One thing’s for sure: Royals love the party hat emoji.

Happy Birthday to the Princess Royal! 



lex

Cat mom, yogi, brunch enthusiast

Lex is an LA native who's deeply obsessed with picnics, Slim Aarons, rosé, Hollywood history and Joan Didion. She joined PureWow in early 2017.