Kate Middleton Breaks Silence with Personally Signed Message—and a Brand-New Photo with Her 3 Kids

After months away from the spotlight as she recovers from abdominal surgery, Kate Middleton has broken her silence with a personally signed message. And she did so in a social media post alongside a brand-new photo of herself posing with her three kids.

On Sunday morning, the official Instagram account of the Prince and Princess of Wales shared the never-before-seen photo featuring Princess Catherine, 42, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5. The post came in honor of the U.K. version of Mother’s Day (which falls on a different day than the U.S. version).

The photo features the princess seated and surrounded by her children, who are all smiling. It’s easy to imagine why they might be smiling so large, as the person behind the camera is none other than their father, Prince William, 41. Seems like the Prince of Wales is taking a photography page out of his wife’s book after all these years.

The message accompanying the post read, “Thank you for your kind wishes and continued support over the last two months. Wishing everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.”

How do we know this was a personal message from the princess herself and not a royal aide? She signed the message with her initial, “C”. And how do we know the prince was the photographer? The message gave him photo credit of course.