Princess Charlotte is following in Princess Diana's footsteps in the sweetest way

Princess Charlotte has taken after her late grandmother, Princess Diana, in the sweetest way, as Princess Kate revealed that the two share a favourite hobby.

On Tuesday, for her second engagement of the day, the Princess of Wales carried out an official visit to Standfast & Barracks, now part of the Sanderson Design Group. As she left the printworks​ in Lancaster, she was given a bouquet of flowers and a hand-drawn picture of herself by seven-year-old Emily May Catto, who is the granddaughter of the firm's longest-serving worker, Pete Ellison.

Thanking Emily for the gifts, Kate asked the young girl what her favourite hobby was, with Emily responding that she loved "dancing". The princess revealed she shared this in common with her own daughter, Charlotte, saying: "My daughter Charlotte likes dancing, she loves ballet and tap. Keep up the dancing."

This is something that Charlotte also has in common with her grandmother, the late Princess Diana. During her childhood, Diana aspired to be a professional ballerina, but was rejected due to being too tall. As a royal, she became a patron of the English National Ballet.

Both Kate and Prince William have previously opened up about Charlotte's love of dance, with William sharing the news with former Maltese president Joseph Muscat back in 2018 and Kate saying that her young girl "loves" dance when talking to English National Ballet director Tamara Rojo in 2017.

You may also like

• Princess Charlotte given opportunity that mum Princess Kate missed out on

Diana loved dance so much that she put on a surprise display at London's Royal Opera House back in December 1985 alongside professional dancer Wayne Sleep, who spoke to HELLO! about the experience.

In an interview back in 2021, he explained: "I walked in and I looked up at this towering sort of goddess above me and I thought: 'This Isn't going to work; it'll be hysterically funny'. Then I said: 'You know, I've been up very late last night. Do you mind if I sit down?' And she said: 'No, not at all, you naughty boy.' From that moment, we started giggling and laughing.

"We had the same schoolboy humour. I was her sort-of jester, in a way, but we did get on incredibly well. We had something that clicked. She had natural style. She could do the high kick, she could do a pirouette and she had lovely swinging hips."

He added: "She had that thing called charisma. She was charismatic and even when she spoke with that very quiet voice, it was something that pulled you in and you just wanted to embrace her all the time."

SHOP: Princess Kate's affordable chunky gold necklace is the ultimate cool-girl accessory

PHOTOS: 13 of Princess Diana's sweetest moments with her boys William and Harry

When asked whether she would have continued pursuing dance if she was still alive, he joked: "She'd probably be teaching me how to keep my shoulders down and would be looking on Google to see what I was up to and if I was being naughty."

LISTEN: Princess Charlotte's academic future and why she might not follow in mum Kate's footsteps