Prince George gave a one-word veto to the idea of his parents riding a tandem bike in a velodrome, and the moment played out in front of television cameras at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The Wales family — the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children — chatted with Gethin Jones at Wales House, one of the hubs for Team Wales at the Games, on a Saturday during the event Wales Online. Jones, serving as Chef de Mission — the team's lead official — for Glasgow 2026, asked the Wales children whether they would like to see their parents on a tandem bike. George's reply was a plain "No" Hello!.

The tandem idea had come from Princess Kate herself. She told Jones that Dame Laura Kenny — Britain's most successful female Olympian with five gold medals — had suggested she and Prince William try track cycling. Kate's joked warning: "Be careful what you wish for, as they want to put us on a tandem bike in the velodrome" Hello!.

William, never one to let a straight line pass, leaned in with the retort every parent of a teenager will recognise: "We embarrass you enough as it is" Hello!.

George, now 13, is catching up to his father in height — standing at shoulder level to William, who is 6ft 3in Hello!. It is the kind of detail that tends to stop parents in their tracks: the child who was once carried in one arm now eye-level with a man well over six feet.

The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, which Jones is helping lead, features 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and overseas territories, with George Square among its venues Glasgow 2026 Instagram.

For George, the Games outing comes in a summer before a milestone. Kensington Palace confirmed in June that he will start boarding at Eton College in September. The palace's statement was brief: "Kensington Palace can confirm that Prince George will attend Eton College from this September" Hello!.

Eton, the Berkshire boarding school founded in 1440, counts both William and Prince Harry among its former pupils. George's enrollment follows his father's path — though at 13, he still has a few inches to go before he fills out the uniform quite the same way.

For now, the headline from Glasgow is simpler: a teenager told his parents, in front of company, that they embarrass him. Some things, it turns out, are the same whether your father is the heir to the throne or the man next door.