Kate Middleton and Prince William told Prince George he will one day be King ‘around his seventh birthday’ and began to explain what his life of ‘service and duty’ will involve, royal author claims
- Robert Lacey says wanted son to have more normal life for as long as possible
- ‘Four monarchs’ photo taken without George understanding its significance
- Went into more detail about son’s life of future royal ‘service and duty’ last year
Prince William and Kate Middleton told Prince George about his future role as King of England ‘sometime around his seventh birthday’, a royal author has claimed.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge previously held off on discussing their eldest son’s ‘life of future royal service and duty’ to give him a ‘normal family upbringing’.
Prince George, who joined his father and sister Princess Charlotte, six, on Sunday to kick off a half marathon on the Sandringham estate, turned seven in July last year.
In a new chapter of his updated book Battle of Brothers, released today, royal author Robert Lacey told how William and Kate, both 39, wanted to broach the subject at a ‘controlled moment of their choice’.
Prince George, who joined his father and sister Princess Charlotte, six, on Sunday to kick off a half marathon on the Sandringham estate, turned seven in July last year
‘William has not revealed to the world how and when he broke the big news to his son. Maybe one day George will tell us the story himself. But sometime around the boy’s seventh birthday in the summer of 2020 it is thought that his parents went into more detail about what the little prince’s life of future royal “service and duty” would particularly involve,’ he wrote.
‘William’s aim as a father, the prince stressed, was to give his son “a normal family upbringing”, enabling the monarchy “to stay relevant and keep up with modern times”.’
He added that the couple’s decision to sit their firstborn down and speak frankly at a moment of their choosing reflected ‘William’s unhappiness at the haphazard fashion in which the whole business of his royal destiny had buzzed around his head from the start’.
If the conversation did indeed take place around his seventh birthday, it means Prince George did not know he was a future king when he posed in the ‘Four Monarchs’ photograph of December 2019 alongside the Queen, 95, his father William and grandfather Prince Charles, 72.
Prince William and Kate Middleton told Prince George about his future role as King of England ‘sometime around the boy’s seventh birthday’, according to royal author Robert Lacey
This suggestion has previously been made by an insider who discussed the subject with Kensington Palace sources, who declined to confirm or deny its truth.
‘The prince had been placed on a rep-carpeted step in order to bring him up closer to the level of his great-grandmother,’ Lacey reflected in his book about the photograph.
‘What a fascinating and historic image to remind us of the essence of the royal system! The current monarch with three future monarchs. All the living heirs – and not a suggestion of a “spare”.
‘According to insiders, this formal photograph, taken in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room a week before Christmas 2019, was the idea of Prince Charles, anxious to promote his cause of the “slimmed-down monarchy”.’
If the conversation did indeed take place around his seventh birthday, it means Prince George did not know he was a future king when he posed in the ‘Four Monarchs’ photograph of December 2019 alongside the Queen, 95, his father William and grandfather Prince Charles, 72
Last year a royal expert claimed George knows he’s ‘very different’ from his siblings because he’s often ‘singled out’ to spend time with his great-grandmother and his grandfather Charles.
Royal commentator Katie Nicholl claims this exclusion from Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, three, means George ‘understands that he’s different from them’ – despite the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s efforts to treat their children as equals.
Despite George being third-in-line to the throne, they aren’t raising him to be spoilt or get special treatment, Katie told OK magazine.