The Transformation Of Prince George From Toddler To Young Royal

Prince George of Wales' birth on July 22, 2013 was a momentous occasion marked by a profusion of pomp and circumstance, as befits a future king. But before a notice of his arrival was framed and placed on an ornate gilded easel outside Buckingham Palace, the media spent days camped outside St. Mary's Hospital preparing to report on every tiny detail of his birth, from how his mom's blowout looked (immaculate) to the company that produced the shawl he was first seen swaddled in (G.H. Hurt & Son).

Kate Middleton got to exact a little revenge on the press for christening her "Waity Katie" back when she was dating William, Prince of Wales. The mother-to-be had passed her rumored due date, and BBC News described this inconvenience as "the great wait for Kate to dilate." Not long after the couple welcomed the baby prince, Kate found herself standing outside the hospital with a newborn in her arms as photogs snapped away. It would be a surreal experience for most mothers, and the princess shared her thoughts about it on the "Happy Mum, Happy Baby" podcast. "Slightly terrifying, slightly terrifying, I'm not going to lie," she recalled.

Kate has also spoken about the difficulty of choosing her son's name, which in full is George Alexander Louis. His first name comes from Queen Elizabeth II's father. One month after his son's delivery, Prince William told CNN, "He's a little fighter — he wriggles around quite a lot." George would need that energy during his first royal engagement overseas soon after his birth.

As it turned out, Prince George's parents were enjoying a couple's getaway in the Maldives when he achieved a major mobility milestone in 2014: his first crawl. The then-8-month-old had been placed under the care of grandparents Carole and Michael Middleton while his mom and dad took a break from parenting. But when Catherine, Princess of Wales, and William, Prince of Wales, had to make a work trip to Australia and New Zealand weeks later, they ensured they wouldn't miss another important moment by taking George with them.

During his first royal tour, George visited the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, where he made the acquaintance of a bilby that was named after him. According to Express, Kate got nervous when one of the marsupial's rabbit-like ears got within reach of George's iron grip. She warned the zoo's staff her son's fingers were more powerful than they appeared, and William backed her up. "If he gets it he'll never let go," he said.

George's royal duties also included meeting a group of babies for a playdate during the New Zealand leg of his family's tour. The other parents at the event learned that George was a rather social little fella. "George is bubbly, quite feisty and he took control. ... He honed in on certain toys and took the ones that he wanted," said one observer to The Telegraph. "No one was going to stand in his way!"

A travel advisor named Claudia Gordon met Kate Middleton at an event in 2015 and asked her how Prince George felt about having a younger sibling on the way. Kate revealed that George was looking forward to becoming a big brother and shared a cute story about her son. "She told me that his daddy, Prince William, was visiting China. After hearing this he went to the china cabinet, opened it and proclaimed, 'Daddy is not here.' She said they would work on his geography," Gordon recalled to the News-Press. A china cabinet sounds like an awesome hiding spot, and George finally got a hide-and-seek playmate when Princess Charlotte of Wales was born on May 2, 2015. He appeared to be in protective brother mode at his sister's christening, where he glared at photographers menacingly.

Later that year, George experienced a royal rite-of-passage. Equestrianism and princes go together like tea and fine china, so he naturally became acquainted with a saddle at a young age. He was just 2 when he went for his first pony ride, and insiders told the Daily Mail he was a natural-born horseman. George had previously been photographed grabbing a polo mallet with his left hand, possibly revealing himself to be a southpaw. His dad was reportedly looking forward to introducing him to the royals' favorite posh horseback sport, with a source telling the Daily Mail that Prince William had spoken to pro polo player Jamie Morrison about giving George lessons someday.

Prince George had just started preschool at the U.K.'s Westacre Montessori School when he found himself mingling with important world leaders. In 2016, he greeted then-President Barack Obama at Kensington Palace — while wearing a robe and pajama bottoms. "Last week, Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe," Obama joked during his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. "That was a slap in the face, a clear breach of protocol."

A few months later, Prince George and Princess Charlotte met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when the royal family toured Canada. Trudeau was filmed trying to give George a high five by holding his hand up, which only earned him a stare. When he lowered his hand down, George left him hanging again. The prince was dressed like a little Victorian-era lord in shorts, knee socks, and dress shoes.

While Trudeau failed to win George's favor, the pint-sized aristocrat was thoroughly impressed with a balloon artist's work at an event for military families. George watched in awe as the artist, Paul Kilshaw, transformed a few latex tubes into a flower for Charlotte. Kilshaw presented George with a creepier creation. "When I made him the spider, he started to laugh and pushed it in my face then pushed it in dad's face," Kilshaw recalled, per Vanity Fair. He also made George a volcano, revealing that the tot was rather knowledgeable about the geological formations.

In 2017, Us Weekly spoke to a royal insider who said of Prince George, "He's starting to realize that the world he lives in is different to his friends." This couldn't have been more evident to him if he ever complained to his classmates about how tedious it can be to watch the Trooping the Colour from a Buckingham Palace balcony (the prince was photographed looking particularly bored during the event in 2017.)

George's parents tried to provide him with some semblance of normalcy by encouraging him to engage in outdoor activities such as riding his bike. According to The Telegraph, Kate Middleton revealed that he also began playing tennis at age 2.

When George graduated from preschool, his parents decided to send him to a coed primary school in London instead of the all-boy educational institution Prince William had attended as a child. According to Vanity Fair, Kate chose Thomas's Battersea because George would be able to attend school with Princess Charlotte when she got older. Kate was pregnant with Prince Louis of Wales and sick with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, so she missed George's first day of school. However, William was there to see him off. A week later, he shared an update on how his son was adjusting to being a student. "George has been really easy," William said, per People. "He hasn't said, 'Have I got to do this for the rest of my life?'"

In 2018, Prince George served as a page boy in two royal weddings. First up was Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's costly, grand affair at St. George's Chapel. According to Town & Country, it was the first time George was allowed to wear pants instead of shorts at a public event. His wedding ensemble also included a frock coat and was a tiny replica of the Blues and Royals uniform Harry wore. A few months later, the in-demand page boy was back at the same church, this time to trot down the aisle behind Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.

George might be the life of the party at any wedding reception. In a video shared on the Prince and Princess of Wales' account on X, formerly known as Twitter, Prince William revealed that his son is fond of dancing. George's school at the time offered ballet classes as part of the curriculum, which "Good Morning America" host Lara Spencer once made a shady comment about.

Other special events George attended in 2018 were his first grouse hunt at Balmoral Castle — which he only observed – and the christening of his baby brother, Prince Louis. He and Princess Charlotte had been allowed to visit Louis at the hospital after his arrival on April 23, 2018. "[They] were with the baby for 25 minutes and were very excited to meet their new sibling," a source told Us Weekly.

Prince George's little cousin, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, was born in May 2019. Sadly, because of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's feud with the rest of the royal family, George hasn't spent much time with Archie. However, it's possible that George was privy to some pre-birth intel about his cousin.

In January 2019, The Sun spoke to a dog walker who said that she had a curious encounter with the prince. "I asked George what his name was, even though obviously I knew it," the woman recalled. "To my astonishment he said, 'I'm called Archie,' with a big smile on his face." Perhaps George overheard his family members discussing baby name ideas with Meghan and Harry, or maybe he coincidentally heard the name Archie somewhere else and decided that he liked it. Whatever the case, the story makes for an interesting tidbit of innocuous royal gossip.

George wasn't just thinking about different moniker possibilities in 2019; he was honing his soccer skills. Unfortunately, he was a bit too competitive with his sister. As reported by Hello!, Diana Award winner Olivia Hancock recalled William telling her, "When Charlotte's in goal George says to her that 'Charlotte I'm better than you.'" George also watched his parents get competitive at the 2019 King's Cup Regatta, where he experimented with a new look: a captain's cap. At the event, reality show star Bear Grylls convinced George to eat an ant.

During lockdown in 2020, Kate Middleton participated in a video call with school children. According to Hello!, she told them that Prince George had become a big fan of David Attenborough's documentary work. George later got the opportunity to meet the biologist during a September 2020 screening of "David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet," which took place outdoors at Kensington Palace. In a post on their Instagram account, Prince William and Kate revealed that Attenborough had presented George with a pretty awesome souvenir: a fossilized Carcharocles megalodon tooth from Malta.

The gift caused some controversy due to its origins. As reported by the Times of Malta, Maltese culture minister José Herrera initially expressed his desire for its return to the island country where it was discovered, as it was an item of geological significance. However, he later withdrew his request. "Minister Herrera has absolutely no doubt that young Prince George will grow to become a fond admirer of Malta's rich natural history," a spokesperson for the official told Sky News.

According to Prince William, Attenborough's "Extinction: The Facts" film made quite an impression on his oldest son. "We got so sad about it halfway through," William told Sky News. "He said to me, 'You know, I don't want to watch this anymore.'" The young prince didn't just have the fate of endangered species on his mind in 2020; it's also the year William and Kate reportedly talked to George about his future as king.

Prince George made a major style upgrade in 2021. When he and his parents attended the UEFA Euro Championship matchup between England and Germany, George wore a sharp suit instead of his usual shorts-and-socks combo. Of the almost-8-year-old's attendance at the sporting event, royal expert Duncan Larcombe told OK!, "George absolutely begged to be allowed to come along." Larcombe added that the prince had worn a suit because he wanted to look more like Prince William. "He thinks his dad's the most perfect person on the planet," the journalist explained.

George wasn't just beginning to dress like his dad; he was also starting to better understand why his father is so concerned about the environment. In a "BBC Newscast" interview, Prince William recounted a conversation he had with his son after George and his classmates picked up litter at school. According to William, George was frustrated because the area they had cleaned was covered in trash again the following day. "He couldn't understand. He's like, 'Well, we cleaned this. Why has it not gone away?'" the Earthshot Prize founder recalled.

As George grew older, his bond with William became stronger. "He's definitely a daddy's boy," a source told Us Weekly in 2022, adding that another interest the father and son shared was helicopters. But Kate Middleton proved that she can influence her son's hobbies, too; a source told Vanity Fair she was giving George sailing lessons.

According to author Katie Nicholl, Prince George's young mind went to a dark place after he learned that Prince William would someday assume the British throne: He dreamt up a sinister way his dad could abuse his royal status. In her 2022 book, "The New Royals" (via OK!), Nicholl writes that George once tried to win a fight by warning another boy, "'My dad will be king so you better watch out.'" But when speaking to Us Weekly about George and his siblings, one royal insider insisted, "They don't boast about their positions or have superiority complexes."

George and his dad both moved one position closer to the throne when Queen Elizabeth II tragically died in 2022. At the funeral of his great-grandmother, George's naughty streak reared its head again — he was photographed sticking his tongue out as the vehicle he left in drove past mourners. A source told Us Weekly that George had become a bit of a prankster but added that he was developing the qualities of a leader. "He is assertive, self-assured and knows what he wants, and doesn't hold back on speaking his mind," they said.

In 2022, George made what was possibly his first recorded response to a question from reporters. He was attending Wimbledon with Kate Middleton when he was asked which player he was rooting for. He replied, "[Novak] Djokovic." According to Popbitch (via Gawker), the press was asked not to report on his answer.

In 2022, Prince George and his siblings began attending Lambrook School as students. The campus was located near their home, Adelaide Cottage in Windsor. Kate Middleton had reportedly decided years ago that she didn't want George's next school to be Eton College, which Prince William attended. However, a source told In Touch that she lost that battle with her husband. "Kate thinks sending him to such a stuffy, upper-crust institution goes against all of their efforts to modernize the monarchy. Plus, she'll miss George desperately," the insider dished. In 2023, George visited the boarding school with his parents, who had to decide whether he would be going there by that June. He was only 10 and wouldn't be leaving home to continue his education until he was a teenager. Still, Kate was said to be "heartbroken" over his educational future.

While George's parents reportedly weren't on the same page regarding his education, they seemed to agree that the public needed to see more of him. He held King Charles III's coronation robe and was photographed trying his hand at archery during the Big Help Out, an event that provided citizens with opportunities to do volunteer work. He also didn't skimp on sporting event appearances, as he chowed down on pizza at a cricket match and the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal. According to Hello!, Kate revealed that her son had also started playing touch rugby at school. "He has the physique," she said.

Prince George disappeared from the public eye with Kate Middleton after she underwent abdominal surgery in January 2024. In an X video, Kate later explained that her children were why she kept her subsequent cancer diagnosis under wraps for so long. "It has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte, and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be okay," she said. After Kate addressed her health issues, George started attending events again, including the FA Cup final and an Aston Villa matchup. Prince William told reporter Neil Moxley that George has become a big Aston Villa fan, just like his dad.

George also attended Trooping the Colour 2024, where his mother made her long-awaited return to royal duties. Unfortunately, it seems that she wasn't feeling well enough to attend an Eras Tour concert with William, George, and Princess Charlotte, who snagged a selfie with Taylor Swift.

Phil Dampier, an author who has written extensively about the royal family, told The Sun that George's parents take him to so many events to prepare him for his future. Dampier said of their struggle to provide a monarch-in-the-making with a normal childhood, "They will need to strike a balance between him not being overwhelmed but also accepting his fate."