Proof Prince George Is Taking His Future-King Status Seriously

But while a priority was to keep their routines as normal as possible, outings can take a turn for the extraordinary, such as when William brought George, Charlotte and Louis to Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour show at Wembley Stadium last June.

With Travis Kelce deeming their dad “the coolest motherf–king dude” (on his podcast, not to their face) and calling it “an absolute delight” to meet them, last summer was far from cruel.

Yet seeing George in his natty threads alongside his father at the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship in Berlin as they chatted with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer last July was a reminder that the family always has a job to do—and the young prince remains on the executive path.

Meanwhile, sporting events are certainly a clever way to start injecting official responsibility into a tween-age boy’s schedule. Especially when there’s pizza.

But William and George embarked long ago on what’s turning out to be a golden era for mini-me ensembles and a key chapter of their respective royal educations.

“Kate and William are becoming more comfortable with that,” royal correspondent Sharon Carpenter observed to E! News ahead of the event, which was watched by an estimated 400 million people. “A big part of their mission as parents was to make sure their kids have as normal a childhood as possible. And when deciding what role, or if he should even have a role, at the coronation, there was a lot of back and forth.”

And while that test—which he passed with flying Union Jack colors—didn’t necessarily signal full speed ahead for George, he is at the age at which his future career is going to be playing more of a role in his day-to-day.

So it’s a good thing his mom taught him how to knot his own tie. But though a corner office has already been reserved for George at The Firm, no one is handing over the key to the executive washroom just yet.

Rather, his next hurdle to clear is Year 8—his final year of prep school—at Lambrook in Berkshire, where he, Charlotte and Louis all started in September 2022, the Wales family relocating to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor to be nearby. (Previously George and Charlotte attended Thomas’s Battersea in South London, making him the first in the Wales line of the family to go to a co-ed school before university.)

“Stability at home is so important to me,” William, who along with brother Prince Harry attended boarding school from the age of 8, told British GQ in 2017. “I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world, and that is so important to both of us as parents. I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls, he has to be out there. The media make it harder but I will fight for them to have a normal life.”

Born in 1982, William didn’t even really know that he was second in line to the throne until other kids asked him about it at school, his parents wanting him to focus on the business of being a kid. Diana would tell him that all those photographers just wanted pictures of her and to pay them no mind.

Charles, whose grandfather King George VI was on the throne when he was born in 1948, also had no real idea of his place in the monarchy until he was a bit older and realized why people were so interested in everything he did.

“I think it’s something that dawns on you with the most ghastly inexorable sense,” Charles said in an interview on the occasion of his 21st birthday in 1969. “And slowly you get the idea that you have a certain duty and responsibility.”

Following his split from Diana in 1992, he felt “very strongly” that then 10-year-old William and 8-year-old Harry “should be protected as much as possible from being dragged from pillar to post,” saying, per biographer Sally Bedell Smith, “I don’t want them to do too many official things until they have to.”

But George and Charlotte so far seem to take after their parents when it comes to looking at ease in front of a crowd.

“While William and Kate are keen to shield them from too much public scrutiny and press attention,” Vanity Fair royal editor Katie Nicholl wrote in her 2022 book The New Royals, “the children are now at an age where the know how to behave in front of the cameras”—Charlotte’s occasional cheek aside—”and they are aware of the importance of their parents’ roles supporting the Queen and the monarchy.”

The book obviously went to press before the queen died Sept. 8, 2022, at the age of 96, but the sentiment handily translates to the family’s current status, George, dad and grandpa all having moved up a rung on the gilded ladder.

“I think royal duty is extremely important,” William told the BBC in 2016. “It’s part of the fabric of what the royal family and any future monarch has. I take my responsibilities very seriously. But it’s about finding your own way at the right time and if you’re not careful duty can sort of weigh you down an awful lot at a very early age, and I think you’ve got to develop into the duty role.”

At least for those who are asked to start doing their part at an early age, there’s pizza. At which time George’s main objective should just be to avoid getting sauce on his blazer.

Revisit Prince George’s cutest moments through the years: