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Kate Middleton and Prince Louis on May 8, 2023
It turns out that 7-year-old Prince Louis is quite the collector—though what he’s collecting might surprise most.

His mom Kate Middleton took part in a joint engagement alongside U.S. First Lady Melania Trump on September 18, with both women visiting Frogmore Gardens in Windsor to learn more about the work of the Scouts, which the Princess of Wales has been joint president of since 2020. During the visit, as the two women mingled with children, at one table the kids pressed ink leaves onto paper and added their illustrations. Kate then turned to Chief Scout Dwayne Fields and told him (per Hello!) that her youngest’s current obsession is collecting conkers—the round, brown, shiny seed of a horse chestnut tree that falls in autumn and can be found in a distinctive spiky, green case. (You’d know ‘em if you saw ‘em.)

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Prince Louis and Kate Middleton
“We keep finding conkers in cupboards, in his bed—conkers everywhere!” the future queen told a smiling Fields. The Princess of Wales added that Louis even puts conkers in his toy trucks and plays with them.

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Prince Louis and Kate Middleton on May 5, 2025

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Kate Middleton and Prince Louis on July 14, 2023
Kate sweetly brought a remnant of her country home, Anmer Hall, with her to the visit on Thursday, serving up oat and cranberry biscuits made with honey harvested by Kate herself. (The First Lady also brought along honey from the White House for good measure.) The two women also made bug hotels with the kids, with Kate saying to one young boy, “I like bees—do you think bees will come into your hotel?” She also asked “Where can they make their honey?” to which the boy pointed to the bottom of the cardboard hotel and said, “Down here.”

The First Lady also gave all of the kids—who are part of the Scouts’ Squirrels program and range in age from 4 to 6—a neckerchief as a gift. In response, Hello! reported, Fields gave her a neckerchief of her own to take back to the United States.

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Kate Middleton and Melania Trump on September 18, 2025
“Having someone with the profile of the Princess of Wales as joint president, you can imagine it’s incredible for the young people to see her,” Fields said, per The Mirror. “I think it’s a great thing to have her shine a light on the movement.”

Kate has opened up in the past—like on the “Happy Mum, Happy Baby” podcast in 2020—that she loves time with her family, especially when they’re “outside in the countryside, and we’re all filthy dirty.”

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Prince Louis and Kate Middleton on June 5, 2022

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Prince Louis and Kate Middleton on December 25, 2023
“That’s what I would want them to remember—those moments with me as a mother, but also the family going to the beach, getting soaking wet, filling our boots full of water—those are what I would want them to remember,” she said. “Not a stressful household where you’re trying to do everything and not really succeeding at one thing.”