KATE and Wills have handed a New Year’s gong to their long-serving nanny.
Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo has been handed a silver Royal Victorian Medal for services to the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The Spanish-born nanny has cared for George, Charlotte and Louis since joining the Royal Household in 2014.
She has often kept out of the limelight but joined the family on foreign tours and has been a major feature of their life and upbringing.
Maria lived with the Waleses in London, but when they moved to Adelaide Cottage and then Forest Lodge in Windsor’s Home Park, she stopped being a live-in nanny.
She continues to care for the children while living at another property.
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Having trained at the prestigious Norland College in Bath, she was originally hired to look after Prince George when he was eight months old.
She then went on to care for the Royal couple’s two younger children as well.
Despite keeping a low profile, Maria was spotted tending to the three children in her distinctive brown-and-white uniform during Pippa Middleton’s wedding in 2017.
Earlier this month she was seen in the back of Prince William’s car as the family returned from a festive lunch at Buckingham Palace.
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The Royal nanny, who was born in Madrid, is said to have been nicknamed ‘Santa’ – Spanish for saint – by her loved ones when she was younger.
Friends in her hometown Palencia in northern Spain have previously claimed she would have become a nun had she not ended up looking after children.