Princess Kate & Will got ‘express permission’ to ‘focus on family above royal duties’

As we discussed, this week’s People Magazine cover story is all about Prince George turning 10 years old (on July 22) and what his childhood is like. As many pointed out, it feels like Princess Diana is being erased from the narrative of “bringing up royal children.” The current Princess of Wales, Our Lady of Buttons, seems to want to encourage people to believe that she’s the first royal woman to ever raise royal kids to be normal and do normal things. There are all of these bizarre comparisons to Charles’s childhood and QEII’s childhood, like Diana didn’t fight the establishment to raise Harry and William like regular kids. Kate also wants credit for not being an Edwardian aristocrat. Okay, here’s your credit, Kate. Well, People Mag had some more excerpts from their cover story:

They were given permission by QEII to focus on their family: While Queen Elizabeth and King Charles were largely raised by governesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales have taken a more hands-on approach when it comes to Prince George’s upbringing. The couple “consciously set out to achieve a sense of normality,” a close source exclusively tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. And it was a family decision to do so — Prince William and Princess Kate were expressly given permission by Queen Elizabeth and then-Prince Charles to focus on family above royal duties. “Royal families over the generations haven’t had the chance to get those foundations right, but they have,” says a friend.

William hated his childhood: Prince William’s childhood was heavily marred by his parents’ unhappy marriage and the unwanted attention of photographers, prompting bids for his three children to have privacy during their day-to-day lives. “[When he] went off to school, it was like a circus,” says royals author Ingrid Seward. “The poor little boy had to do [photo-calls]. Thankfully, it is much more private today.”

Whether George knows he’ll be king: Prince George, who will celebrate his 10th birthday on July 22, had a formal talk about his royal destiny in 2020, biographer Robert Lacey previously reported. It was a “controlled moment of their choice,” Lacey wrote, “reflecting William’s unhappiness at the haphazard fashion in which the whole business of his royal destiny had buzzed around his head from the start.”

Some people think George was told from the start: But children’s wear designer Amaia Arrieta, whose clothes George and his siblings — Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5 — have worn for years tells PEOPLE exclusively: “I think George has known almost from the beginning. He has always had a more prominent role — there have been many events with his late great-grandmother or great-grandfather when it was just him, and his siblings weren’t there. I think they must have had that conversation very early on.”

No burdens: A palace insider tells PEOPLE, “I am sure [William and Kate] are making George aware in the best way they can. And not making it too burdensome.”

[From People Magazine]

“Prince William and Princess Kate were expressly given permission by Queen Elizabeth and then-Prince Charles to focus on family above royal duties.” Expressly!! No, they weren’t. The whole reason why QEII gave Will and Kate the Kensington Palace apartment – complete with a huge, expensive renovation – was because they were supposed to take on full-time royal duties back in 2012-2013. QEII and Charles were shocked when they decided to move to Norfolk, and they were shocked when William chose to take that part-time air-ambulance “job” as a way to avoid working for the Firm. There were absolutely high-level palace conversations from 2011-2017 about how Will and Kate were terribly work-shy. Guess what happened in 2017???

As for George and when he learned he would be king… I’ve always believed that Carole Middleton was the one talking to George about all of that. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.