Prince William and Kate Middleton had a fairytale wedding back in 2011. Since then, the couple has welcomed three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. As the kids grow up and spend time among friends and classmates, they’re likely to learn even more about how different their family is.

George met his first glimpse of this back when he was just five or six years old. According to a royal insider, the boy had a typical reaction to friends reportedly telling him he was a bit different from the other kids.

Prince George might have learned about his royal roots through classmates

William and Kate want their children to live the most normal lives possible. The Wales family moved out of Kensington Palace and into Adelaide Cottage back in 2022. Adelaide sits on the grounds of Windsor Castle, and the move allowed the family to live a much more private life. Their children also started at a new school.

However, it’s impossible to prevent classmates from talking, and William and Kate reportedly learned this when George was just five or six years old. According to Express, Rebecca English, a Daily Mail royal editor, revealed on a podcast recently that sources once told her how George handled news of his royalty.

“I remember someone saying to me that George had come back — I think probably about five or six — coming back and had just started to ask some unusual questions of his parents when he got home from school,” English said, referring to George coming back from school one day. “So he was starting to become more aware of who he was. Obviously maybe some of the other children had been saying things to him you know like, ‘My mummy says,’ or, ‘My daddy says.’”

Prince William and Kate Middleton want to keep their kids’ childhoods private

Perhaps the move to Adelaide Cottage was sparked by George and Charlotte developing a better understanding of who they are. While Louis is still quite young, the two older children likely recognized by age seven or eight that their lives were far different from their school friends. Though it’s assumed that William and Kate relocated to Adelaide to give the family more privacy, it’s possible the impetus was recognizing that things were about to get a lot more difficult for George and Charlotte as they grew up.

For now, though, William and Kate are enjoying having young kids. George will be 12 this year, and rumor has it the Wales family is already looking into potential private schools for George, where he’ll spend his four years before attending college.