Why King Charles Was in the 'Doghouse' During Kate Middleton's Pregnancy with Prince George.
Valentine Low displays that the future King had issues about altering the guidelines surrounding rights of primogeniture in his new book, 'Power and the Palace'.
A leaked story put King Charles in the doghouse.
Parts of Valentine Low's new book, Power and the Palace, had been excerpted in The Times on Aug. 29, along with a story of how Charles used to be left out of discussions surrounding the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which ended male-preference primogeniture. At the time that the invoice was once transferring via parliament, Kate Middleton and Prince William had been looking ahead to their first child, Prince George, and Charles had questions surrounding it.
Richard Heaton, everlasting secretary at the Cabinet Office, acquired an "unexpected invitation" to have tea with then-Prince Charles in December 2012, and the dialog became to the bill. Low wrote, "What, Charles desired to know, would show up if his first grandchild had been a girl, and she married a Mr. Smith? Would the royal residence be Smith or Windsor? He had different questions too — about what would take place if his grandchild married a Catholic and what impact the new regulation would have on hereditary peerages. It was once no longer Heaton’s region of responsibility, and he had now not been briefed on the subject, however he gave what solutions he could."
It turns out, the authorities was once beneath preparation to deal immediately with Buckingham Palace on the trade of succession rules, which supposed Prince Charles used to be left out. However, The Daily Mail posted a story a few weeks after the tea assembly announcing that Charles had worries and that he and William "appear now not to have been consulted at all, which rankled with the Prince of Wales."
Low wrote, "As quickly as the article appeared, Heaton used to be contacted on excursion by means of the cupboard secretary Jeremy Heywood’s office, asking what had happened. By the time he bought back, in accordance to Whitehall sources, Heywood was once sounding extra comfy about the complete episode. What was once all this about the Prince of Wales, Heaton asked. 'Oh, don’t fear about that,' stated Heywood. 'He’s in the doghouse.' "
"There had been three motives why Whitehall noticed it that way," Low continued. "One used to be that the prince had, in their view, misrepresented the dialog between him and Heaton. Second, he had leaked — or anyone had leaked on his behalf — a non-public dialog with a civil servant. And third, he was once criticising authorities policy, which he used to be no longer supposed to do."
Not lengthy after, the future monarch invited Heaton on an time out the place they took the royal instruct and visited a pottery saved by way of one of the royal's charities.
"It wasn’t an apology, however it was once the subsequent great thing," Low said.
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 dominated that start order determines who will emerge as the subsequent king or queen of the U.K., regardless of sex, as a substitute of the earlier accompanied succession regulations that appreciated male heirs. Prince William and Princess Kate's first toddler grew to become out to be a son. However, their 2d child, Princess Charlotte, made records in 2018 when Prince Louis used to be born — as she did now not lose her region in the line of succession to her youthful brother.
King Charles III (then Prince Charles) found himself “in the doghouse” with Whitehall officials during Kate Middleton’s 2012-2013 pregnancy with Prince George due to a controversy surrounding the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. This legislation, which was progressing through Parliament at the time, abolished the UK’s previous male-preference primogeniture rules—meaning the order of succession would no longer automatically favor sons over daughters—and also removed the disqualification for marrying Roman Catholics.
Charles, eager to understand the implications for his impending first grandchild (Prince George, born July 22, 2013), invited Richard Heaton, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, for tea in December 2012. During the discussion, Charles raised practical questions about the bill’s effects, such as: If the child were a girl who married a “Mr. Smith,” would the royal house become “Smith” or remain “Windsor”? What if the grandchild married a Catholic? And how would it impact hereditary peerages? Heaton later briefed Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood on the conversation.
However, the exchange led to backlash when details of the private discussion were leaked to the press—or, as some Whitehall insiders believed, leaked on Charles’s behalf. This was seen as a breach of protocol for several reasons: Charles was perceived to have misrepresented the talk with Heaton; it violated the convention that royals should not publicly criticize or interfere in government policy (as the heir to the throne); and it highlighted Charles’s exclusion from formal briefings on the bill, which some viewed as him overstepping boundaries. When Heaton sought reassurance about following up with Charles, Heywood dismissed it, saying, “Oh, don’t worry about that. He’s in the doghouse.”
The “doghouse” status was short-lived. Soon after, Charles invited Heaton on a goodwill outing aboard the royal train to visit a pottery supported by one of his charities—a gesture described as “the next best thing” to an apology. The incident, detailed in journalist Valentine Low’s 2025 book *Power and the Palace* (excerpted in *The Times*), underscores tensions between the monarchy and government during a period of constitutional reform, especially amid the high-profile anticipation of Prince George’s birth, which ultimately made him second in line to the throne.
Tags: Queen, Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Louis, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Meghan, Lilibet
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