PRINCE GEORGE CELEBRATES HIS SPECIAL DAY

As Prince George turns 11, royal expert Jennie Bond speaks to OK! about how his parents are making sure he enjoys his childhood for as long as possible

-  REBECCA RUSSELL

From the moment he was born in 2013, every stage of Prince George’s life was laid out in front of him. And, even though his parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are committed to giving him a similar childhood to the one his mother cherished, he is instantly set apart by an accident of birth. With the second-in-line to the throne now counting down the days until his 11th birthday on 22 July, he will surely be looking forward to celebrating his special day after such a worrying year so far for his family.

“This must have been the toughest year in young George’s life,” former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond exclusively tells OK! “However much his parents have tried to protect him and his siblings, the concern over Catherine’s health as well as the King’s cancer will have pervaded family life.”

And, although George — and Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six — are benefitting from the type of gentle parenting that is spoken about in Catherine’s early years development work, Jennie says that it is William who will have been his eldest son’s rock throughout. “George is very lucky to have William as his dad; few people are better placed to understand the turmoil in a young boy’s brain,” she says. “When William was the same age, he was witnessing the final break-up of his parents’ marriage — he was comforting his mother, pushing tissues under the bathroom door to stem her tears and dividing his life between boarding school and two separate parental homes.