There’s a milestone Prince George, Charlotte and Louis will have to reach before getting to eat with Prince William and Kate at family gatherings, according to a former royal chef.
- The Prince and Princess of Wales are expected to spend time in Scotland with their three children this summer and they’ll apparently be separated at meal times.
- It’s claimed that royal children “always” eat in the nursery until they can “conduct themselves properly” at the dinner table and that dinner is “only for grown-ups”.
- This royal news comes as we revealed Pippa Middleton's twinkling champagne dress was the perfect wedding guest look.
Since Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis finished school for the summer the Prince William and the Princess of Wales have been out of the royal spotlight, spending time together as a family. The couple aren’t likely to resume engagements until the autumn and are expected to enjoy time at Balmoral Castle with King Charles and Queen Camilla.
However, whilst family time seems to be incredibly important to Prince William and Kate, mealtimes during the holidays reportedly mean a clear separation between them and their children. During holidays and family gatherings like Christmas at Sandringham and Easter at Windsor Castle, it’s claimed that royal children don't eat with their parents.
According to The Mirror, former royal chef Darren McGrady previously made the revelation to Harper’s Bazaar and he shared the milestone Prince George, Charlotte and Louis will have to reach before they get this privilege.
Opening up about the intriguing royal meal set-up, Darren alleged, “The children always ate in the nursery until they were old enough to conduct themselves properly at the dining table."
He also suggested that they ate Christmas dinner with their nannies instead of their parents and that they need to master “polite conversation” as part being able to “conduct themselves properly”. Meanwhile, Majesty Magazine’s Editor Ingrid Seward predicted in The Sun that the “young children” probably wouldn’t have eaten with the adults at Easter this year either.
"They will all have dinner together but not the young children they will eat in the nursery dining room," Ingrid claimed at the time. “Queen [Elizabeth] always said until they could hold a knife and fork properly they could not eat at the table, but Charles might have relaxed that rule a bit. But dinner is only for grown-ups.”
So it seems that when it comes to family gatherings, royal children like Prince George, Charlotte and Louis will likely still be sitting separately at dinner for a little bit longer. This could mean that if the Royal Family do gather at Balmoral this summer, the late Queen’s great-grandchildren will be spending meal times in each other’s company and not with their parents as they learn to “conduct themselves properly”, including holding their cutlery correctly.
However, given their apparently close bond with the other royal youngsters, Prince George, Charlotte and Louis might not actually mind too much.
The Wales kids have been seen having fun with Savannah and Isla Phillips and Mia and Lena Tindall at Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Whilst Prince William once described seeing his children with his cousins' kids as being a Christmas highlight during a radio appearance in 2021.
“When I see my children meet up with my cousins’ children, they will have a wonderful time playing together. It’s very special. So I look forward to that a lot,” he declared.
They might look forward to spending time together too and so it's possible the royal children are quite happy having meal times separately for the time being.
