Princess Kate and Prince William have employed the services of Millie Pilkington for many years, with some of her pictures now going public.

Ever since Princess Kate married into the Royal Family, she has been keen to give fans a glimpse into her and Prince William’s family life with charming portraits released for special occasions.

For events such as Mother’s and Father’s Day and their children’s birthdays the couple post a new picture to their social media, often a less formal and more relaxed take on royal life.

While many of these images are taken by Kate herself, her private photographer Millie Pilkington has been a firm favourite of the Prince and Princess of Wales ever since their wedding in 2011.

For their big day thirteen years ago Kate and William’s official photographer was Hugo Burnard, who had previously worked for King Charles and Queen Camilla.

However Ms Pilkington was picked by the couple themselves to take pictures for their own personal album, with one of her stunning black and white images of the day being shared for the first time to celebrate their anniversary last month.

Based in Dorset, Ms Pilkington began working on her photography full-time after she got married in 2000, with her speciality being wedding and children’s portraits.

She came to the attention of the Middleton family when Kate’s mum Carole hired her to take pictures for her business Party Pieces, which she has since sold.

This was likely when she was first introduced to Kate, who then asked her to take pictures of her wedding. Ms Pilkington described the day to Sheerluxe.com, saying: “If I had to describe it in three words, that day was surreal, magical and terrifying! And the most incredible honour – I still struggle to believe I was there.”