Prince William and Kate Middleton have incredible ‘secret weapon’ when it comes to parenting - the details are fascinating

The Prince and Princess of Wales go to extreme lengths to keep their children safe

Prince George of Wales, Prince William, Prince of Wales, Prince Louis of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Catherine, Princess of Wales during Trooping the Colour on June 15
(Image credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)

Alongside their well-known parenting tactics, Prince William and Kate Middleton enlist an extra 'secret weapon' to help with parenting and keeping their children away from harm.  

The Prince and Princess of Wales are well known for their modern parenting style, and discreet yet effective use of authoritative parenting tactics during public events. Prince George, Charlotte and Louis can also thank their ‘amazing’ great-grandma for inspiring Kate Middleton’s parenting approach, as the Princess likes to ensure special child-rearing lessons are passed down through generations. 

The Wales' also like to enlist the help of an extra 'secret weapon' to help with parenting and ensure their children are kept safe. According to The News International, this 'weapon' comes in the form of a highly trained and skilled nanny. Not only is the family nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, trained at the famous Norland College in Bath, Somerset, she's also been trained in a special set of skills.

Reportedly, this includes specialist security training from former military intelligence officers, including online safety and dealing rapidly with any immediate potential security risks. Not only that, it's also said she would've undertaken self-defence training led by a black belt in Taekwondo.

"So some people have made jokes about 'It's James Bond meets Mary Poppins', but of course, we are not trying to turn our graduates into bodyguards. But at the same time in many respects, we want our nannies to be as fun and loving as Mary Poppins was."

Dr Janet Rose, Norland College principal

If that isn't enough, Prince George, Charlotte and Louis' nanny would've undertaken a skid pan driving course to learn how to control a car under any circumstances, and through adverse weather conditions. This also includes learning how to drive competently when dealing with distractions from children and any other potential hazards and risks.

Dr Janet Rose is the principal of Norland College. She's previously spoken about the skills Norland nannies would be expected to acquire, especially when caring for such high profile children as those born to Prince William and Kate Middleton. She says "Some of the more recent editions to the programme, more cutting edge that fit more with the 21st century, include the security and cyber security training with our former military intelligence officers, for example."

She adds "So some people have made jokes about 'It's James Bond meets Mary Poppins', but of course, we are not trying to turn our graduates into bodyguards. But at the same time in many respects, we want our nannies to be as fun and loving as Mary Poppins was."

For more on the royal family, the Wales' are also fans of controlled parenting, and experts share how their parenting style mirrors Princess Diana's - the children are said to be kept especially grounded by Diana's golden parenting rule that Kate swears by. 

Lucy Wigley
Parenting writer - contributing

Lucy is a mum-of-two, multi-award nominated writer and blogger with six years’ of experience writing about parenting, family life, and TV. Lucy has contributed content to PopSugar and moms.com. In the last three years, she has transformed her passion for streaming countless hours of television into specialising in entertainment writing. There is now nothing she loves more than watching the best shows on television and sharing why you - and your kids - should watch them.