Ever since his birth – 13 years ago next month – he’s been the subject of intense public interest, not only here in Britain but around the world.
Now, though, the scrutiny Prince George is obliged to contend with is just about to go up several notches, thanks to an official announcement which, I understand, is imminent – and which comes only after prolonged heart-searching by his parents.
‘It’s going to be announced next week that George will start at Eton in September,’ I’m told.
The timing is no accident. This past week has been one of the most daunting of George’s life, during which he sat the common entrance exam for Eton – and came through successfully.
It was a crucial test, given the contrasting experiences of his father and his uncle-in-exile, Prince Harry.
Whereas William relished his time at school, from where he progressed to St Andrews University, the less academic Harry struggled – a battle he could have been spared had he been sent to another establishment where brainpower was less highly prized than it is at £63,000-per-year Eton, which has educated no fewer than 20 British prime ministers, the most recent being David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
So it’s perhaps no surprise that William and Catherine – who was deeply unhappy at Downe House before switching schools to Marlborough College – have considered other possibilities.
In recent years they’ve visited £62,000-per-year Oundle and St Edward’s Oxford, known as Teddies, whose Old Etonian headmaster, Alastair Chirnside, is considered the most brilliant of his generation.
A source says that it will be ‘announced next week that George will start at Eton in September’
William (pictured at school) relished his time at Eton and then from there progressed to St Andrews University
But both Oundle and Teddies are mixed – one of the factors that, it’s said, helped sway William and Catherine’s final decision.
‘We’re in the smartphone era. Any picture of George with a girl could be around the world in a moment, however innocent the kiss might be,’ muses a pal, adding that two other factors carried the day.
‘Security and proximity to home,’ he explains, referring to Eton’s comparatively cloistered setting and its long familiarity with royals and other high-profile pupils – plus the fact that it’s just minutes away from William and Catherine’s ‘forever home’, the eight-bedroom Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
Even closer than Lambrook, the prep school to which George will soon bid farewell.
(Very) modern manners
Genevieve, 28, who played Clara Livingston in the hit Netflix drama Bridgerton, adds: ‘Cher was right when she said men are like dessert’
Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour seems less than romantic in real life.
‘I’m always seeing someone but I don’t believe in boyfriend and girlfriends,’ Genevieve tells me at the Alice+Olivia Mayfair store event hosted by Stacey Bendet and heiress Nicky Hilton Rothschild.
‘Unless you want to get engaged, married or have kids, what the f*** is boyfriend and girlfriend? I’m not 18 any more.’
Genevieve, 28, who played Clara Livingston in the hit Netflix costume drama, adds: ‘Cher was right when she said men are like dessert.
‘You don’t need them, but they are enjoyable.’
The smart set’s talking about… the mysterious case of a Lady back from the dead?
For over a century it was the stateliest of women’s magazines, until becoming the subject of what its late matriarch, Julia Budworth, considered unseemly publicity – and last year seemingly expired for ever when the company which owned it went into liquidation. But has The Lady, founded in 1885, truly vanished?
That’s the question asked by contributors left out of pocket following its demise. ‘Advertisements are appearing almost every day on Facebook for domestic positions, under The Lady Magazine, using its famous logo,’ one of them tells me.
There are also scores of ads on The Lady website, from carers to cleaners, chefs to chauffeurs.
‘Is it legal to trade while insolvent?’ asks the infuriated creditor, noting that Julia’s son, Ben, and his wife, Helen, who in tandem closed the magazine, live in splendour at Bylaugh Hall, Norfolk.
Indeed it isn’t, which is presumably why, last year, Ben established a new company and published a notice in The Gazette (the Official Public Record), stating that he was ‘carrying on… whole or substantially… the business of the insolvent company’.
One of the conditions was that notice would be ‘given to every creditor of the insolvent company whose name and address is known’. This startles former contributors to The Lady. ‘I didn’t receive that notice,’ one of them tells me. Ben Budworth declines to comment.
Real Housewives’ claws come out in ‘awful’ spat
Caroline Stanbury (R) who once counted then Prince Andrew among her close friends, has been savaged by fellow socialite Amanda Cronin (L)
Stars of the ‘Real Housewives’ reality television series are often seen bickering on set.
But it’s when the cameras stop rolling that things can turn really nasty.
Caroline Stanbury, 50, who once counted then Prince Andrew among her close friends, has been savaged by fellow socialite Amanda Cronin, 57.
Amanda stars in The Real Housewives Of London. Caroline, who lives in the UAE, appeared in four episodes of the series last year.
Caroline posted a video online rejecting claims that her toyboy husband, Sergio Carrallo, was ‘controlling’ her podcast and brand.
Amanda commented: ‘Just awful.’ She scolded Caroline: ‘Please stop giving bad advice to your followers.
They deserve so much more.
‘Neither of you have built anything. You lack execution skills, [you are] clueless, headless avoidant chickens on permanent hamster wheel vacation.’
Caroline declines to comment, but watch this space…
Yours for £675,000: Keir’s ‘working-class’ childhood home
The Prime Minister said the semi-detached, three-bedroom house near Oxted in Surrey, where he is pictured, had ‘given us stability through the tough 1970s’
When he became Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer was pictured outside his childhood home for a party political broadcast aimed at underlining his ordinary roots.
But now the ‘charming’ 1920s property has gone on the market for £675,000, well over the national average house price for Britain, which currently stands at £280,000.
The Prime Minister said the semi-detached, three-bedroom house near Oxted in Surrey had ‘given us stability through the tough 1970s’.
It’s still higher than the average house price for Surrey, which is £615,000.
Sir Keir lived there with his late parents and four siblings in what he described as a ‘working-class background’.
The property description describes the house as being in a ‘sought-after location which offers a perfect blend of comfort and convenience, ideal for modern family living’.
Victoria Beckham left her eldest son Brooklyn feeling ‘humiliated’ by dancing ‘inappropriately’ on stage at his wedding. Her fellow former Spice Girl Mel B’s performance at her own wedding, to hair stylist Rory McPhee last year, was even more memorable.
‘We had a song called I Would Die 4 U by Prince, and people thought we were a bit nuts,’ she tells me. ‘We got on the dance floor and just jumped and did this improvisation dance. Everyone was, like, “Is this real? Are they OK?”’
It’s the latest trend in sexy novels for women, but ‘romantasy’ provokes scorn from some critics. And author Amanda Craig is keen to bring them to book.
‘The sniggering denigration of romantasy as “fairy smut” is tiresome,’ she says of the genre, a mixture of romance and fantasy fiction. ‘Admittedly, the vast proportion of the genre is poorly written,’ she concedes before claiming that it’s as worthy as Shakespeare’s plays.
‘You can’t sneer at romantasy without decrying A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
The new film A Murder Between Friends is set to feature Dame Joan Collins in a starring role
Dame Joan Collins stars in the new film A Murder Between Friends, but the shoot was even more thrilling in real life. ‘We filmed in Prague in a very old house,’ she tells me at the Curzon Mayfair cinema premiere.
‘I felt a ghost.’ The spirit didn’t, however, haunt the Dynasty star, 93, for long. ‘The ghost lit a fire in one of the very scary rooms, then went up the chimney.’ Clearly, it met its match!
Will Elon bury the hatchet at Dad’s 80th?
Elon Musk once said of his father Errol: ‘Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done.’ But now the Tesla billionaire has the chance for an emotional reconciliation.
I hear Errol is having a three-day 80th birthday party
For I hear that Errol is having a three-day 80th birthday party, starting next week at the five-star Taj Hotel in Dubai.
Various members of the extended Musk family will be flying into the Middle East and Elon is said to have been invited.
The South African businessman has two other children with Elon’s mother, Maye, whom he divorced in 1979 when the SpaceX founder was nine.
Mention of the West Wing would cause many to think of the White House – or, possibly, Buckingham Palace, whose 775 rooms are undergoing a £369million refurbishment.
But in Oxfordshire ‘the West Wing’ surely evokes the latest refinement being made by King Charles’s chum Sir David Beckham to his country residence.
Becks and his wife, Victoria, hope to add an ‘oak-framed balcony’ on what their planning agent describes as ‘the west elevation of the west wing’. Given the Beckhams named their second son Romeo, the development is arguably overdue. Let’s hope the balcony helps 23-year-old Romeo solidify his on-off romance with his very own Juliet, DJ Kim Turnbull.
Don’t make Bond woke, warns Elba
‘You’ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don’t try and answer the world’s taste. Just be Bond,’ says Idris Elba of Bond
Sir Idris Elba, who was once tipped to succeed Daniel Craig as James Bond, has appealed to the new producers at Amazon not to make the forthcoming film politically correct.
‘Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let’s not try and make it woke,’ declares The Wire star, 53. ‘You’ve got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don’t try and answer the world’s taste. Just be Bond.’
