All The Ways Princess Charlotte Is Like Diana

For decades after Princess Diana's tragic death, her sons were compared to her in ever way. The media and royalists alike compared everything from their looks, mannerisms, and interests. Everything her sons did was measured against their late mother. But now, there's a young female royal who's been the recipient of such comparisons, Prince William's daughter, Princess Charlotte. 

DNA trumps royalty, and it seems that many of Princess Diana's genes have been passed on to her first granddaughter. From the facial expressions she makes to her signature side eye and the way she behaves in public, the young royal seems to have more of Diana in her than her father or uncle, Prince Harry, ever have. Diana's death left an indelible hole in British society, and fans of the late princess continue to make any attempt to keep her memory alive. Recently, it's the comparison between her and the grandchild she would never meet. Here are all the ways the two princesses are alike. 

There are infinite ways in which people can be similar, and Princess Charlotte's similarities to Princess Diana make a long list. Perhaps the most obvious similarity between the two is their appearance — many onlookers have noted how much Charlotte looks like her late grandmother. "She looks exactly like her daddy! And, that means, she looks like Grannie Diana," one user commented on a photo of Charlotte posted to Instagram in celebration of her 9th birthday. "She is beautiful. I see so much of Princess Diana," another said, with many others leaving similar sentiments.

The similarities between Charlotte and Diana don't stop at their looks — it seems Charlotte shares a passion for one of Diana's most beloved hobbies. In a video posted by the BBC of Prince William speaking to a young student, the future king shared that his daughter loves to dance and perform. As Anne Allan, the instructor who taught Diana ballet in the '80s, shared with People, so did Diana. "She loved to dance. The minute she started to move her arms, you could see the feeling that it brought her. She was able to be herself. She loved to move and loved to have fun," Allan said.

Princess Diana was a style icon. The royal had legendary fashion moments in her time, like her cheeky "I'm a luxury — few can afford" sweater, her endless combinations of crewneck sweatshirts and biker shorts, and of course, Princess Diana's iconic revenge dress. The world wanted to emulate Diana's style while she was living, but her legacy is just as strong today. Even modern celebrities like Hailey Bieber have noted how the late princess serves as an inspiration. "All credit and inspo to the amazingly beautiful and iconically stylish Princess Diana who I've looked to for style inspiration for as long as I can remember. Thank you for leaving behind such an iconic fashion and style legacy," Bieber wrote on Instagram when sharing some photos taken of her for Vogue.

Princess Charlotte is becoming a fashion icon in her own right, just like her grandmother. She has multiple websites dedicated to documenting her habiliments, and is already massively impacting the fashion economy. Whatever the young royal wears in public routinely sells out immediately. Children across the globe, whether they know it or not, are dressing just like Princess Charlotte. According to a study by Electric Ride on Cars published in the Mirror, Charlotte's fashion influence across the world has made her the wealthiest kid on the planet. With a net worth of £3.5 billion, she's even wealthier than older brother and future king, Prince George. This figure was estimated based on the young royal's succeeding inheritance and her impact on the British economy.

One thing about Princess Diana is certain; the woman was incredibly popular, and it was partially by design. "I remember saying to myself, 'Right, Diana. It's not good. You've got to change it right round, with this publicity," Diana recalled telling herself, as shown in the documentary "Diana: In Her Own Words" (via Vogue). "You've been chosen to this position, so you must adapt to it and stop fighting it.' And I knew I could do it, if I chose a different angle." It's difficult to contextualize just how popular Diana was, but to put a number on it, an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide watched the royal's funeral. An estimated 2,000 people attended the funeral, and even more laid flowers and created other memorials to honor her memory.

A partial reason for Princess Diana's popularity was her kindness, and it seems that Princess Charlotte has some of that same magic, too. Sources have reported that the little princess is a hit at school. "Charlotte is so kind and friendly and the other children adore her. She's kind to the kids in younger years and she's very popular," a source told Hello! While it remains to be seen whether Charlotte's popularity at school will translate to a larger stage, she seems to be off to a promising start.

Princess Charlotte is already known for being sweet and kind, and those personality traits have made her quite popular at school. It seems that Charlotte's kindness extends to her family members, too. During a Christmas celebration in 2023, Charlotte and her family were recorded accepting gifts from bystanders at Sandringham. When one person offered a bouquet to Charlotte, the royal happily let her cousin Mia Tindall accept the flowers instead, and Charlotte was applauded by the public for her generosity.

Princess Diana was also famous for her goodwill. "She took her kindness to a point beyond exhaustion," Manolo Blahnik said of Diana (via Vogue). "Three years ago I had a terrible accident and came home from hospital to a get-well message from the princess. It was the little things that touched me so much, like the Christmas cards that I cherished receiving, because she always put something charming and personal inside," the designer added. "She was always able to put people at ease immediately," Jacques Azagury said of the late royal. As if the anecdotes weren't enough, experts believe Charlotte and Diana have similar personalities. As body language expert Judi James told Express, "Like Diana [Charlotte] gives the initial impression of shyness but beneath that appears to be an outgoing, fun personality."

There are some similarities between Princess Charlotte and Princess Diana that are to be expected. Although Diana was known for breaking royal protocol, she was also celebrated for being incredibly polite, something that Charlotte has also been noted for in her young age. While admirable, manners and etiquette are something royals are trained in — it would be far more surprising if the two princesses were known for being rude.

That being said, there are plenty of similarities between Charlotte and Diana that can't be taught — traits that are downright physiological. While royal, Diana was known to publicly correct her sons' behavior, stare down photographers, and even shield her face from cameras, all of which Charlotte has been known to do as well (though it's been her brothers' behavior she's corrected). Experts have pointed out how similar Charlotte's body language is to Diana's, too. 

In 2022, while the Windsors were honoring Prince Philip at his memorial service, onlookers paid close attention to Prince William and Princess Catherine's children, analyzing their behavior. The analysis of Charlotte was particularly interesting. "Charlotte, looking touchingly like the Queen when she was small, showed body language traits that are more like her granny Diana," body language expert Judi James told Express. "She also picked out several of the cameras with her eyes, as Diana always remembered to do."

Women in the royal family don't have it easy. They're subject to types of public scrutiny their male counterparts aren't, like critiques on their appearances and their choices as mothers. They're also expected to follow many antiquated rules, and they're up against a system that has been predominantly led by men for centuries. But that doesn't mean some women, like Princess Diana, haven't been able to stand up to the system.

Diana broke protocol in a number of significant ways when she was part of the royal family. For example, the princess altered her wedding vows, refusing to use the word "obey," and also opted to send her children to an external preschool rather than having them receive education at the palace. Even in her divorce, Diana was powerful. Although she was stripped of her HRH status, Diana retained her royal title after leaving King Charles III.

Princess Charlotte will have to make her own way as a royal in a system that hasn't always supported women, just as her late grandmother experienced, but it seems she already possesses agency and confidence at a young age. In 2023, a compilation video of Charlotte interacting with her brothers went viral on TikTok. The royal sister was clearly taking control in each instance, telling both Prince George and Prince Louis how to behave while in public. Should Charlotte retain that confidence, she should have no problem sticking up for herself as a royal adult.

Princess Diana and Princess Charlotte both have a lot of history wrapped up in their names. Though not an immediate member of the royal family, Diana hailed from aristocracy. The former royal was named after her ancestor Lady Diana Spencer, and she very well could have become a royal, too. Lady Diana, who only lived 25 years in the early 1700s, was supposed to marry Frederick, Prince of Wales, but King George II, his father, was advised to find someone deemed more suitable for the then-heir apparent. Princess Diana shared her name with this distant relative, with Charlotte also inheriting the family namesake, too. The young princess' full name is Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, a clear tribute to both her grandmother and great-grandmother, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II, respectively.

Just as Princess Diana did, Princess Charlotte has had the experience of her title changing multiple times. When Princess Diana married then-Prince Charles, she became Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, as well as Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, among others. As noted, after her divorce, Princess Diana was stripped of her HRH status and was known officially as Diana, Princess of Wales. Princess Charlotte has held the titles Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cornwall and Cambridge, and Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Wales. It's likely that Princess Charlotte's title will change again as she undergoes life changes and the royal dynamics within her family shift.

From the outside, princesses live charmed lives, living in literal palaces and wearing dazzling jewels. But they also face tremendous pressure from both the outside world and their own families. Princess Diana certainly felt the weight from external forces. "I didn't like myself. I was ashamed because I couldn't cope with the pressures," Diana revealed in her infamous Panorama interview (via PBS). "I felt compelled to perform." The royal also felt pressure when she was pregnant. "William had to be induced because I couldn't handle the press pressure any longer, it was becoming unbearable. It was as if everyone was monitoring every day for me," she said as documented in Andrew Morton's book "Diana: Her True Story." Even before giving birth, Diana faced the age-old pressure of becoming pregnant to carry on the royal bloodline.

Pressure is something Princess Charlotte will become well-acquainted with if she isn't already. While she's below her older brother, Prince George, in the line of succession, Charlotte still has plenty of impending responsibility through her position, and her family is reportedly already working to give her and her younger brother more importance than spares have had in generations past to alleviate some of George's future obligations. "[The royal family has] to think about George's feelings in relation to his siblings. George has all this pressure," royal expert Christopher Andersen told Us Weekly. "He has these two siblings who can help him — who can ease some of the pressure and share some of the burden."

The general population is fascinated by royals. "We all have dreams of wealth and fame and happiness and style and social influence and so on," psychologist Dr. Frank Farley told Time of the public obsession with royals. "Royals and other people, like Hollywood figures and Kardashian types, keep that phenomenon alive." That obsession extends to anyone associated with the royals, but it's mostly concentrated on those in the immediate family, like Princess Charlotte. In September 2023, the world gobbled up details about Charlotte's return to school as outlets reported on her life as a student. When the princess turned 9, the photo her parents posted of her to Instagram received over a million likes and thousands of comments. The interest in Charlotte is likely to only grow as she ages.

That intrigue is not unlike the public interest in Diana, though it's not quite as intense. As noted, the late princess was incredibly popular — she had a Beanie Baby made in her memory after her death — but even people who weren't necessarily fans were interested in what she was doing. Footage of Diana was so popular that a photo of her taken just months before her death made history for being the most expensive paparazzi photo ever sold at a whopping $6 million. The extreme interest in Diana became very dark in her final days, and the media has been blamed in part for the princess' death. To this day, Princess Diana is still a figure of massive interest, even garnering the attention and admiration of people who weren't even born until after the royal died.

If for some strange reason Princess Charlotte stops exhibiting so many similarities to her grandmother, she'll always have at least one thing in common: access to incredible jewels. As a royal, Princess Diana had an unbelievable collection of jewelry. Among the pieces were Diana's stunning sapphire engagement ring which now belongs to Princess Catherine, an amethyst cross necklace purchased by Kim Kardashian at auction in 2023, and multiple parures made of exquisite gemstones. Charlotte already has a collection of stunning pieces, including a silver braid headpiece by Collett x Alexander McQueen that she wore for her grandfather's coronation.

Charlotte is also set to inherit some of Diana's jewels, namely the Spencer tiara. The tiara was put on display for a bit in London in 2022, and a card next to it detailed some of its incredible history. "In the mid-1970s, John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer, inherited the tiara. It was subsequently worn by all three of his daughters at their wedding: Lady Jane in 1978; Lady Sarah in 1980; and finally, Lady Diana the following year, in 1981," the card read, as reported by Hello! "The tiara was most recently worn by Celia McCorquodale — niece of the 10th Earl Spencer Charles — at her wedding in the Spring of 2018. The Spencer Tiara is now set to be inherited by Princess Charlotte." Many suspect that Charlotte will also inherit the aforementioned sapphire engagement ring after her mother, Catherine.