Here’s What Fascinated Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis the Most About the Queen’s Funeral Plans
We’d be curious, too.
Queen Elizabeth passed away on Thursday, September 8 which, coincidentally, was also the first day of school at Lambrook for Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. For the next week, as their mother Kate Middleton drove them to school each day, the trio could see preparations for the Queen’s funeral continually unfold—and one part of the process in particular fascinated them, the new Princess of Wales said.
Last Thursday, while visiting operational staff who helped organize the Queen’s committal service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle the Monday prior, Kate said that the funeral’s security—specifically the security drones flying over Windsor before the funeral on Monday, September 19—fascinated her kids.
“When we’ve been doing the school run, we’ve been able to see the preparations going up,” she said while at the event at Windsor Guildhall, per People. “We’ve seen it growing.”
She praised the planning for the committal service, seeing it as “quite a mission” that was “so well organized.” Kate said her three kids were “beady-eyed” about the security drones and asked her about them.
George and Charlotte accompanied their parents to the state funeral and committal service, while Louis, at just four years old, was deemed too young to attend. Just weeks ago, the family of five moved from Kensington Palace in London to Windsor, where they live at Adelaide Cottage, just a half mile from Windsor Castle. According to People, “the relocation gave the family a unique vantage point as the funeral arrangements took shape in recent weeks.”
In an attempt to “keep things as normal as possible” for their children, the Prince and Princess of Wales have no known plans to relocate from their new home to Windsor Castle, where it was always assumed they would move after the Queen’s death. (The Queen had made Windsor her primary residence since the pandemic.) And, speaking of Windsor Castle, while visiting with mourners over the past couple of weeks, Kate said “it’s very strange being here without Her Majesty.”
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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.