Prince William Made Princess Charlotte’s ‘Dream Come True’

Prince William pulled the ultimate dad move, which had Princess Charlotte “grinning from ear to ear” this month as the 9-year-old princess was photographed meeting Taylor Swift.

William took his two eldest children—Prince George and Princess Charlotte—to the opening night of Swift’s Eras Tour shows at Wembley Stadium in London on June 21, which was also the future king’s 42nd birthday.

After the show, both Kensington Palace and Swift uploaded photographs taken during a special backstage meeting between the royals and the pop star, who was accompanied by her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

Newsweek chief royal correspondent Jack Royston said on The Royal Report podcast that it was clearly a significant moment for Charlotte and linked to an experience Princess Diana gave William when he was a teenager.

“It’s been a really, really tough six months for the Wales family, but it does seem like things are looking up. And so as spring has come in Britain and the flowers are in bloom, they too have kind of come out of the darkness, and here they are living their best lives, having a great time,” Royston said of the show, referencing Princess Kate’s cancer diagnosis this year, and the positive update on her treatment released earlier this month.

“There was something I thought looking at all the social media of them at the concert because they posed for pictures with Taylor and with Travis; and actually, there was one picture that was taken by Williams team, but there was also one that Taylor took herself, and she posted it,” Royston said.

“Obviously, they all got millions and millions and millions of views, and it just really felt like William made Charlotte’s dream come true.”

“I think it made George’s dream come true as well,” he added. “But Charlotte, just in particular, looked so happy. She was absolutely grinning from ear to ear, and it just really reminded me of Diana introducing William to all his teenage crushes.”

Newsweek reached out to Kensington Palace via email for comment.

Royston recounted a story told by William during a 2017 interview about his childhood and fond memories of his mother to mark the 20th anniversary of her death.

The princess had organized for three famous supermodels to greet William one day on his return home from school, leaving him (like Charlotte) “awe-struck.”

“She organized when I came home from school to have Cindy Crawford, Christie Turlington and Naomi Campbell waiting at the top of the stairs,” he said in the Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy documentary.

“I was probably a 12 or 13-year-old boy who had posters of them on his wall, and I went bright red and didn’t quite know what to say and sort of fumbled. I think I pretty much fell down the stairs on the way up. I was completely and utterly awe-struck.”

“Hopefully, Charlotte didn’t feel the need to be quite so embarrassed,” Royston said. “But just think how much every other kid at that concert would have loved to get that selfie with Taylor…I think William is definitely as a dad making his kids dreams come true. And very lucky they are, too.”

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek‘s royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

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