King Charles III was reportedly concerned about Prince William welcoming his first child. Before Prince George was born in 2013, the monarch feared Kate Middleton would give birth to a girl and what that would mean for succession after the crown moved away from male-preference primogeniture.
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According to royal expertValentine Low‘s new political book, Power and the Palace, King Charles III expressed concerns over Prince William and Kate Middleton’s firstborn being a female during a 2012 lunch with Richard Heaton, the former Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office. The monarch reportedly questioned if the House of Windsor would be renamed if a potential granddaughter who ascended the throne tied the knot and subsequently adopted her husband’s last name. Charles also expressed concern about a potential granddaughter ascending the throne and then marrying a Catholic and how that would affect the monarch’s role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
In July 2013, Prince William and Kate Middleton welcomed their first child, a son named Prince George, who is now second in line to the throne after his father. In May 2015, the couple’s second baby, a girl named Princess Charlotte, arrived. She’s now third in line to the throne after England moved away from male-preference primogeniture, placing her before her younger brother, Prince Louis, who arrived in April 2018.
Prince William and Kate Middleton have already begun preparing Prince George to one day become king of England. “It’s all part of a slow, incremental move towards his destiny. They’ve always been very clear about pacing it, not making the children do anything that puts them off the idea of being royal in the future. It’s a case of including him in things that he’ll enjoy, but that also touch on his life to come,” royal biographer Robert Hardmansaid.