It’s not every day you get confused with royalty, but it seems 14-month-old Leila Grenside’s family will be telling her this story for many years to come.
In a case of mistaken identity, baby Leila’s photo has circulated around the world with a caption mistaking her for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first-born son.
For days the world’s media believed the 14-month-old, pictured above, was his royal cuteness, Prince George, with publications including The Sun, The Mirror and Hello! mistakenly naming little Leila as the Prince.
It was first thought the woman accompanying the fair-haired baby in the photograph, Leila’s mum, was Prince George’s Spanish nanny.
“It’s hilarious,” Leila’s mum Jessica Nickelsen told the New Zealand Herald.
“I love it that nobody thought, ‘This is a child wearing a bright yellow dress’ as opposed to what [George] had been seen in moments earlier,” she said.
Leila is in fact New Zealand Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae’s niece and was there to watch William and Catherine be welcomed at a traditional ceremony at Government House.
Ms Nickelsen said she took her daughter to the Governor-General’s private apartment so they wouldn’t disrupt the royal engagement.
“All we saw was the roped-off media area and just assumed everybody’s attention was on William and Kate and the procession,” she said.
While Prince George and little Leila share the same short hair and similar colouring, Ms Nickelsen found the whole situation hilarious.
“We just had a giggle, but it’s very bizarre. I don’t know if we should nickname her Prince George any time soon, but it’ll be a neat story for her when she’s a bit older,” she said.
Related video: Royals meet bare-bottomed Maori dancers.
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