How Prince William Is Changing Royal Upbringing for George, Charlotte, Louis

They live in extraordinary circumstances, but Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are being raised in as ordinary a way as possible.

That’s the vow that Kate Middleton and Prince William have made.

It partly explains why they live in Windsor, away from the goldfish bowl of life in London’s palaces. There, after their three years at Adelaide Cottage, they are now settling into a new home, eight-bedroom Forest Lodge. Windsor’s proximity to their children’s school means they are both on hand not only to take and pick them up from school and their after-class activities but also to attend sports matches and other functions with ease.

Just as Princess Kate has made a bid to recreate the happy household she had growing up, Prince William agrees that a bid to create a relaxed, informal and as normal as possible home life “definitely” started with his late mother, Princess Diana, he told Eugene Levy’s Apple TV series, The Reluctant Traveler, on Oct. 3.

“I think it’s really important that that atmosphere is created at home. You have to have that warmth, that feeling of safety, security, love,” William said in the show.

It’s also been said that he wants to make royal life as unthreatening and unscary as possible for Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.

“He also wants to make sure that their public appearances are controlled,” says longtime royals author Andrew Morton.

Prince William, who, like his brother Prince Harry, recalls the days of the pursuit of their late mother as the most difficult and sad of their childhoods.

His parents, the then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana, were the subjects of massive interest from voracious newspapers, fueling some of that with their own interviews explaining what was wrong in their marriage.

“William’s learnt the lesson from that period, and he’s given out information, which is of relevance, and thwarts the paparazzi from attempting to take pictures, because they release enough pictures to keep them interesting,” says Morton.

In the past, “It was a total invasion of the children’s privacy,” Morton adds.

Says a source with close links to the palace: “They are doing a very good job of gradually bringing George and his siblings into the public sphere as and when required but also in a relaxed and pretty informal way.”

The world is also a very different environment today, thanks to changes in the media and the law that have made some of the more aggressive behavior of photographers and reporters rare. “There has been a cultural shift in the way the media thinks about the young royals,” agrees the source close to the palace — where officials have worked with the media to make a more peaceful, calmer environment work for the royal children.

There is also “enormous goodwill and willingness” among the public towards the family, the source says.

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Morton adds, “The world also won’t accept that as being something normal anymore, and they’ve been far more willing to use the courts to preserve their privacy.”