On Tuesday, Kensington Palace finally announced the choice for Prince George’s secondary school (the equivalent of high school). George will attend Eton starting in September, and he will board full time and likely spend his weekends at Forest Lodge or Anmer Hall. For years, the Princess of Wales has fought this. Some of you theorized that it was all some kind of scheme and Kate is actually happy that George will go to Eton. Nope. It was clear as early as 2023 that Kate was fighting tooth and nail to keep her eldest child from going to a same-sex boarding school. She has pushed and pushed for all of her kids to attend her alma mater, the coed Marlborough. Late last year and early this year, her side repeatedly briefed the media to make it sound like Marlborough was fait accompli, that Kate had gotten her way and George wouldn’t go to Eton. Even as recent as March of this year, Kate was still taking “tours” of Marlborough to push that agenda loudly. She lost. As it turns out, everyone knew that George would go to Eton as early as January.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have just announced that their eldest son Prince George will attend Eton in the autumn. A short statement read: “Kensington Palace can confirm that Prince George will attend Eton College from this September.”
The long-awaited news comes just before their three children are due to break up for the summer. But the Daily Express can exclusively reveal that the royal parents had made the decision six months earlier, in January.
A royal insider said: “Prince George is really looking forward to going to Eton. They settled the decision in January but mum and dad wanted to wait a little longer before it was officially announced.” William and Catherine are keen to safeguard their children’s privacy despite their public roles.
But the insider said it wasn’t an easy decision to make, as the Wales family had also been considering Marlborough College, the Wiltshire co-educational boarding school where Catherine excelled.
It was a two-horse race between William and Catherine’s alma mater, with the future Queen keen for the children to study alongside one another, just as she did with her sister Pippa and brother James at Marlborough. But Eton’s close proximity to the family home in Windsor appears to have been the deciding factor.
“The decision wasn’t just about George, they had to factor in Charlotte and Louis as well,” the source said. “But ultimately they wanted him to stay near the family.”
They added: “William is thrilled that his son wanted to follow in his footsteps. He’s incredibly proud.”
“They settled the decision in January…” More like Prince William and George settled it in January and Kate was still trying in vain to change their minds with all of these frantic briefings about Marlborough. Given that William recently revealed that George has already been boarding at Lambrook, I wonder if we’re actually missing a secret angle here. I’ve started developing a theory that William actually has somewhat strong opinions about how the kids are being raised as well, and that he’s actually trying to get George away from the Middleton influence. I also think George probably wants to board and get away from home more often (especially if he sees his peers doing the same thing) and William has taken his side.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Royal family on the balcony during Trooping the Colour 2026 ceremony in celebration of King Charles III’s official birthday Featuring: William Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George and Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
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- 16/12/2025, London, UK. The Prince of Wales and Prince George with the CEO of The Passage Mick Clarke during a visit to The Passage in central London.,Image: 1061170332, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no , Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
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- London, UK, 13 June 2026. The Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the King’s Birthday Parade, Trooping The Colour Buckingham Palace, London, UK.,Image: 1109905858, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Lee Floyd/Avalon
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- London, UK, 13 June 2026. Princess Catherine, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and Prince Louis return to Buckingham Palace after the King’s Birthday Parade, Trooping The Colour Buckingham Palace, London, UK.,Image: 1109906999, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Lee Floyd/Avalon
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- Royal family christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace Featuring: William, Prince of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales with Prince George Where: London, United Kingdom When: 16 Dec 2025 Credit: Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR HELLO MAGAZINE**
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- Royal family during Trooping the Colour 2026 ceremony in celebration of King Charles III’s official birthday Featuring: Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jun 2026 Credit: Mischa Schoemaker/Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Royal family on the balcony during Trooping the Colour 2026 ceremony in celebration of King Charles III’s official birthday Featuring: King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Charlotte, Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jun 2026 Credit: Mischa Schoemaker/Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Royal family on the balcony during Trooping the Colour 2026 ceremony in celebration of King Charles III’s official birthday Featuring: Prince William of Wales, Catherine Princess of Wales, Prince George, Prince Charlotte, Prince Louis Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jun 2026 Credit: Mischa Schoemaker/Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Trooping the Colour 2026 ceremony in celebration of King Charles III’s official birthday Featuring: Prince George Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Jun 2026 Credit: Cover Images
Which January? 2014? This was decided long, long ago.
I don’t remember the year but the January of Kate’s gestation with George.
Considering all the pillow throwing, and “giving as good as she/he gets”, I’d bet the kids are relieved to get out of that mishegas (Yiddish for “craziness”). Also, developmentally, the teen years are when kids start to pull away and begin to develop personal independence, at least they’re supposed to unless squashed by parent(s) influence *cough*MaMids*cough.
Kaiser, you have an eagle eye. The deadline for Eton applications is not a calendar date, arbitrarily enforced, but, as I understand it, the date of the 10th birthday of the child who is applying. So that puts the ball in the family’s court, and the child’s court: do you *want* to come to this school? Is it a milestone for you and for your parents for you to launch your application? And more practically it kickstarts the sequence of exams and test prep that you need to complete in order to be eligible, to qualify for admission and meet the school’s criteria. But cleverly they align these benchmarks with celebrations of the child’s own life, so the prospect of an Eton education is seamlessly woven into their own major milestones. So. Katey lost this battle 3 years ago. She’s been fighting a rearguard action ever since.
So timing wise this makes sense because the first story about George visiting Eton was in June 2023 (he turned 10 in July 2023.)
but for the rest of it – I’m sure he took the exams and “applied” and such, but there was no way Eton was going to turn away the future king. These whole past three years have been for show. It was always going to be Eton.
You act as if royals would be expected to follow these rules.
George was doing that assessment for Eton and that was the reason for Kate not to go to one of the Earthshot events.
William mentioning the boarding wasn’t an accident then. He knew what he was saying because if George is boarding from Lambrook, he’s fine with Eton, which is even closer.
Charlotte may go to Marlborough but it will only be because Eton doesn’t take girls.
If I remember correctly, private school offers in the UK are sent in January. Can’t quite remember when parents have to respond by. And yes I’m aware George could walk into any school at any time.
But this makes sense. I do wonder if the continued Marlborough tours after were because she’s trying to get Charlotte and/or Louis to go. Louis seems likely to go to Eton as well now but I can still see Kate fighting against that.
That what I suspected. If they need to confirm by January then kate and Carole were putting on some kind of show with all the school tours and stories.
I pity this child. He has no decent role models in his family and will probably be susceptible to drinking at an early age, which most teens try to do and he has a father that appears to be a borderline alcoholic. In addition, academics does not appear to be a priority for his family.
The psychology of a modern day heir would be interesting to study. He’ll be surrounded at Eton by the world’s elite children, many of whom also have their futures already mapped out, but whether they’re future business titans or middle eastern nobility, they will have some choices for their futures. George does not. Not can he look forward to inheriting power and influence. He exists to exist. So yeah I think a period of adolescent debauchery is forthcoming.
George does have choices — or he will, it’s just that those choices will come with significant and very public consequences. He also might have a completely different set of choices to make in adulthood given the way William is likely to treat his own role if and when he becomes king.
I know it’s extremely unlikely, but I enjoy imagining the three kids chatting with each other and sorting things out. Perhaps George could choose to shift the top job to Charlotte — if she felt up for it. I’m also guessing that in a few years, the Wales kids and the Sussex kids are likely to connect with each other, with or without their parents’ oversight. George’s generation might look a lot different for the BRF all the way around.
Yeah I think Kate was absolutely pushing for anywhere besides Eton. The line about wanting the kids to study together like she did with her siblings is a weird angle though bc she and James are far enough apart that they were never at Marlborough together, and I don’t think George and Louis will overlap at Eton (or if they do its only by a year.)
Also I think Eton is full time boarding. I think you only go home at the school breaks, not every weekend. Of course for George the rules will be different but he may not want to go home.
I’m looking at the boarding comments from William differently now. I think he was purposely putting it out there that George already boards in some part time capacity so that people didn’t overreact when it was announced that a 13 year old was attending boarding school (which is normal in those circles.)
I think its clear now that William was pro Eton all along and Kate thought she could use the press and public opinion to convince him to go for Marlborough or another co ed school and both he and George were like “nah.” I just dont think the public ended up caring as much as Kate thought they would? Like visiting Marlborough over and over again wasn’t something that was going to make people say “wow you’re just like us, your kid is looking at this posh school over that posh school!”
Am I wrong in thinking that was a huge overestimation on Kate’s part? The idea that she could use the press to force William’s hand away from Eton. It’s a little wild to me that she would even think that could work. But maybe she’s had other successful campaigns in the past by using the press and thought it might work again.
I think it was a huge overestimation on her part. I dont know if she was trying to force his hand via the press or just kept hoping he would change his mind and it would look like she had more control than she actually has?
i’ve said all along that the only way she would get final say over school is if William didn’t care. If he wanted George to go to Eton, he would go to Eton (and FWIW I do think George would want to follow in his father’s footsteps.)
Now Louis will be interesting; my guess is if George has a good experience, he’ll also want to go there.
I can’t imagine that Kate would ever win the battle about where George went. It’s likely that the Middletons were behind all the press to make it look like Kate has more power than she does.
It’s also possible that there is a deal that she gets a say in where the other two go.
As a mother I can’t fathom having utterly NO say in my children’s future. That said, if I’m George, my bags are packed and ready to get out of what must be a horribly stressful unhappy house. Sadly though it doesn’t seem like there is any way to change his destiny to repeat. Those poor kids have *NO* normal support – grifty grandparents, horrid step-gran, feckless grandfather, thunderous dad, sulky mom, pedophile uncle, and then all of the now cast-offs. Their normal is so NOT.
Yes. I think Kate may have “won” the battle over which schools to send them to prior to this one: from St. Thomas Battersea way to hell across London instead of school closer to Kensington Palace, then having them switch to Lambrook after rumours spread about William and the yummy mummies at their previous school, so this emboldened her to push hard against Eton and when it didn’t work she did the usual schtick of trying to manipulate William via the media. And it backfired. I don’t think she will have much say over where Louis goes either as a result. And if William is feeling particularly petty then she won’t have a say in where Charlotte goes either.
The bottom line is that Kate’s main reason for pretending to be anti-Eton is the realisation that the parents of children in George’s cohort won’t kowtow to her. She won’t be queen bee because they know her back story and look down on her. At other schools the new money people might look down on her as well, but there would be several more who would be willing to blow smoke up her proverbial and at least pretend to make her feel like the top dog.
I agree. William wasn’t as sloppy as we thought on that issue.
At the end of the day William is in control. The kids are going to go where he wants them to. Kate might have some leverage for certain things after the 2024 missing months, but not with the kids.
Just like how many of us say that a divorce happens if that is what William wants.
So does he have a room at school now, where he can spend the night wherever he wants? Or does he have to stay in a dormitory type setting and tote all his stuff back and forth? So weird.
I dont know how sporadic boarding works at those schools in general, but for George and Charlotte (and Louis) my guess is that for security reasons, they have designated rooms. He could also board a lot more than just “sporadically” (there’s an actual term for it but I dont feel like looking it up lol.)
eTA I lied, I looked it up, lol. At Lambrook they call it weekly, flexible or occasional.
Tbh he prob started boarding at Lambrook to get used to the experience of boarding before doing it a new school. And I wonder if some of the more recent tours Kate was doing were for Charlotte (aka touring them early out of spite since she lost on George’s school) – OR maybe the recent tours were a decoy to take the scent off Eton so they wouldn’t get more kids enrolling for the sole purpose of meeting George (like Kate did to William lol)
Maybe but that was for uni. I think the artisto kids that go to Eton are going to go to Eton regardless of whether George does or not.
I think all the visiting of other schools such as Oundle and Marlborough are for the 2 ‘spares’- Kate lost the battle of Eton years ago but the compromise is that Charlotte and Louis go to the same school. They’re probably in the process of doing her application..
If Kate had really wanted to wrong-foot her husband and seize the initiative, she could have found some amazing state schools in London. My husband went to private (boarding) school. I went to private (boarding) school, my parents went to private (Catholic) schools, their parents did the same, ….basically my son is the first person on either side of the family to attend a state day school. Which is… still something I muse upon with a mix of pride and delight. And a smidge of amazement. He attended private nursery, private primary school, and we had interviews and tours and a place in promise at a private (boarding) school since he was 8. We plumped for our local state secondary. I’m so glad we did. And it still makes me catch my breath. I don’t know if people realise the extent to which parents are driven into the private sector has more to do with fear of the unknown, fear of letting your kids down, than any status-seeking. Like, someone did this for you, you owe it to your kids to do it for them. When you release yourself from that fear-based cycle….. it’s all open.
Well, in this case, I imagine that arranging security would have been a huge concern, as well as acceptance of the security and parameters by everyone connected with the school. Would that be possible to pull off at a state school? While the schools themselves might be amazing, I’d imagine that it would be harder to maintain privacy and safety for the kids. I’m basing this on my experience with public schools in the US though, which might not be an appropriate comparison.
There was zero chance that George was going to attend a state school. Kids of that stature are the ones leading the charge into private school, they’re being driven into it. For Kate, it IS all about status. Is that true for every single parent who sends their kids to private school? No. (but its true for a lot, especially when you’re discussing Eton.)
Kate was never going to marry someone who could not afford to send their children to Eton, Marlborough, etc.
Yet Kate, herself, has so little status of her own. She derives her status from standing next to her husband, or her son, or her father-in-law. Her own education — or “education “ — seems complete wasted. I guess it’s enough for her that she got what her mother aimed for?
@Blithe I agree with you but I think Kate either doesn’t see it that way or PRETENDS not to see it that way. She thinks – she married the heir, she’s the princess of wales, she’s the next queen, she has status. all of her status derives from who she is in relation to other people – the wife, the daughter in law, the mother.
maybe she does see it that way and so part of her is still social climbing. @YankeeDoodles mentioned in another thread something about what do you do when you get to the top – well I guess for Kate its keep trying to stay on top.
I think George was always going to go to Eton. I think the real battle was where Charlotte and Louis were going to go to school. I think the compromise was that William would choose where George would go and Kate would choose the school for the other children.
Kate lost on George but I’m willing to bet that Charlotte and Louis will go to Marlbourough together. I think William wants to keep George separate from his other siblings in an effort to prevent another Harry situation which is a stupid and horrible idea. But George? George was always going to go to Eton.
Watching Kate lose spectacularly on this one is its own reward. As everyone here has said, she likely lost a long time ago. But I think the concession will be that she won on Marlbourough for the younger two.
I might be jaded but I feel like in all but the most functional families there’s some push and pull over whose side has more influence on the children. But the battle between gauche arrivistes and 1,000 year
old stale firm is quite the twist.
A spokesperson for Eton told the BBC George has his name down 4 years ago pending outcome of wxams. Those exams are insane in England. My coworker’s daughter had a daily tutor for over a year to prepare. It’s no joke. George has also stayed over quite a few times there to get used to the system, etc. there is no way this decision was only made in January.
They also strongly suggest med Louis is already down to attend as well.
I think so too. Louis is going to Eton and Charlotte may be the only one with a choice. But probably Marlborough.
And it’s going to be William who decides this. Kate having to go to the media confirms she is not controlling this issue. If she was there wouldn’t be stories. She did similar things during the breakups by feeding the papers with stories showing how she was “moving on” from William.
The 11+ is the exam that mostly separates kids on the track to high achieving selective state (grammar) schools and private schools from kids who go to local state secondaries. But the catch is, if you go to a local secondary, they immediately start streaming the kids once you get in the door. In fact, as we discovered, our local state secondary was using test results and teacher reports from the last two years of primary school to effectively stream our child’s class *before* they even started at our local secondary. They’ve had four sets in every class year, since we started there. So there is a pronounced disparity between set 1 and set 4. The term for this type of schooling is “comprehensive” because it’s not selective at the point of admission. But it’s *highly* selective once you’re in the door.
I’m fascinated by the British school system. The myth of meritocracy drives our stateside public school system. Study hard and you can be anything! But the end result is that we graduate kids who lack both employment and critical thinking skills. I attended highly selective admissions based public school. Our only job was to get into college, so we had no vocational courses. So most of us went to college but with minimal sense of our career goals. We didn’t have the option really to not choose college because we had no skills. It’s almost a Ponzi scheme. Buy more education.
And, at least in my experience, in the US, access to specific schools and specific programs within schools can still largely be impacted by factors such as economics and race. So the “meritocracy myth” persists — even though kids attending public schools can have wildly different access to resources and educational experiences.
Legacies basically blow the merit myth away. Kushner had his dad buy him into Harvard and he’s just one example.
@Nic919, although some legacies are born on third base and use their many privileges very well, so I have mixed feelings about legacies — especially since legacy admissions started getting generally attacked (quite understandably) just as the first sizable generation of minority legacy students started applying for university spots at Ivy League and similar schools.
I’m pretty sure that Jared Kushner isn’t a legacy — I think his father attended schools in New York. So Jared’s spot was bought without having a legacy connection, at least as far as I know. Maybe it’s more that Money basically blows the merit myth away, which, unfortunately, isn’t new.
George W Bush attended Yale as a legacy.
The American elite universities make room for the rich kids while complaining about quotas for the minority students who have the grades to get in.
Im going to be mean. George remembers Party Pieces. William remembers kate old accent and how she thinks this new accent is passable.
Was Marlbourgh every really an option?
The Middleton siblings seemed to have socially engineered their acceptance and graduating.
Now, Eton has lost most of its appeal because their are way to many “rich test prep kids” but they still give a well rounded education. Marlborough alumni cant save her parents PARTY business while being THE PRINCESS OF WALES! James businesses have been accused of selling cheapo products yet he has all the tools for a great business. No marlbourgh.
Can anyone explain what the curriculum entails? I’m picturing these kids studying calculus, Greek, Latin, etc. Exactly how rigorous is the British curriculum at this level? Thanks!
By “parents” they really mean “parent.” Theres no way George was going to attend any school except the one William chose. George is the only child that matters, as we see when he is singled out to spend time with William. As a consolation, Kate will probably be allowed to pick the schools for spare #1 and spare #2.