As a future King and second-in-line to the British throne, Prince George was always destined to have a special bond with King Charles.
The ten-year-old will be looking up to his grandfather as a mentor in the future, Robert Jobson, author of Our King: Charles III: The Man and the Monarch Revealed, says in this week’s issue of HELLO!
“It’s very much a grandfather relationship with George at the moment, but as he gets older, the King will take on that mentoring role, much as the late Queen did with William.”
The King enjoys a close relationship with his UK-based grandchildren George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis and has clearly taken his grandfatherly role very seriously since George’s birth in July 2013.
At the time, His Majesty began planting trees at Balmoral in his grandson’s name; the area is now called Prince George’s Wood. He also refurbished the treehouse he’d had built for his sons in the gardens at Highgrove, his private home in Gloucestershire, for George to play there.
And last year, George was given the responsibility of being one of his grandfather’s pages of honour at the coronation.
King Charles gives tour of beautiful woodland area named after Prince George:
On the King’s relationship with Prince Louis, Robert added: “He obviously gets on very well with Louis, as we have seen. He absolutely adores him.”
And the birth of Princess Charlotte – whose name is a tribute to him – in 2015 was no less a source of delight for the King, who said at the time: “I was hoping for a granddaughter – someone to look after me when I am very old.”
As Charles, 75, continues with his treatment for cancer, his young grandchildren, who affectionately call him ‘Grandpa Wales’ in reference to his previous title, will no doubt act as a source of comfort to him.
The children spent the February half-term break in Norfolk, where the King also had a week between treatments. And a family reunion will have been just the tonic.
“The King will be getting lots of positive energy from the little ones,” Robert said. “He needs peace and quiet, but he will have been very happy to see his grandchildren and to spend a bit of time with them.”
