As Kate Middleton and Prince William balance raising their kids and training their eldest son Prince George, 12, for his future role as king of England, they are reportedly “very concerned” about one aspect of parenting.
On a new episode of Daily Mail’s Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, royal insider Robert Hardman said that William and Kate are “very conscious” of making sure their youngest kids Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7, don’t feel “less loved or relevant” than Prince George, so they don’t grow up with “resentment” from being “spares.”
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“Of course, Prince George is the heir, and that’s the way it’s going to be,” Hardman said. “It’s a hereditary, hierarchical, constitutional monarchy. You can’t change that. But there are ways, I think, in which you can try and ensure that you don’t leave the younger ones feeling they are any less loved or any less relevant. They’re just going to have to accept their career path is going to be different.”
Prince William, Prince George, Kate Middleton, Prince Louis, and Princess Charlotte
One example of what not to do is to raise your kids like Princess Margaret was raised. The late royal was “subjected to a series of slights” throughout her life as the younger sister of the late Queen Elizabeth II, according to Hardman. This created a “rebellious streak” in Margaret that “was very tough.”
“On the one hand, she was expected to dress like her older sister. To look like her and do the same things,” Hardman said. “But from an early age [there were differences]. Elizabeth got a proper education. She gets history lessons from Sir Henry Martin at Eton, Margaret doesn’t. Elizabeth gets to wear a uniform and serve in the war, Margaret doesn’t. She got to have her own household and do engagements, Margaret doesn’t. These are things that Margaret resents really all through her life. They do, I think, account for the rebellious streak in her that was there all the way until her death in 2002.”
Unlike Princess Margaret, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis seem to get to do the same things as their older brother, even attending the same school and going to many of the same royal appearances. It’s clear that the Waleses treat their children as equally as possible, which should help protect them as they get older.
Royal biographer Christopher Andersen recently speculated on how the Waleses are doing the whole “heir and spare” thing differently from past generations. He told Harper’s Bazaar in September that William and Kate “pretty much lavish equal attention on all three [of their kids], while at the same time nurturing their distinct and different personalities.”
“[T]he good thing is that Charlotte and Louis can share the burden [as spares], if one wishes to call it that,” Andersen continued.
Nobody should be made to feel less than another sibling, even in royal families, and it’s so refreshing to see how much William and Kate care about making a difference in their kids.
Before you go, check out Prince William’s most endearing dad moments.
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