Do you remember your 12th birthday? You probably had a pool party or spent the day with friends at the mall, and the biggest change in your life going forward was having to pay the full adult fare at the movies. But things are different for royalty, and Prince George, who turns 13 on July 22, has been living with a really weird reality for a year now.
We’re not talking about his royal appearances, although those have been multiplying since he turned 12. Last November, George, who is second in line to the British throne, accompanied his mom, Princess Kate, to the Festival of Remembrance. A month later, he went with his dad, Prince William, to The Passage, a charity for the homeless that was dear to Princess Diana’s heart.
And this summer has been chock-full of George sightings, including one at a commemoration for Britain’s National Armed Forces Day in June, and another on July 4, his last day at Lambrook School, which he attended with siblings Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. (This fall, George will begin secondary school at Eton, the same boarding school his dad and uncle Harry attended.)
No, while George’s new royal reality sounds heady enough, there’s one thing the prince has had to deal with since turning 12 that doesn’t sound like much fun at all. In fact, it’s pretty morbid. If you thought moving from the kids table to the adult one at Thanksgiving was a big milestone, read on.
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What royal rule kicked in on George’s 12th birthday?
It’s a little bit creepy, but according to royal insiders, George is no longer allowed to travel on the same airplane as William because they are both direct heirs to the throne. The rule is in place to protect against the unpleasant possibility that both could die in the same plane crash, which would seriously impact the line of succession.
King Charles’s former pilot, Graham Laurie, revealed the rule a few years ago on A Right Royal Podcast, recollecting what happened when William turned 12. “Interestingly, we flew all four: the Prince (Charles), the Princess (Diana), Prince William and Prince Harry, up until Prince William was 12 years old,” the Mirror reported at the time. “After that, he had to have a separate aircraft, and we could only fly all four together when they were young with the written permission of Her Majesty.”
The former pilot even detailed the types of planes the family flew on: “When William became 12, he would fly normally in a 125 from Northolt, and we would fly the 146 out with the other three on.”
Can George travel with his mother and siblings?
Yes. As long as George and his dad travel on different planes, the rest of the family can travel together. And his siblings don’t need to worry—Charlotte and Louis can enjoy much more relaxed travel when they turn 12 because they’re not second in line to the throne.
Currently, the line of succession has William first, followed by George, Charlotte and Louis. Until George has his own family, Harry still sits fifth, with his kids (Archie and Lilibet) sixth and seventh. The disgraced former Prince Andrew is still eighth, though most royal pundits agree that any of the last four options are not ideal, even in the event of a disaster.
Wait, does that mean George can’t vacation with his family at all?
No, of course not—that would be mean! George can take all the family vacations he likes. But if the royal family travels by plane, they’ll have to take two separate flights (no such travel has yet come up, according to royal sources). Do William and Kate plan to adhere to the protocol? It’s not clear—but watch this space, as they do have a penchant for bending the rules.
They’ve even clashed with Charles and the late queen over this very matter, according to royal author Robert Jobson, because William has a habit of piloting his family to Anmer Hall, their Norfolk vacation home, in a helicopter. “One recent source of disagreement is William’s stubborn refusal to take his father’s advice on safeguarding the succession,” Jobson wrote in Catherine, the Princess of Wales: A Biography of the Future Queen. “The King had raised concerns with his son about the wisdom of William using his helicopter to fly his entire family around the country.”
What prompted this rule?
It’s just smart strategy, because unfortunately, the royal family is no stranger to plane crashes—two of which involved a previous Prince William and Prince George.
On Aug. 25, 1942, Prince George, Duke of Kent, who was the late Queen Elizabeth’s uncle, was en route to Iceland when his plane crashed in Caithness, Scotland. Some 14 people died, including the prince. He left behind his widow, Princess Marina, and three children, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Prince Michael of Kent.
A second plane crash would take another Prince William, this one Elizabeth’s cousin. A renowned daredevil, William had a passion for flying, even piloting himself to Japan. But on Aug. 28, 1972, William’s plane crashed during an air show in England, killing him at age 30. The late queen attended his funeral in Windsor, and he was buried in Frogmore, near the castle.
That accident came five years after another tragic crash, when the queen’s flight captain, John Blount, died in a helicopter accident along with three passengers. (So you can probably understand why Elizabeth was particularly fearful of her family taking helicopters.) Prince Philip, the late queen’s husband, was also no stranger to air disasters. His sister Princess Cecilie died in a plane crash on Nov. 16, 1937, along with her husband, two young sons and mother-in-law.
Is this an official royal rule?
No, it’s not written down anywhere; this rule began as a sensible precaution once plane travel became standard. Even before that, however, monarchs did not travel with their direct heirs, often leaving them for months at a time.
The late queen, for example, regularly left her children at home when she went on tour via ship, including in November 1953, when she and Prince Philip undertook a six-month tour of the Commonwealth, including Australia. They left Charles, 5 years old, and Anne, 3 years old, with the queen mother.
Do heirs fly together before the rule takes effect?
Yes, but not very often—and only after getting the queen’s approval. Diana brought 9-month-old William with her when she and Charles took their first overseas trip to Australia, in 1983. He was the first royal baby to go on tour with his parents. Thirty-one years later, in 2014, William and Kate toured Australia with George, who was also 9 months old.
What other royal travel rules exist?
There’s another morbid travel rule the royals usually abide by, which is to always pack a black outfit with them in the event they need to quickly change if a family member passes away.
This happened to the late queen when her father, King George VI, unexpectedly died on Feb. 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya. Her wardrobe—including a mourning outfit—had gone ahead to the ship she was about to board for her Commonwealth tour, so she had to fly back in her summer clothes and wait on the plane while her black outfit was fetched for her.
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