Lady Louise Windsor Is the Royal Family's "Secret Weapon"

With Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepping away from royal duties and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice now happily married and starting their families, there’s been a bit of a vacuum of up-and-coming royals. But according to one royal expert, that may change soon: Enter, Lady Louise Windsor, granddaughter of the Queen, who is poised to take on a much bigger role in the family in the coming years.

You may remember Lady Louise as a flower girl at Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton, when she was just seven years old. The daughter of the Queen’s youngest son, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, has kept a fairly low profile over the years—mostly because, obviously, she was just a little kid. But people who tuned into the BBC documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers last week saw her talking about her late grandfather and noted how put-together and well-spoken the young royal has become since we all saw her last.

And according to royal expert Phil Dampier, she’s the next royal to watch. Speaking to the Telegraph, Dampier explained that Lady Louise is the royal family’s “secret weapon,” and “precisely the kind of person the Queen can rely on.” He even speculated that, when she turns 18 in November and will be eligible to accept an HRH title, Lady Louise might even take over some of the royal responsibilities the Queen had been carrying on: “There’s a huge workload there,” he said.

Lady Louise is also an accomplished carriage driver, a hobby that cemented her bond with her late grandfather, Prince Philip. In the documentary, according to Hello! Magazine, she talked about their relationship with the sport and each other, noting it was “lovely” but “slightly scary” to have him so involved in her carriage driving:

“[H]e invented the sport pretty much, but it's incredible to have learned first-hand from him and definitely made us closer, I think...After a competition, he would always ask how he went, his eyes would light up because he would get so excited when he talks about it."

Keep an eye out for Lady Louise, who seems ready to take on quite a legacy of her own.