My bad, I totally forgot this was happening today. Prince George has arrived at Eton for his first day of big-kid school. Today is a rainy day in England, so the Prince and Princess of Wales looked especially somber as they walked with George to meet Eton’s head master Simon Henderson and Provost Sir Nicholas Coleridge. Prince William and Kate were apparently allowed to stay at Eton for a bit to help George settle into his room.
I give William and Kate a hard time and they deserve it, but I’m sure today was extremely tough and bittersweet for them as parents. I bet there were tears. When William attended Eton in the 1990s, he did so as an escape from his parents’ divorce melodrama. George is in a different position – he’s grown up extremely sheltered and barely in the public eye, and even though he boarded at his previous school, it’s still a very big deal that he’s now going to spend all week, every week as a boarder. Kate really spent years trying to convince everyone that George needed to go to a coed school too, but she lost that battle. I know she probably feels like she’s losing her firstborn. William seems lighter though – he enjoyed his time at Eton, and he clearly expects George will enjoy it in the same way.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prince George, accompanied by his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, starts his first day at Eton College in Windsor, Berkshire Featuring: Prince George, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales Where: Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 07 Sep 2026 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Prince George begins first day at Eton College – BBC News https://share.google/iGNuNmp0ZM1VOzzd0
Lovely video of Prince Harry smiling as he started at Eton but it is poignant that his mother had died the year before and he only had Charles as solo parent, from then on until this very day NOT protecting him
Charles had those great dad photo ops with will and harry and less than a year after their mother died the stories about his introducing them to camilla happened. Charles was and is a. Bad father and granddad
Charles should have always put his first wife abd children first. Its a lifelong commitment to be a dad
Please, K the social climber par excellence was always going to send G to Eton.
And Carole most likely wanted eton desperately
I believe that also, he was always going to attend Eton and kate knew it all along.. I just want to know who dressed Peggy and his oldest in the same outfit (except for the tie patterns) it was a very deliberate choice.
Keen should not be wearing black its supposed to be a happy occasion. At least she’s not pointing at things like she does when she’s with the children. I hope he makes friends and has a great social life. And does not depend on meeting his cousins at those royal gatherings
LOL she’s wearing dark green.
Her dress appears to be green.
It looks dark in the photos. Maybe a lighter shade of green ir blue would have sufficed
Um, her dress is dark green.
Another old lady dress and those skinny heels with rain, oh boy. Pretty sure she didn’t have to help George unpack.
She truly looks ridiculous with the overly formal dress, hose, and skinny little heels. Who drops their child off like that? It was a moment for separates.
She’s wearing her standard uniform. Just like QE2 taught her, just like Camilla does, just like William does. It would be odd if he was in his blue suit and she was in her brown skinny jeans.
Kate’s wearing dark green. But I still remember when royalists bashed Meghan for not wearing bright colours.
I was looking at photo on my phone. It looked very dark there. I think something in between “festive” and “gloomy” would have been OK. Not bright red of course.
Looks like she is trying not to draw attention by matching in tone with her kid.
Wow, George is tall! And he’s got the Spencer’s long legs. I wish him all the best, and hope he applies himself to get a really good education, and not just ride on the “I’m a future king!” and just play and drink the years away like dear old dad did. Good luck, George!
Kitty and Peg just lost one excuse for not working. And as we know Charl has been boarding for a while, and now Louis is old enough to be starting to board a day or a few at a time, they should both have wide open schedules, right?? Yeah… right. lolol.
George will be able to get a circle of friends of his own and real lifelong friends
How many will want to be friends because he is going to be king and how will he know?
He won’t know, but that’s life. Everyone has something they have to deal with, and he probably has been made aware to distrust people haha. I’m not a royal and I’m not a billionaire, and I know I don’t trust people haha because of the transactional way society works these days. There are always people lurking to use someone for something, even if you/me/we are nobodies. It’s probably not a great attitude to have, but I don’t know if being weary of people’s motives would only apply to royals….or random celebrity X who has a lot of wealth.
Hopefully! Doesn’t seem like Charles picked up any friends on his journey through life, but his children have a few so maybe his grandchildren will too.
He’s got the Windsor legs, with the knock-knees of his great-grandfather, George VI. At least they didn’t try to ‘fix’ George’s legs.
I think rather than being knock-kneed, George’s legs are very hyper-extended (they stick out back at the knee) and he is pigeon-toed. Both of which could be helped, medically. It is very noticeable in pictures where he is just standing normally but he is already starting to hide it by bending his knees a bit when photos are being taken. I hope they get him help for that because it will only get worse as he gets taller (hyperextension can cause knee problems as he gets older).
I mean, its possible he was boarding every week at Lambrook too. they kept that very hidden until the past few months, so we dont know how much he was actually boarding.
Regardless, my oldest started high school last week and I had a lot of feelings about it. I was nervous for him but excited and also missed my little boy so much. I saw a quote about kids becoming teenagers and growing up – how its like reading a book that you love- you want to find out the ending but you also dont want the story to end.
So my take is more than the boarding, just such a big step in his growing up was probably emotional.
Will they take as many vacations now during school breaks
Ha! They’ll probably take more if they can manage it!
Damn, George’s taller than William was at this age/time.😲😲
The Spencer height genes. Those raggedy Windsors owe Diana so much.
It always make me happy to see first day of school pics. No snark on this occasion.
I dunno, they all look pretty happy to me
For once, in public photos, George doesn’t look worried, he looks genuinely happy. I think that’s nice. Probably feels good to break from his neurotic parents.
I just hope that this is what George wants. It really bothered me that, in all the public bickering over which school he would attend, it was always Kate’s desires vs William/royal tradition. I can’t recall any of those articles mentioning what George wanted.
How nice! The big wig had a day out. Freshly aired for the Oman-state dinner.
She really couldn’t let him have the spotlight.
They actually look happy to me. And that’s a nice dress on Kate.
He might wind up taller than his dad. He looks taller than William at the same age.
He looks pretty confident too.
Breaking: Rich kid goes to rich kid school, where he’ll be surrounded by people who live as he does in a bubble of overprivilege.
I wish him well, as I wish every child well, but his attendance at Eton just will further seal him into a hermetic chamber of cluelessness about how most people live. And England’s class system will be further entrenched in yet another generation.
I don’t think it’s possible for a royal to understand how a regular person lives, even if they tried to understand. That might be the point of being royal though. It’s one of those it is what it is situations. No amount of mixing with the regular people is going to fundamentally change the level of comfort of they have and how that informs who they are on a day to day basis. Even movie stars don’t get how regular people live, and they actually once were regular people. Gwyneth Paltrow haha, who is nowhere close to being royal, admits she can’t pretend to know what it’s like to be a person who makes $25 000 a year (maybe that number should be adjusted for inflation).
💯
Face it , none of the royal kids, including Archie and Lili, are ever going to go to state school.
Hmm, I was rather expecting George would wear the Eton tuxedo or whatever they call that uniform. Man, that kid is going to be tall!
They have released formal pictures where he is wearing the school uniform, they’re actually quite sweet.
I don’t think I’ve seen him smile so much!
Yes, the formal pix are lovely and George looks happy. Maybe it’s a relief to finally be boarding full time…?
Yeah, I did see those after posting this and it was nice to see a genuine smile from him.
He’s probably happy to get away from his parents for a while.
Maybe he already has friends going there too.
I have a question, who pays the school fees for Willy and kitty children? Does it come from the dutchy or the sovereign grant? Not like it makes a difference because it’s all the public money.And does dropping George off count as a work event . Like is this listed in the calendar as an engagement?
I think technically it comes from the duchy, but I’ve also heard that these schools waive fees for the Wales children.
and yes, sometimes the first day of school is listed as an official event.
Really earn their money, don’t they? 😉🙄
Kaiser, Will and Kate and their photographer stayed a while to get him settled and take photos for the press to release on KP pages.
No one’s gonna mention that William and George are twinning right down to their shoes? It’s a little odd.
I’m glad she didn’t show up in a blazer trying to cosplay her mother in law.
Well, this is brilliant: a child who appears relaxed, confident, and at ease in his own skin, on what must have been the most nerve-racking day of his yet young life, in front of unnaturally intrusive strangers, in a totally new environment outside his comfort zone. This is the amazing thing: for all the talk of generational trauma — and it is a phenomenon — you have to remember, kids are frequently born with a whole set of strengths and aptitudes all of their own. And the best thing the parents can do is get out of the way, and not make it all about themselves. I will say this: William looks a lot *less* comfortable in his skin than George.
I bet everyone behind the scenes who are well aware of Will not having the right approach to work are really hoping George has inherited the work ethic of Charles, Diana and the late Queen! I want George to be himself, love whom he wants and to choose his own career. I hope he loves being a boarder at Eton, finds friends and happiness. I hope that his parents protect from the media along with his siblings and that the BM behave themselves whilst they are still in education. It’s heartbreaking to think the Sun admitted to hacking Harry’s phone at the age George is now. Let’s hope Jason Knauf never dares throw George or Charlotte or Louis to the press wolves in the future if King Will needs a scapegoat years from now!
Nice to see George smiling and looking relaxed. It’s almost like he’s escorting his parents! I think George takes after the Middletons in looks.
Looks like all the wiglets showed up to see George off.
George has his father’s hair (what used to be hair) and a bit of his smile. He’s also tall like Will. But to me he looks mostly like a cross between a Middleton and a Spencer. His face is a lot rounder and softer than Will’s ever was. A looks a bit like his Great Uncle Charles did when he was young, too.
I see resemblance to Michael middleton especially around the eyes.and eyebrows
She’s getting thinner and thinner.
She is too thin, but I think Kate looks really pretty here. And more importantly, George looks happy. I hope that Charles continues the tradition of having George over for lunch the way Queen Elizabeth used to host William when he was at Eton, even if it’s not with the same frequency due to his health.
Scooter apparently did not heed the queens advice at rhe lunches. I doubt she told him to do little work and take many vacations.
New York City teachers go back tomorrow and the kids come in on Friday. Good for George, I guess, for going to school.
One good thing about this is no one is focusing on the Sussex littles starting school today as well, assuming it’s also their first day. Anyway good luck to George and all the other kids. I think he’ll have his privacy. Is he starting at the equivalent of 7th or 8th grade?
8th grade (equivalent to Year 9 in the UK)
I am curious to see how tall all three kids will be. They got the Spencer genes for that, but I still am a little shocked by how tall they might turn out to be. It’s likely Charlotte will be Diana’s height, but the boys may surpass William and he is obviously way beyond average height too.
I was half watching this story on the BBC news channel with the sound turned down. The chyron underneath was that Palestinian parents were afraid to send their kids to school because of the violence of illegal settlers. Quite the contrast with this upper crust tableau.
These photos are so weird! Those of George are distinctly outlined & he is distinctly focused, but Kate & William are not. And sometimes George looks as tall if not taller than his mother & other times not (although nearly there). Did they let Kate fuss with the photos before publishing?
They look more natural here than they normally do. I’m sure he was moved in days ago or his stuff was already there – these aren’t the types of schools where parents are helping load and unload (at least imo). I do wish she would trim her hair – nothing dramatic, but the mermaid hair looks like a nightmare on a rainy day