The Emotional Way William & Kate Told George About His ‘Destiny’ as the Future King—They Waited ‘Until the Last Possible Moment’
If there’s something we’ve known since the beginning with the British royal family is that William will be King after Charles, whenever that is, and after him, it will be George. We knew that before George was even born. Succession is what it is. But it is perhaps hard to consider that this isn’t something Prince George himself knew or understood and that at some point this had to be explained to him. So how exactly did his parents break it all down?
“He really has had a period of a normal childhood,” royal author Robert Lacey told People about the way Prince William and Kate Middleton handled it. “William deliberately delayed this news until the last possible moment. It shows special care and thoughtfulness — it also tells us something about how William felt about the weight of the crown,” he added.
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Despite the fact that Prince George, who is now 12, is the heir to the throne after his father, he has had a mostly quiet childhood away from the spotlight. So have his siblings, Princess Charlotte, who is 10, and Prince Louis, who is 7.
“William takes his role as father of the future King as seriously as he takes his role as future King. That’s key,” said royal biographer Robert Hardman. “His overarching priority is making sure they enjoy it rather than fear it.”
Experts have also discussed the possibility of George becoming heir to the throne before finishing school. King Charles is, after all, still battling cancer, and as Prince Harry himself has said, there’s no telling how much time he has left. Insiders believe that if this were to happen, William would delay bestowing the Prince of Wales title on George until he was older.
“They would want him to focus on having freedom before giving him any royal titles,” the source said.
For Lacey, it’s also about the framing of it all. “I imagine that when William talks to George about things like this, he uses words like ‘destiny’ rather than ‘duty.’ ‘Duty’ has a sense of being trapped; ‘destiny’ has a sense of choice,” he said. By all reports, Prince George is a really happy child who doesn’t seem at all bogged down by what is expected of him in the future.
William and Kate have always tried to raise their kids in a more modern fashion. That includes sending the three of them to the same, co-ed school, unlike what he and Harry attended. “That chimes with William wanting to do things in a more modern way, putting all three children in the same school,” royal author Sally Bedell Smith says. “It’s a new direction — groundbreaking for the royal family.”
In some respects, however, tradition won’t be broken. Now that he’s 12, Prince George can reportedly not travel alongside his father anymore. A former royal helicopter pilot shared that the same thing happened to Prince William when he turned 12.
“Interestingly, we flew all four–the Prince, the Princess, Prince William and Prince Harry, up until Prince William was 12 years old,” he said. “After that, he had to have a separate aircraft and we could only fly all four together when they were young with the written permission of Her Majesty. When William became 12, he would fly normally in a 125 from Northolt and we would fly the 146 out with the other three on.”
So, things are changing for Prince George as he gets older. That much cannot be put off. But his parents are hoping he gets to enjoy being a kid for a little while longer.
