The world is obsessed with anything and everything that has to do with celebrities, from famous singers to musicians to actors to models and yes, even to politicians. We love to follow the day to day tasks of these celebs because it gives us that sense of reassurance that despite their larger-than-life personas, they are regular people like the rest of us, too, doing chores, running errands, and getting their hands dirty. There’s no better douse of fantasy meeting reality than that knowledge.
Members of the royal family are touted as celebrities too and perhaps they’re even more sought after than folks in the entertainment industry or the political arena. We all get so amused when we see tidbits about the royal family in any shape or form and we grasp whatever information we get and revel in the thought that yes, they are human too. While most of their photographs are released to the big media outlets for all the world to see, there is the occasional photo that has not quite been devoured by the mainstream public just yet. Here are some of them.
15 Queen Elizabeth II as a baby and her mother
[caption id="attachment_9494" align="alignnone" width="546"] via;http://www.telegraph.co.uk/[/caption]
Perhaps the most popular royals in the world is the British royal family, which has spanned hundreds of years and has been the most high-profile compared to their royal counterparts. This is most likely due to the fact that their family has been wrought with scandal and intrigue for many generations. In this photo posted on The Telegraph, Queen Elizabeth II is photographed as a baby in May 1926 with her mother, who was then The Duchess of York. The photo in postcard format is from the earliest of Mary Dunkin’s postcard collection.
14 Queen Elizabeth II and her sister in the school play Aladdin
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Before she became the head of the United Kingdom and the countries of its commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II lived a fairly normal life, as far as princesses went. Express published never-before-seen photos of then Princess Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret when they were young teenagers. In this photo, the two princesses perform in a school production of Aladdin, in which Princess Elizabeth played the lead while Princess Margaret took on the role of Princess Roxana.
13 Queen Elizabeth playing a male role in Cinderella
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The two sisters seemed to have a penchant for performing in front of audiences, which was obviously a good thing since they were born in the glare of the public eye and were expected to have their every move monitored. That kind of life had no place for publicity-shy types of personalities. Two years before Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret appeared in the production of Aladdin, they both displayed their acting chops in Cinderella, where the future Queen played a male role—that of Prince Florizel opposite her sister, who played the lead role.
12 Prince Charles as a baby and his mother
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His personal life has been tabloid fodder for years, from his tumultuous marriage and eventual divorce from the late Princess Diana to his extramarital affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, whom he eventually married. Prince Charles is the heir apparent to his mother Queen Elizabeth II. She became Queen when Charles was only four years old. This photo was taken in 1949 when Charles was barely a year old. In the picture, he sits on the lap of his mother, then Princess Elizabeth.
11 Prince Charles and Princess Diana share a kiss on the polo field
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Back when they were still married, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were the epitome of a perfect royal marriage—at least in the eyes of the public. They hid their marital problems well for the first few years, smiling serenely at the cameras while showing affection for each other and their two sons. In this photo dated April 1985, Diana gives her husband a kiss on the lips during a polo match at Cowdray Park in Sussex.
10 Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela
[caption id="attachment_9488" align="alignnone" width="714"] via:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/[/caption]
One of the reasons Diana was called the people’s princess, even after she divorced Prince Charles, was because of her very hands-on nature when it came to raising her sons and her charitable works. She never hesitated to go to the most depressed of areas surrounded by poverty nor did she have any qualms about shaking hands and touching HIV-positive individuals. In this photo, Diana is photographed with the late South African President Nelson Mandela in 1997, a few months before her death.
9 Princess Diana and Mother Teresa
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They died five days apart, though Diana’s death received much heavier media coverage because it was a tragic one. Mother Teresa, on the other hand, had already stepped down from her duties due to her failing health. Still, these two selfless individuals pushed on as long as they could, meeting in New York at the Missionaries of Charity’s residence to collaborate on some charitable projects in June 1997, a few months prior to their untimely deaths.
8 Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s behind-the-scenes wedding photos
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Theirs was considered the fairy tale wedding of the century, with over 750 million people watching the wedding on their TV screens and throngs of locals lining the streets of London to get a glimpse of the future King of England, Prince Charles and his beautiful bride, Lady Diana Spencer. Recently, People published photos of the wedding day that have never before been seen by the public. The photos were taken by Lord Patrick Lichfield, a photographer and nobleman himself. In one photo, Diana is walking alongside the Queen and carrying one of her flower girls in her arms.
7 Queen Elizabeth II watching her subjects on TV
[caption id="attachment_9485" align="alignnone" width="800"] via:http://img2.timeinc.net/[/caption]
The photos that were taken by Lord Lichtfield during the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana will be auctioned for charity by Boston-based house RR Auction this month. Given the continued public outpouring of love for Diana, the photos are expected to fetch thousands of dollars per piece. This particular photo is in color and shows the Queen watching the hordes of people outside Buckingham Palace through the TV set. This was likely taken before the royal family stepped out onto the balcony to greet the crowds after the wedding.
6 Candid shot of Japanese royal family
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When Masako Owada married Naruhito, the Crown Prince of Japan, everyone thought she would be the Japanese version of Princess Diana, hoping that like the British princess, she would inject some modernity into the very traditional, very dated Imperial House of Japan. But Princess Masako chose instead the quiet life behind closed palace doors, rarely making public appearances. When she bore a daughter, the people pushed to change the succession rules to allow a princess to ascend the throne. But this was not to be when the Crown Prince’s younger brother had a son. In this rare photo, the little prince and heir to the throne is doted on by his grandparents, parents, uncle and aunt.
5 Danish and Greek royal family photo
[caption id="attachment_9483" align="alignnone" width="900"] via:http://ca.hellomagazine.com/[/caption]
European royal families that aren’t British are not in the news as often as their counterparts from the United Kingdom. For example, not very many people may know that the Greek royal family is actually descended from the Danish royal family, as Greece’s first monarch George I was the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. Most members of both families hold the title Prince or Princess of Greece and Denmark. It was but fitting that both branches of the families pose together for one big, happy family portrait, which appeared on Hello magazine.
4 Dutch royal family attends a funeral
[caption id="attachment_9482" align="alignnone" width="1280"] via;www.nrc.nl[/caption]
They keep a very low-profile, rarely being seen in public together. But yes, the Dutch royal family does exist and it’s headed by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. He became King when his mother Princess Beatrix abdicated after 33 years as Queen. It was during the funeral of the King’s brother Prince Friso that all adult members of the royal family were photographed together. The King and Queen were both in attendance, along with the King’s mother, his surviving siblings and their partners, plus their children.
3 King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in Michigan, USA
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King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is the country’s first King in over 100 years and he and his wife Queen Maxima did a three-day tour of the United States in June of this year. The royal couple made a brief stop at Grand Rapids in Michigan and it was a big event for the locals, as many of them are Dutch-Americans. The royals were at Grand Rapids for a mere five hours, squeezing in the trip between their visits to Washington and Chicago.
2 Princess Leonore at 1 year old
[caption id="attachment_9480" align="alignnone" width="464"] via;hellomagazine.com[/caption]
Among members of the Swedish royal family, the one person who is constantly in the spotlight is none other than Crown Princess Victoria, the heir to the Swedish throne by virtue of being King Carl XVI Gustaf’s eldest child. Her second brother Prince Carl Philip was recently in the news for getting married to former model Sofia Hellqvist. The King’s youngest daughter Princess Madeleine is rarely in the public eye, but when she shared a rare photo of her daughter Princess Leonore, the image of the adorable tot received 45,000 likes and hundreds of well-wishes.
1 Prince George spends the day with grandma Carole Middleton
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He’s probably the most photographed baby in the world, along with his new sister Princess Charlotte. That’s because Prince George is not only third in line to the British throne, but he’s also the son of Prince William and Kate Middleton, who is arguably considered the best thing to happen to the British monarchy since Princess Diana. It’s always a treat to see Prince George depicted as having a normal childhood, such as these photos of the young Prince spending time with his maternal grandmother Carole Middelton at a beach.
Sources: telegraph.co.uk, people.com, express.co.uk, hellomagazine.com
