The Prince and Princess of Wales are known to want their children to experience as normal a childhood as they can - meaning they kept one major secret from their eldest son, Prince George . Until around four years ago, George, now aged 11, is thought to have been unaware that he would one day become monarch - much like his grandfather and, one day, his father. Making a decision to keep his destiny a secret, the couple reportedly told their son what his future will entail during the summer in 2020.

Writing in his biography Battle of Brothers, royal expert and historian Robert Lacey said: "William has not revealed to the world how and when he broke the big news to his son [George]. Maybe one day George will tell us the story himself." According to the Mirror , the expert said that it likely occurred around George's seventh birthday.

He added: "But sometime around the boy's seventh birthday in the summer of 2020, it is thought that his parents went into more detail about what the little prince's life of future royal 'service and duty' would particularly involve." Their decision is said to have been down to the link to "William's unhappiness at the haphazard fashion in which the whole business of his royal destiny had buzzed around his head from the start". As for Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, experts have suggested that Charlotte could have a similar relationship with her older brother much like Princess Anne and King Charles.

Author Katie Nicholl previously s.