Prince George lives in a palace (Kensington Palace) and his family has a country home (Anmer Hall). He also spends time at Balmoral and Buckingham Palace and Clarence House and every other royal property. None of this is shocking – he’s third in line to the throne, and of course he gets to spend time in all of the palaces. But apparently it’s worth noting that when George invites his friends over to the palace for a playdate, they have to be vetted by security? That’s not shocking in the least.
He may only be in his third year of school, but Prince George is already proving a popular pupil among his peers. The third in line to the throne, six, is attending £18,000-a-year school St Thomas’s Battersea, and returned to school after the summer holidays this month. And according to insiders the young royal has already invited ‘a few’ of his classmates back to Kensington Palace, with his parents Prince William, 37, and Kate Middleton, 37, said to be ‘delighted’ at how well he is settling in.
However the ‘wonderful’ play dates at the palace are reportedly more complicated than the average, as every visitor has to be security vetted. A source described to The Sun how George is ‘just like any other normal child’, adding: ‘It’s just that most schoolkids don’t go somewhere like Kensington Palace to see their friends out of lessons. It is wonderful for them – and their parents – to go to such a beautiful and historic palace and have the run of the place. But it does involve a bit more planning than a normal play date, as everyone visiting the palace has to be security vetted.’
This happened to the Obama daughters too, and I would imagine it happens to Barron Trump, if that child is even allowed to invite friends over to the White House. It’s not like the British protection squad or the Secret Service is doing some massive deep dive into all of a kid’s school friends and their parents. Isn’t it just a standard background check? They want to make sure that George’s friends’ parents are not violent criminals and the like. There’s probably someone vetting the parents for any kind of embarrassing PR connections too. Same thing would happen if George wanted to go to a friend’s house to play – protection officers would have to secure that home and run background checks on the family.
(All of which is just a reminder that everyone knew that Jeffrey Epstein was a major problem for Prince Andrew – Andrew’s protection officers had probably done background checks on Epstein and all of Andrew’s associates through Epstein. It was known, for years. And Andrew kept spending time with Epstein.)
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red, Kensington Palace.
Yeah, this seems like such a non-story, that I’m surprised it was written. Of course visitors to George’s private home have to be vetted.
I am curious now though about George going to other houses. If his best friend from school invites George to HIS house, I assume the RPOs would go with him? Would the house be checked out first? If so, would it have to be checked out/cleared every time he goes? I never thought about that aspect of it before (with George or anyone in a similar position, including the Obama girls.)
Wouldn’t it be like a sweep. Just going around to see the exits besides the front door, how many windows, etc….
I don’t know! I have no clue how it works lol. I guess you are probably right bc he goes lots of places that would just have the same procedure (like a restaurant or whatever.)
Well lets hope they’re better than the ones who vetted Epstein.
Makes sense but doesn’t seem news worthy. If kids had to be “vetted” in order to go to his school that would be different
Of course they have to be vetted. Any child who is in the public eye as much as George is needs to be protected, not just from terrorists and other evil-doers, but from the total nutters out there as well. Ask Tom Hiddleston about that.
Omg now I’m googling “Tom Hiddleston security” and finding nothing. Pls help.
Let me save this story for when prince harry and duchess Meghan get criticized for vetting King Archie friends.
Unfortunately you’re probably right
A non-story but it is interesting to think about the logistics of protecting the Royal kiddies. Wonder how it works if they’re invited to a classmate’s birthday party – do the parents have to hand over a guest list? I wonder if the school has to work closely with the RPOs on class trips.
I’m too lazy to google, but I wonder if Prince Charles “streamlining” the monarchy coincides with when Andrew went buck wild? Like, they eased up his POs and background checks and Andrew felt free to do whatever. It doesn’t matter in the lest WHY or HOW, he’s disgraceful. But they are all so busy protecting their own positions, they mismanaged PA. And, yes, he’s a grown ass man who needs managing. God, he’s the worst. The Netflix comedy show “The Windsor’s” is spot on. Anyway, It appears they intend to use Princesses B and E to help support TQ, PC, and ultimately PW in the future, as TQ has had the support of her cousins over the decades. But the Andrew “problem” lingers, as does Furgie.
I don’t think they are going to use B&E. They may do the odd appearance here and there, but they wont work the way the Queen’s cousins do.
But – your comment re: streamlining is interesting, but I’m looking at it the other way. Not that PA went buck wild bc they eased up his RPOs or whatever (if they even did that), but if Charles made the decision to streamline the royal family BECAUSE of Andrew? I don’t remember the timeline for that, but I wonder how much Charles knew of Andrew and his various “activities” and decided that it wasn’t worth it to keep him in the loop after the queen passes.
I think it’s BECAUSE of Andrew. King Charles doesn’t want his reign to be tarnished with having a known pedo so close to the throne. I think Charles will drop the proverbial hammer on him. AND, I bet he’s making SECRET plans about it too. He is not sharing that with the Queen either–he knows how she coddles him. But as soon as he’s firmly ensconced as King, Andrew is toast.
Since I’m old AF – I remember that way back in the day, (70s), that Prince Andrew was known as Randy Andy because of his hard partying, and there was a LOT of talk about the sexual shenanigans that went on at the parties. So, basically, we’re not talking about sedate cocktail parties where everyone was talkng about the meaning of life, etc. Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein was really just business as usual for him.
No background check or report on someone’s sleaziness is going to stop Pedo Andy from doing exactly what he wants. RPOs are there to make sure no harm comes to him, not correct his extraordinarily bad judgement.
“All of which is just a reminder that everyone knew that Jeffrey Epstein was a major problem for Prince Andrew – Andrew’s protection officers had probably done background checks on Epstein and all of Andrew’s associates through Epstein.” THIS! should be bigger news!