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Future King Prince George Turns 10

Royal expert said ‘didn’t even know’ he was going to be king – and loves footie & trampolining,

Turning 10 is a big deal for any young boy—double digits, potentially a new school around the corner and those teenage years on the horizon.

But for Prince George, when he celebrates his 10th birthday on Saturday, it will mark the end of his most momentous year yet — and perhaps the end of childhood as he knew it.

In the past 12 months he has had to grow up fast, with the weight of destiny pressing ever firmer on those young shoulders.

George was front and centre of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last June, and the Buckingham Palace balcony photograph of a secure succession with all three heirs — Charles, William and George — was crucial to stabilising the monarchy’s reputation after a rather rocky period.

Then, in September, came the death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, when George had to step up, both at the Queen’s funeral and now as second-in-line to the throne.

All this in the same week he and his two siblings, Princess Charlotte, now eight, and Prince Louis, five, started a new school after the family moved home to Windsor from Kensington Palace.

But Fabulous can reveal that, in fact, George has been so protected by parents William and Kate, until relatively recently, he didn’t even realise he was heir to the throne.

In keeping with their determination to give their eldest son the most normal childhood possible, the Prince and Princess of Wales chose not to tell him that he would become King of England.

Special pictures, such as those of the Queen with Charles, William and George taken in the Buckingham Palace ballroom to mark the new decade in 2020, were explained to him as enabling “Gan-Gan” [the prince’s name for his great-grandmother] to have a nice family picture on her side table.

According to one friend of the family: “William and Kate wanted to protect the children as much as possible, particularly from the concept of them being royal and everything that entails.

“In effect, George did not really know he was royal. The Queen and then-Prince Charles were seen through the prism of family – as great-grandmother ‘Gan-Gan’, and grandfather ‘Pa’ – rather than their royal roles.

“At events like Trooping the Colour, George was told that Gan-Gan is a very special lady, very popular and well-loved, and that’s why all the family were with her to clap for her on the balcony.

“[They told him] anything ‘royal’, like the picture of the then-monarch and her three heirs in Buckingham Palace, was done for her.

“They did not tell him until relatively recently that he will, one day, be King. It was a delicate balance to protect his childhood and innocence.

“But also it meant explaining to him that his grandfather and father will die one day, which is a very tough concept for any child to grasp. It’s also very tricky for what it means for his siblings, Charlotte and Louis.”

Serving as a warning for the pressures the role can heap not just on the heir, but also the siblings, is the story of a young Harry and William where, according to their former protection officer, Harry taunted his older brother, saying: “You’ll be King, I won’t, so I can do what I want!”

William and Kate navigated this difficult tightrope for all three of their children by introducing things very, very slowly.

After those balcony appearances for Gan-Gan and Christmas walks to church at Sandringham, the first real official duty for George and Charlotte was on a walkabout at Cardiff Castle last June as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

George, then eight, looked visibly nervous as the family entered the castle, with William placing a reassuring hand on his son’s shoulder, while seven-year-old Charlotte, the more confident of the pair, quickly started accepting flowers and chatting to the crowds, just like her mum.

But it served as a useful introduction to royal life.

School has always provided a protective buffer for the young prince, too.

Aged four, he was enrolled at Thomas’s Battersea day school in south London, where he attended classes with the offspring of lawyers, doctors and bankers, rather than the scions of the aristocratic elite.

Turning 10 is a big deal for any young boy—double digits, potentially a new school around the corner and those teenage years on the horizon.

But for Prince George, when he celebrates his 10th birthday on Saturday, it will mark the end of his most momentous year yet — and perhaps the end of childhood as he knew it.

In the past 12 months he has had to grow up fast, with the weight of destiny pressing ever firmer on those young shoulders.

George was front and centre of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations last June, and the Buckingham Palace balcony photograph of a secure succession with all three heirs — Charles, William and George — was crucial to stabilising the monarchy’s reputation after a rather rocky period.

Then, in September, came the death of Britain’s longest-serving monarch, when George had to step up, both at the Queen’s funeral and now as second-in-line to the throne.

All this in the same week he and his two siblings, Princess Charlotte, now eight, and Prince Louis, five, started a new school after the family moved home to Windsor from Kensington Palace.

But Fabulous can reveal that, in fact, George has been so protected by parents William and Kate, until relatively recently, he didn’t even realise he was heir to the throne.

In keeping with their determination to give their eldest son the most normal childhood possible, the Prince and Princess of Wales chose not to tell him that he would become King of England.

Special pictures, such as those of the Queen with Charles, William and George taken in the Buckingham Palace ballroom to mark the new decade in 2020, were explained to him as enabling “Gan-Gan” [the prince’s name for his great-grandmother] to have a nice family picture on her side table.

According to one friend of the family: “William and Kate wanted to protect the children as much as possible, particularly from the concept of them being royal and everything that entails.

“In effect, George did not really know he was royal. The Queen and then-Prince Charles were seen through the prism of family – as great-grandmother ‘Gan-Gan’, and grandfather ‘Pa’ – rather than their royal roles.

“At events like Trooping the Colour, George was told that Gan-Gan is a very special lady, very popular and well-loved, and that’s why all the family were with her to clap for her on the balcony.

“[They told him] anything ‘royal’, like the picture of the then-monarch and her three heirs in Buckingham Palace, was done for her.

“They did not tell him until relatively recently that he will, one day, be King. It was a delicate balance to protect his childhood and innocence.

“But also it meant explaining to him that his grandfather and father will die one day, which is a very tough concept for any child to grasp. It’s also very tricky for what it means for his siblings, Charlotte and Louis.”

Serving as a warning for the pressures the role can heap not just on the heir, but also the siblings, is the story of a young Harry and William where, according to their former protection officer, Harry taunted his older brother, saying: “You’ll be King, I won’t, so I can do what I want!”

William and Kate navigated this difficult tightrope for all three of their children by introducing things very, very slowly.

After those balcony appearances for Gan-Gan and Christmas walks to church at Sandringham, the first real official duty for George and Charlotte was on a walkabout at Cardiff Castle last June as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.

George, then eight, looked visibly nervous as the family entered the castle, with William placing a reassuring hand on his son’s shoulder, while seven-year-old Charlotte, the more confident of the pair, quickly started accepting flowers and chatting to the crowds, just like her mum.

But it served as a useful introduction to royal life.

School has always provided a protective buffer for the young prince, too.

Aged four, he was enrolled at Thomas’s Battersea day school in south London, where he attended classes with the offspring of lawyers, doctors and bankers, rather than the scions of the aristocratic elite.

There, he was treated the same as every other pupil (albeit with two Metropolitan police protection officers stationed discreetly in a room down the corridor), and his teachers went to great lengths to ensure he had little idea of his status.

There was no fuss – he was just “George” and enjoyed nothing more than a kickabout with his friends in the playground.

Mum Kate threw herself into school life with gusto, attending cake sales, sports days and parents’ social events, and in turn the pupils and teachers protected young George and his privacy.

Both Kate and William were at pains to shield their son — a shy little boy, who followed in his father’s footsteps with a love of football — from strict formality and public glare as much as possible, so decided not to send him to boarding school at the age eight, unlike his father and grandfather.

Prince Charles was brought up by nannies and governesses, and famously didn’t see his parents for six months when they went on a tour of the Commonwealth when he was four years old.

He was sent to board at Cheam School, and was utterly miserable and homesick.

The late-Queen recalled how he “shuddered” with apprehension as he journeyed there on his first day, while his sister Princess Anne said: “He was heartbroken. He used to cry [writing] in his letters and say: ‘I miss you’.”

But it is also a reaction against William’s own childhood which, thanks to Princess Diana’s insistence that her boys remained “grounded”, was played out largely in the public gaze, with cameras following every family outing, from theme parks to travelling on the London Underground.

The latest generation of royals seem to be brought up much like Kate was herself – in idealised, middle-class privilege.

Kate and William have created for their children an enviable world of campfires, exploring forests and running wild on beaches, while being on-hand to help keep them safe and protected.

Kate herself described how she wanted her children to look back on their early years in a rare interview on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast three years ago.

“Is it that I’m sitting down trying to do their maths and spelling homework over the weekend?” she told host Giovanna Fletcher.

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