Choosing a secondary school can be stressful for any parent, but it’s even more challenging when your son is our future head of state.

I hear that Prince George visited Eton College before the boarding school broke up for the Easter holidays to see where he would stay if he goes to his father’s alma mater next year.

‘It’s the talk of the school, and of the parents,’ a source close to the Berkshire college tells me.

Although George, who turns 12 in July, might be expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and attend £63,000-per-year Eton, it remains unclear if he will do so.

While Prince William thrived there, his brother, Prince Harry, discovered that it was the wrong choice for him.

Harry wrote in his memoirs, Spare, about his struggles at the school, which he left with a D in A-level geography and a B in art, bypassing university to head straight to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as an officer cadet.

Eton, he said, was ‘heaven for brilliant boys, it could thus only be purgatory for one very unbrilliant boy’.

Each Eton pupil lives in one of 25 houses, along with approximately 50 other pupils of all ages. William and Harry stayed in Manor House, which was also the home of the 1st Duke of Wellington.

The Prince and Princess of Wales with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis

There has been speculation that George could follow the example of his mother, the Princess of Wales, and her siblings, Pippa Matthews and James Middleton, and attend Marlborough College, the Wiltshire boarding school where annual fees are £59,000.

Unlike Eton, Marlborough is co-educational.

I understand that Eton is the preferred choice. It would be highly convenient as William, Catherine and their three children live mainly at Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park, which is just a short walk away.

As might be expected, George’s parents have been spotted at a number of potential choices, including Highgate School in north London.

Catherine was reported to be attracted to Highgate because it has a ‘world-class’ drama department. However, it would seem an unlikely choice as it is 30 miles from Windsor and commuting across the capital could take an hour each way.

George has four terms left at Lambrook School, in the Berkshire countryside, where his sister, Princess Charlotte, aged nine, and Prince Louis, six, are also day pupils.

Eton’s Provost – equivalent of chairman of governors at other schools - is Sir Nicholas Coleridge, the former Conde Nast magazine boss who is a friend of the royals.

He made clear last December that he would not be doing any favours for chums, however high-born.

‘I find myself receiving a torrent of letters and emails from friends of friends, hinting that they hope I can help them secure a place for their sons or grandsons,’ Sir Nicholas wrote in The Spectator magazine. ‘There is a rigorous admissions system here, run with integrity, and it is awkward when the prospective boy hasn’t caught the selector’s eye.’

A Kensington Palace spokesman declines to comment.

Sun, sea and knocking 60, Brooke's a bikini bombshell

Brooke Shields, who turns 60 next month, stunned in a bikini in a recent Instagram post

 She made her name wearing little more than a loincloth in 1980s film The Blue Lagoon and Brooke Shields is keen to prove that she still looks good on a beach.

The Hollywood star, who turns 60 next month, has posted photographs online of her wearing a bikini designed by King Charles’s goddaughter India Hicks.

She says her two adult daughters, Rowan and Grier, have given her confidence to wear revealing swimwear. ‘I was wearing those big bathing suits that had as much fabric as possible,’ she says. ‘My daughters were, like, “Mum, it’s ridiculous”. It was sort of seeing myself through their eyes and just celebrating things like my butt.’

Marriage proposals at Ed Sheeran’s concerts have become a trend, but how about this for a wedding venue?

The pop superstar has revealed that the first marriage ceremony has been held at the newly built chapel at his Suffolk estate.

‘My security guard got married in my chapel and that was really lovely,’ says Sheeran, who does not disclose the employee’s name.

The boat-shaped venue, which includes a burial chamber, was completed in 2023. The singer, 34, adds: ‘There are certain intimate moments you just want to spend with your family and not have someone filming you.’

Aussie royalists buck republican trend 

The proposed design for a new A$5 to be formally submitted by the Australian Monarchist League

Monarchists are not taking Australia’s decision to omit King Charles from its A$5 banknotes lying down.

Queen Elizabeth’s portrait was on A$5 notes since 1992 but the Reserve Bank of Australia said last month that a new design would focus on recognising indigenous communities instead.

Now, the Australian Monarchist League has submitted this design, pictured, featuring the King alongside indigenous art work. ‘We can celebrate both the monarchy on our $5 note while also recognising indigenous Australians,’ insists league chairman Philip Benwell.

Why Vanessa is not a Meghan fan 

Self-obsession makes the Duchess of Sussex a terrible interviewer, claims Vanessa Feltz.

Having listened to Meghan’s new podcast, the distinguished broadcaster tells me: ‘If I’m honest, it’s not very good. She needs to listen to the answers more.’

Speaking at Queen By Candlelight at the London Palladium, Feltz says: ‘Her podcast is supposed to be about women CEOs and entrepreneurs, but I didn’t learn anything from it. Meghan speaks a lot about how she met them, and herself, but she needs to speak less about herself and stick to the actual topic.’

Is Easter nostalgic for Sarah, Duchess of York? I ask because a female acquaintance of Paddy McNally, the tycoon who was Fergie’s great love in the early 1980s, has been reminiscing. At Easter, the pal says, McNally would have a chocolate rabbit made in Switzerland and flown to London. 

‘It would get its own seat because it was so enormous,’ the chum tells Tatler, adding that, after McNally’s Easter lunch in Gloucestershire, children would gather round the bunny – and ‘run for cover’ as fireworks shot from its belly. Slightly different from the entertainment at ‘Cocaine Castle’, as a Verbier chalet frequented by McNally’s set was known.