Princess Diana didn’t just break royal rules—she rewrote them, and now her grandson Prince George is walking a path she carved out decades ago.
This September, George heads off to Eton College, the same all-boys school his dad Prince William attended back in 1995. Funny enough, George starts right around the same age William did—just after turning 13. That’s not an accident. It’s basically a family tradition now, one that Diana kicked off all by herself.
See, before Diana came along, royal boys usually went to Gordonstoun in Scotland. That’s where Prince Philip went, and King Charles too. But Charles apparently hated it there. Like, really hated it. Diana knew this, and she wasn’t about to let history repeat itself with her own kids.
Royal biographer Simon Vigar, who wrote a book called The Four Wives of Windsor, explained that Diana had this weird sense of destiny about her whole life. She grew up around royalty already—her family owned land right next to Sandringham, and her older sister Sarah even dated Charles before Diana did. So Diana kinda knew the game better than anyone marrying into it usually would.
Choosing Eton wasn’t random either. Diana’s own brother and father had gone there, so it felt personal to her, almost like keeping something in the family. Plus it was way closer to home than dragging her boys all the way up to Scotland. 🏫
We all kind of forget how much power Diana actually had in shaping how the monarchy looks today.
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Author Edward White wrote about this in his book Dianaworld, saying Diana basically demanded her sons be raised differently. She wanted them to grow up as “new types of Windsors,” not just carbon copies of royals before them. She pushed back hard against tradition and got her way—Eton it was.
White also pointed out something interesting: Eton represents old English aristocracy, not exactly “royal” in the traditional sense. Twenty British prime ministers went there, by the way. So when Diana talked about wanting her sons to understand regular people, what she really meant was she wanted them to be more like her own family—less stiff, less palace-bound.
William ended up being the first future king to attend Eton, which was a pretty big deal at the time. Vigar says William loved his time there, which made the choice for George feel obvious to William and Kate later on.
There’s also a modern reason behind sticking with an all-boys school, according to Vigar—something about smartphones and how boarding schools without girls might actually help kids focus more these days. Not sure everyone agrees with that logic, but it’s what he said.
Grace Moody-Stuart from The Good Schools Guide backed up the idea that William and Kate really thought this through carefully. She told Hello! that even though they could easily afford any private school in the country, they clearly put real thought into finding the right fit for George—somewhere he’d feel safe, comfortable, and not like a total outsider.
Because let’s be honest, George is always going to stand out no matter where he goes. But Eton, with its long royal-adjacent history and quiet countryside setting, probably gives him the closest thing to normal that a future king can get.