'Look, subjects, no hands!'
July 20, 2014The photograph of Prince George, taken a few weeks ago during a visit to London's Natural History Museum, shows him walking without assistance. The young prince is to turn one year old on Tuesday.
Photographer John Stillwell said the potential future king was "very lively and very sure of himself and confident - a determined young boy."
Celebrity magazine Vanity Fair splashed the image onto its cover, calling the babe a "media star, style icon and PR triumph," and also the world's "most eligible infant."
The prince, who has led a largely sheltered life apart from a recent visit to Australia and New Zealand, is to spend his birthday at home with close family and friends. One of his presents is to be off the menu for the youngster on Tuesday.
"One thing George will be receiving is a magnum of red wine from the Otago Valley in New Zealand, which the couple visited in April," Royal expert Katie Nicholl told the AFP news agency. "It will be laid down in the cellar at Kensington Palace until he turns 18."
George is third in line to the British throne, after his grandfather Prince Charles and his father Prince William. The first, and currently the only child of William and his wife Kate Middleton, George was born in St. Mary's Hospital, London, on July 22, 2013.
msh/pfd (AFP, dpa)