NEED TO KNOW
\nThe late Queen Elizabeth once made an observation about Prince George and Princess Charlotte, hinting at their sibling dynamicPrince William and Kate Middleton’s two eldest children’s bond has already been seen at royal eventsGeorge and Charlotte could end up having a relationship similar to that of King Charles and his younger sister, Princess Anne<\/p>\n
The late Queen Elizabeth<\/a> rarely spoke publicly about her family life; however, one astute observation about two of her great-grandchildren \u2014 Prince George<\/a> and Princess Charlotte<\/a> \u2014 may prove prescient for their royal futures.\n<\/p>\n At a church service in Sandringham in January 2018, the Queen was speaking with Ellen Clay, a mother of two daughters, as she gifted the elder, Emily, a Bible. Hello!<\/a> reported that the Queen asked Ellen if Emily “looked after” her younger sister, Hadleigh, and the mother answered that it was “the other way around.”\n<\/p>\n The Queen replied, “It’s like that with Charlotte and George.”\n<\/p>\n Ellen’s husband, Tom, recalled, “The Queen was implying that Charlotte keeps an eye out for George rather than the other way around. It is often the case that a younger child is more confident. It is second child syndrome.”\n<\/p>\n Prince George and Princess Charlotte at the “Together At Christmas” Carol Service at Westminster Abbeyon Dec. 5, 2025.<\/p>\n Aaron Chown\/POOL\/AFP via Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n The monarch’s observation matched a comment made by George and Charlotte’s mother, Kate Middleton<\/a>, when her daughter was just 2.\n<\/p>\n At a March 2017 event, the then-Duchess of Cambridge told a fellow attendee, “Charlotte is growing up really fast. She is the one in charge.”\n<\/p>\n As the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children have grown, the Queen’s observation seems to have remained true. Princess Charlotte went viral for reminding Prince George to bow <\/a>during the Queen’s funeral procession in September 2022, showing her confidence when it came to royal protocol.\n<\/p>\n George and Charlotte could end up having a relationship similar to that of King Charles<\/a> and his younger sister, Princess Anne<\/a>. The age difference between the two is the same, two years, and the brother-sister bond may help allay a more competitive dynamic.\n<\/p>\n Princess Anne has been a reliable senior royal for many years, earning a reputation as the family’s hardest-working royal, taking on patronages, royal tours, investiture ceremonies and more. Despite being below her younger brothers in the line of succession due to male-preference primogeniture rules, which have since changed, Anne has always seemed to be a steady presence for her older brother.\n<\/p>\n King Charles and Princess Anne attend Trooping the Colour on June 15, 2023.<\/p>\n Victoria Jones\/Getty<\/p>\n While King Charles\u00a0topped his sister in 2025<\/a>, racking up the highest number of engagements for the year, Anne’s contributions are still notable and numerous. If the late Queen was right, Princess Charlotte may find herself as a similar source of support when her big brother becomes king someday.\n<\/p>\n Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter<\/a> to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!\u00a0\n<\/p>\n It’s that kind of supportive bond that Princess Diana<\/a> famously hoped would flourish between her sons, Prince William<\/a> and Prince Harry<\/a>, as they grew, leaving royal experts to lament how heartbroken the late Princess of Wales would be to see her boys estranged.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe all remember the days when Harry and William were joshing with one another, and it all seemed set for their relationship and the future \u2014 that Harry, as Diana always used to say, would be William\u2019s wingman,\u201d Diana\u2019s biographer Andrew Morton told PEOPLE<\/a> for an August 2025 cover story. \u201cIt\u2019s a great loss for the monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cDiana always\u00a0used to say she had two boys for a reason \u2014 the younger would be there to support the older in the\u00a0lonely task as future King. There is no doubt Diana\u00a0would have tried to act as a peacemaker between them. If she had been around, they would have worked things out in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW The late Queen Elizabeth once made an observation about Prince George and Princess Charlotte, hinting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-114530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}