How Prince William's small gesture shows that he is preparing Prince George for his future royal role

Although he is just eight years old, as third in line to the throne Prince George is expected to one day become King. While Prince William and Kate Middleton have often spoken about their parenting techniques, stressing that they never want to differentiate between their three children, experts believe that it is 'inevitable' that the eldest Cambridge child will grow apart from his siblings, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, as he takes a different path and prepares for his future as monarch.

And it seems that the Duke of Cambridge is already preparing George for the life of royal duty that lies ahead of him.

In recent weeks the Cambridge children have made a handful of public appearances, attending the memorial service of their great grandfather Prince Philip in March, and the Easter Sunday Service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

However, when it comes to William and George's behaviour, there was a key difference between the two events just weeks apart according to body language expert Judi James.

While the Duke was photographed holding his son's hand at Westminster Abbey, he gave him space to walk independently into the chapel last weekend.

Judi James told the Mirror that this signifies William's 'conscious uncoupling' with George to give him more independence.

She said: 'The most powerful and historic non-verbal signal here is, without doubt, the lovingly performed ‘conscious uncoupling’ between William and his chip-off-the-block son George.

'This was the first time we have really seen George walking between his parents as an independent royal. Normally he will automatically and very sweetly hold his father’s hand but here it looks like a conscious decision for him to appear more grown-up.'

She added that the decision to let him walk without having his hand held comes from a place of 'trust and love', saying: '[They] could easily extend the hand-holding to enable them to keep charge of any naughty behaviour. Instead they appear to limit their 'checking' rituals with George to some gentle touches of encouragement on the back and one very fond hair stroke from William.'

How sweet!