Royal commentator Duncan Larcombe pointed out the unique challenge George faces: “How do you explain it to a 12-year-old? Their closeness will be invaluable as George tries to process the fact he isn’t quite normal. He’s going to be king, he will be front page news all his life. That would be hard for anyone to get their head around, let alone a boy of his age.”

The King’s Concerns Before George Was Born

George’s future is also closely tied to the present. With King Charles undergoing treatment for cancer in 2024, William is already stepping into a more prominent role as heir. Nicholl noted that the crown has “never felt closer” to William than it does now. While he naturally wants his father to reign for many more years, she said William is “absolutely prepared” for the moment he must become king.

Charles himself reportedly had concerns about the monarchy’s future even before George was born in July 2013. According to Valentine Low’s book Power and the Palace, the then-Prince of Wales worried about the implications if William and Kate’s first child were a girl.

Just months before George’s birth, the Succession to the Crown Bill was passed, ending centuries of male-preference primogeniture and ensuring that daughters could not be overtaken in the line of succession by younger brothers. This is why Prince Louis did not leapfrog Princess Charlotte after his birth.

Still, Low wrote that Charles had questions about the royal house name of Windsor, which could theoretically change if a future queen married outside the family line. He was also said to be concerned about what would happen if a reigning queen married a Catholic, given the monarch’s role as head of the Church of England.

For now, those questions remain hypothetical. But what is certain is that George’s future is already being shaped by the careful planning of his parents — a slow, deliberate introduction to public life, designed to balance duty with as much normality as a future king can possibly have.