{"id":384389,"date":"2025-08-30T05:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384389\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:56:11","slug":"destiny-or-duty-why-prince-william-and-kate-middleton-waited-to-tell-prince-george-hell-be-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/384389\/","title":{"rendered":"Destiny or duty? Why Prince William and Kate Middleton waited to tell Prince George he’ll be King"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Robert Lacey, William and Kate chose to delay telling their firstborn about his royal \u2018destiny\u2019 until he was seven. \u2018William deliberately delayed this news<\/a> until the last possible moment,\u2019 Lacey told People<\/a>. \u2018It shows special care and thoughtfulness\u2014and it also tells us something about how William himself felt about the weight of the crown.\u2019<\/p>\n

According to the expert, the choice of words was as important as the timing. \u2018I imagine that when William talks to George about things like this, he uses words like \u2018destiny\u2019 rather than \u2018duty,\u2019\u2019 Lacey explained. \u2018\u2018Duty\u2019 has a sense of being trapped; \u2018destiny\u2019 has a sense of choice.\u2019<\/p>\n

Robert Hardman echoed this sentiment, emphasising the Prince of Wales<\/a>\u2019s dual role as both father and heir. \u2018William takes his role as father of the future King as seriously as he takes his role as future King. That\u2019s key. His overarching priority is making sure they enjoy it rather than fear it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Already, the signs of careful preparation (modern-day Prince training) are there. Third in line to the throne, Prince George played a starring role in his grandfather\u2019s Coronation as a page of honour, was on his best behaviour at Trooping the Colour and recently joined his parents at Wimbledon<\/a>. From rambunctious toddler to sensible big brother (setting a well-behaved example for Princess Charlotte<\/a> and Prince Louis<\/a>), the eldest of the Wales brood has certainly been through quite the evolution.<\/p>\n

Indeed, experts have noted that the Prince is being gradually prepared to take on a more public<\/a>-facing position as he grows up \u2013 and his parents are reportedly keen to train him in the royal way of life, without overwhelming him. During commemorations for the 80th anniversary of VE Day<\/a> in May, many fans were delighted to see the young royal carry out one of his most significant engagements to date, as he joined his parents at a tea party for veterans at Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

But with his new age comes new rules. Royal protocol dictates that once an heir turns twelve, they can no longer travel<\/a> on the same plane as the monarch \u2013 in case of disaster in the skies. Prince William<\/a> himself was subject to this rather sobering tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to Robert Lacey, William and Kate chose to delay telling their firstborn about his royal \u2018destiny\u2019 until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7714,7713,533,518,12,1761,2832,532,2831,7710,519,448,9321,7711,7712],"class_list":{"0":"post-384389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-catherine","10":"tag-catherine-middleton","11":"tag-kate-middleton","12":"tag-king-charles-iii","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-prince-george","15":"tag-prince-of-wales","16":"tag-prince-william","17":"tag-princess-of-wales","18":"tag-royal-families","19":"tag-royal-family","20":"tag-royals","21":"tag-the-princess-of-wales","22":"tag-uk-royal-family","23":"tag-william"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115116178292206082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}