George is going to Eton, support for the monarchy hits a 30-year low and a secret royal wedding nobody noticed

Tea, Titles & Tiaras with Emily Darlow

A new poll out this week shows British support for the monarchy has sunk to its lowest level in over 30 years, with just 55 per cent now wanting to keep it, down from a peak of 80 per cent in 2012. Only a third of 18 to 34-year-olds still support the institution. It is a sobering backdrop for a week that has otherwise been full of classic royal fare: a school decision settled, a Yorkshire wedding nobody outside royal circles noticed, Father’s Day tributes from both sides of the family divide, and Ascot in full, glorious swing.

George’s School Decision: All Roads Lead to Eton

After months of speculation, and genuine uncertainty over whether Kate might push for her own alma mater, Marlborough, Kensington Palace has confirmed Prince George will attend Eton College from September.

It is, in the end, exactly what most royal watchers expected. George, who turns 13 in July, will follow his father and his uncle Harry into the 580-year-old Berkshire school, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It was Princess Diana who originally pushed for William and Harry to attend Eton rather than the family’s traditional choice, Gordonstoun, the famously spartan Scottish school that Charles disliked. George will be a full boarder, just three and a half miles from Forest Lodge, the family’s home in Windsor Great Park, and even closer to his grandfather’s castle.

It turns out George had been down for the school for more than four years, and many of his current Lambrook classmates will be joining him in September, giving him a built-in support network for the daunting jump to boarding school at 13. Eton fees currently sit at around £63,000 a year. William, for what it is worth, loved his time there. Harry rather famously did not.

William, Emma Watson, and What Helps Him Sleep at Night

This week also brought a notably reflective Prince William, who joined Emma Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch and broadcaster June Sarpong at a business forum for The Royal Foundation’s United for Wildlife, part of London Climate Action Week and marking 10 years since the organisation’s Buckingham Palace Declaration united the global transport industry against wildlife trafficking.

William spoke candidly about his Earthshot Prize, saying it helps “keep my environmental anxiety at bay” and genuinely “helps me sleep at night” because it leaves him feeling “we can do this” when it comes to reversing the worst of the climate crisis. He has previously said the same reassurance is something he tells George, Charlotte and Louis before bed, that the planet will be in a better state because of the work being done by people he has met through the prize.

The outing came one day after William’s 44th birthday, which this year fell on Father’s Day, a tidy double celebration that gave us one of the loveliest royal photographs of the month.

A Quiet Wedding in Yorkshire

While the world was watching Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling a fortnight ago, a second, much quieter royal wedding slipped by almost unnoticed.

Lady Marina Windsor, granddaughter of the Duke of Kent and the late Duchess of Kent, and a second cousin once removed of King Charles, married Nico Macauley on Saturday 20 June at All Saints’ Church in Hovingham, North Yorkshire, with the reception held at Hovingham Hall, the Worsley family seat that was the childhood home of the late Duchess of Kent.

It was an intensely personal day. Marina wore the Kent Pearl and Diamond Fringe Tiara, created in the 1970s by combining two historic pieces, one of which traces back to Queen Mary, and previously worn by her grandmother, the Duchess of Kent, who died in September 2025 aged 92. Marina also wore her late grandmother’s diamond and pearl flower earrings, and her mother’s sapphire brooch repurposed as a pendant. Every piece was a quiet tribute to the woman who should have been there.

The Duke of Kent, now in his nineties, led family and guests at the ceremony, having broken royal protocol just days earlier with an unscripted moment on the Buckingham Palace balcony at Trooping the Colour. Marina, who works in philanthropy and has long supported Princess Eugenie’s ocean conservation work, was removed from the line of succession in 2008 after converting to Catholicism. It is also why this wedding took place in a Catholic-friendly Anglican church rather than St George’s Chapel. A small, lovely, family-first occasion, exactly two weeks after Peter and Harriet’s.

Father’s Day, Across Two Continents

Father’s Day this year fell on 21 June and coincided with William’s birthday, giving us two genuinely sweet tribute photographs from two very different households.

Kensington Palace released a never-before-seen image of William with his arm around Charlotte, taken at Trooping the Colour, captioned: “Happy birthday and Father’s Day to the best Papa in the World! We love you very much. C, G, C & L.”

The royal family’s main account also marked the day more broadly, writing: “Celebrating all Fathers, and thinking of those who wish they could be with their Dads, today.”

In Montecito, Meghan shared a candid photo of Harry with Archie and Lilibet, writing: “They’re so lucky to have you. We all are. Happy Father’s Day to our one and only.”

Princess Eugenie also marked the day with warm tributes to her husband Jack Brooksbank, sharing rare family photographs and calling him the “best there is”, with sons August and Ernest unable to “ask for a better Dada”. There was no mention, and no photograph, of her own father. It was Eugenie’s third social media post of the year and, like her previous appearances since the Epstein scandal returned to headlines, it was carefully silent on Andrew. She did not post for his birthday in February either. The silence has become its own kind of statement.

Royal Ascot Wraps Up in Style

The most purely enjoyable royal fixture of the month, Royal Ascot, ran from 16 to 20 June and delivered five days of exceptional racing, exceptional hats and the traditional procession of royals down the course in horse-drawn carriages.

King Charles and Queen Camilla led the royal box across multiple days, while Princess Anne, a near permanent fixture at Ascot for decades, once again brought her trademark confidence and colour to the occasion.

Zara Tindall made several appearances throughout the week, while newlyweds Peter Phillips and Harriet joined the second carriage behind the King and Queen on opening day, just 10 days after their wedding, with their honeymoon apparently postponed in favour of family duty. Harriet wore pale blue Suzannah London and Pragnell diamond earrings, the same jeweller behind both her engagement ring and the late Queen’s in 1946, and was spotted carrying the same Anya Hindmarch “Maud” clutch as Kate.

Kate herself made her long-awaited Ascot return in a sunshine yellow Roksanda dress, her first appearance at the event since 2023 and her first since her cancer diagnosis and treatment kept her away from the meeting in both 2024 and 2025.

Notably absent this year was Sarah, Duchess of York, who has attended Ascot regularly in recent years.

A school chosen, a quiet Yorkshire wedding in honour of a grandmother no longer here, two fathers celebrated an ocean apart, a princess who said everything by saying nothing about her father, and five days of Ascot proving that whatever the polls say about the institution’s future, nobody does pageantry quite like this family. Until next week, keep the tea piping hot and the tiaras polished.