Dear Gossips,

School’s in!

We’re back along with almost everyone else in North America after the Labour Day break and, as of today, even though summer isn’t technically over, it is a new season… for gossips and for students. Including England’s Prince George, previously known in these parts as Big G, and he’s definitely big now as it’s his first day at Eton College, nearly as tall as his mother in heels, and following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Like we saw with previous generations of royals, including his father and uncle before him, George was dropped off today in the rain by his parents – and it’s a tradition, not just the family handover to the school but also the media gathered to cover the occasion. The footage of G with his parents, Prince William and Princess Kate, was taken by outlets invited to report on the event, and it is an “event” for them. What is pedestrian for so many other parents and children today doing the same, when the 13-year-old is the future king, everything ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Back in William and Harry’s time, though, their first day at Eton made the front page, and the news broadcasts, but now there’s the addition of social media. Big G is the first future monarch of his nation to be dropped off at Eton in the time of Twitter and TikTok. And it’s not just about how people will be talking about his arrival at boarding school online, it’s about how that online activity might be much more a part of his daily life now that he’ll be living away from home for the first time. Big G was likely protected from social media up until this point, being with his parents at their various palaces and estates. Now, though, even with extra scrutiny from faculty given his identity, there are many more opportunities for him to perceive the world beyond those royal gates through the platforms that young people are using.

In his book, Spare, Prince Harry wrote about how it affected him to be at Eton, whenever the tabloids were on their f-cksh-t about him and his family. Now with all the apps, in addition to the paps, it’s that much more intrusive. George is now a teenager, and it is during adolescence where we all are figuring out who we want to be and who we can be – it’s a prolonged process of trial and error, a period when mistakes are expected and arguably encouraged; you cannot learn if you don’t fail. Young people should be given space to stumble and fumble and try again. British royals, however, have to do it under a microscope, while staring at a lens… and now a phone screen.

King Charles and Prince William have, as we have seen, been reticent to limit the aggressive tactics of the British tabloid media, choosing instead to extend the “invisible contract” between the royal institution and the press in exchange for selectively favourable reporting. It’s a system that predates them, a system they have upheld, even though it has failed them, even harmed them. There are many people who believe, however, that they weaponised it against one of their own and that may have worked out for them … but in a relationship with the devil, are you ever really the one in control? Can they really be that choosy about who they can safeguard and who they can throw to the dogs?

For their sakes, since there are children involved, I really hope so. But it remains to be seen whether or not the British tabloids can resist treating Prince George and his siblings the way they did his parents and his uncle and aunt and of course his grandmother. And should the day ever come where his own son is tormented by the same publications that were once merciless to his mother and his wife and his brother and his sister-in-law, I wonder how Prince William might consider his relationship with the tabloid media.

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Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Photo credits:  Adrian Dennis/WPA Pool/Shutterstock

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