Prince George turns 9! 9 things you didn’t know about Prince William and Kate Middleton’s son, from calling Queen Elizabeth ‘gan-gan’ to the British royal’s dreams of joining the RAF Air Cadets
- Prince George, who’s third in line to the British royal throne after Prince Charles and dad William, is a country boy at heart who loves spaghetti carbonara
- He is vocal about the environment, and, like his sister Princess Charlotte, has a musical side – he was seen making music while listening to songs from Disney’s Encanto
Prince George turned nine years old on July 22 and appeared in a brand new portrait showing just how much he’s grown since his last birthday.
The world has watched the young royal grow up and develop a public persona of his own in under a decade. With his role in the royal family likely to become more prominent as he gets older, here’s nine things you probably didn’t know about the future king ...
1. He almost wasn’t named George
The Duchess of Cambridge had her “heart set on” the name Alexander for her firstborn according to royal expert Katie Nicholl, but she and William settled on George, with Alexander being the heir’s middle name, per Vanity Fair.
Queen Elizabeth’s father was George VI and the current monarch’s middle name is Alexandra, so both names are believed to honour the rulers.
2. George has a sweet nickname for the queen
Middleton revealed what Prince George calls the queen when she opened up about his special relationship with his great-grandmother in a 2016 interview with ITV. “George is only two-and-a-half and he calls her ‘gan-gan’,” Middleton told the TV network.