Queen Elizabeth ‘Couldn’t Understand’ Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Nanny Decision, Expert Says
No nanny? An expert says confusion came over Queen Elizabeth II when Prince William and Kate Middleton opted to go without a royal family nanny. Although the couple later hired one, the queen, according to an author, “couldn’t understand” why they didn’t get a nanny immediately after becoming parents.
An author says Queen Elizabeth found William and Kate’s decision not to hire a nanny after Prince George’s birth ‘fascinating’
The now-Prince and Princess of Wales are known for their modern parenting style. They don’t shy away from showing their children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis — affection in public. They’ve been known to bond over cooking and playing outside. William and Kate have also opened up about relatable parenting woes involving kids’ homework, dinnertime, and sibling squabbles.
According to royal expert Katie Nicholl, the queen was surprised at just how “hands-on” their approach to parenting was actually going to be when William and Kate welcome George in July 2013. Nicholl told ITV’s Lorraine the idea of the couple foregoing a nanny was almost unfathomable to the late queen.
“The queen found it fascinating that they never hired a nanny in the first instance because Kate and William wanted to be hands-on parents,” Nicholl said, per Express. “And they are hands-on parents.”
The author and royal correspondent continued, calling it a “generational” difference.
“I think it’s a generational thing, you know,” she said. “The queen couldn’t understand that they didn’t have a night nurse and a nanny in the first instance.”
Additionally, the queen didn’t get “why Kate would cook the tea when of course, she had a housekeeper and kitchen staff, but they want to make the tea.”
Prince William and Kate Middleton eventually hired a nanny
Although William and Kate initially decided against a nanny, they eventually got one. The reason? Kate, according to Nicholl, found the first few months after George’s birth “very hard.”
“Kate was having a conversation with the queen in which she confided that she had found being with George on her own, and not having a full-time nanny or a maternity nurse, very hard,” Nicholl said in the documentary Kate Middleton: Heir We Go Again.
“William and Kate wanted to be hands-on parents, and they did it until September and then they recruited a nanny,” she added.
The couple hired Maria Borrallo, a graduate of the prestigious nanny school, Norland College. Today, Borrallo works as a nanny to George, Charlotte, and Louis.
William and Kate make their children’s ‘school routine’ a ‘priority’
Now, with nearly 10 years of parenting experience, William and Kate still play active roles in their children’s lives. “Today, the whole sort of school routine is very much their priority,” Nicholl said on Lorraine. “If William or Kate can sort of make it work in their schedule so they can do the school run, then that is their priority.”
“They’re incredibly normal and down to earth in that respect,” she added.
Thanks to the family’s recent move to Adelaide Cottage, the drive to school is now shorter for the parents of three. George, Charlotte, and Louis now go to Lambrook School.
They started class on Sept. 8, the same day Queen Elizabeth died. And, as Kate later revealed, the young royals are adjusting well.
