It’s starting to look like a fruitful year in royal baby land as the Crown Princess of Tonga gives birth to her fourth child and third daughter.
Crown Princess Sinaitakala gave birth to a baby girl at the Calvary Hospital in Canberra, Australia, on 25 February. The little girl was born at 5.41 P.M (7.41 P.M Tongan time). The Palace Office in Nuku’alofa announced that she had been named Princess Salote Mafile’o Pilolevu. The name Salote is no doubt in honour of Queen Sālote Tupou III, who reigned from 1918 to her death in 1965 and is Tonga’s longest-reigning monarch to date.
Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala and his wife Crown Prince Sinaitakala are double second cousins and were married on 12 July 2021. The Crown Princess is also 27th in the line of succession in her own right. Their three other children are Prince Taufa’ahau Manumataongo (born 2013), Princess Halaevalu Mata’aho (born 2014) and Princess Nanasipau’u Eliana (born 2018).
The new baby Princess is the fourth grandchild of King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u, and she is fifth in the line of succession, behind her father and elder siblings. Tonga’s succession is based on male-preference primogeniture, which means that Princess Salote and her two elder sisters could be displaced by the birth of a younger brother.
