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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<\/a>, who turns 13 on July 22, has been living with a really weird reality for a year now.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, the same boarding school his dad and uncle Harry attended.)<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Get\u00a0<\/strong>Reader’s Digest<\/em><\/strong>‘s\u00a0<\/strong>Read Up newsletter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for more royals, humor, cleaning, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.<\/strong><\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n King Charles’s former pilot, Graham Laurie, revealed the rule a few years ago on A Right Royal Podcast<\/em>, 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<\/em> 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\nWhat royal rule kicked in on George’s 12th birthday?<\/h2>\n
Can George travel with his mother and siblings?<\/h2>\n