George Washington University

Georgetown University is the Washington, D.C. alma mater of Alexander Gabriel Claremont-Diaz, the First Son of the United States and one half of the novel's central romance. It is where Alex spends his undergraduate years, a setting that grounds the story's high-stakes political and royal drama in the mundane rhythms of lectures, exams, and all-nighters. The university is the primary stage for Alex's civilian life, a place where he is both a recognizable public figure and a student struggling to keep up with his coursework while managing his duties as a campaign surrogate and, later, a secret boyfriend to a British prince. Its significance lies in the contrast it provides: Georgetown is the space of ordinary ambition and academic striving, set against the gilded, surveilled worlds of the White House and Kensington Palace.

Identity and Introduction

Alex is introduced as a student at Georgetown University, though his academic life is perpetually interrupted by his role as the First Son. He takes classes that are painfully relevant to his own life, such as an elective called The Press and the Presidency, which he attends while jet-lagged from managing the press's impact on his mother's presidency. He also enrolls in Ethical Issues in International Relations, a course whose subject matter hits uncomfortably close to home. His education is a point of pride and a source of stress, as he juggles campaign events, Senate recon missions, and the constant threat of scandal with his coursework.

Life and Plot Trajectory

Alex's time at Georgetown is marked by a sense of missing out. He reflects that he never had the traditional college experiences—no stamp on his forehead on his twenty-first birthday at The Tombs, no jump in Dalhgren Fountain. Instead, his college years feel like a series of lectures that happened to be in the same geographical area, isolated by fame and harangued by security. He is often late to class, as when he loses track of time reviewing a speech for a campaign event in Nebraska and misses a review session for an exam. Despite these disruptions, he graduates summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Government, a fact that his Google alerts announce before he has even taken off his cap and gown. The graduation ceremony itself is a strange experience: the entire auditorium gives him a standing ovation, and a dozen classmates he has never spoken to ask for photos, smiling for their parents' iPhones while he wonders if he should have tried harder to connect.

Key Actions and Objectives

Georgetown serves as the backdrop for Alex's attempts to balance his public duties with his personal desires. He uses his knowledge of the university's environs to navigate his double life, though the campus itself is rarely the site of his most dramatic moments. Instead, it is the place he returns to between crises—after the Royal Wedding Cake Incident, after the Paris Encounter, after the Lake House Breakup. His academic pursuits are a constant, grounding force, even as he is pulled into the orbit of the British royal family. The university represents his own ambition and his desire to build a legacy, a goal that he admires in Henry, who is determined to use his inheritance for philanthropic work. Alex's graduation from Georgetown marks the end of his formal education and the beginning of his adult life, a transition that coincides with the deepening of his relationship with Henry.

Relationships and Conflict

Georgetown is where Alex's relationships with his family and friends are contextualized. His father, Oscar Diaz, is a senator whose political career has given Alex an encyclopedic knowledge of policy and procedure, and whose alma mater connections to the university's world of politics are implicit in Alex's own trajectory. Alex's friendship with Rafael Luna, a senator from Colorado, is rooted in a summer he spent on Luna's campaign in Denver, a formative experience that shaped his political instincts. The university is also where Alex's secret relationship with Henry begins to strain under the weight of secrecy. Henry's own education at Eton and Oxford stands in contrast to Alex's American university experience, highlighting the different worlds they come from. The conflict between Alex's public role and his private self is most acute in the spaces of Georgetown, where he is recognized by starstruck freshmen but remains fundamentally unknown to his classmates.

Change and Ending

Alex's graduation from Georgetown is a turning point in the novel. It marks the end of his undergraduate years and the beginning of his post-college life, which is immediately consumed by the fallout of his relationship with Henry. The standing ovation he receives at graduation is a symbol of his public persona, but it also underscores his isolation. After graduation, Alex's life becomes even more entangled with the royal family, as he and Henry navigate the consequences of their relationship. Georgetown fades into the background, replaced by the more fraught spaces of the White House, Kensington Palace, and the various locations where their secret is nearly exposed. The university remains a touchstone of Alex's identity, a place where he was supposed to have a normal life but never quite did.

Narrative Role and Evaluation

Georgetown University functions as a narrative anchor for Alex's character, grounding his story in a recognizable American institution while the rest of the novel careens between continents and palaces. It is a space of relative normalcy, where Alex's problems are academic rather than existential, and where his celebrity is a nuisance rather than a threat. The university also serves as a contrast to the British institutions that shape Henry's life, emphasizing the differences between the American republic and the British monarchy. In the broader structure of the novel, Georgetown represents the world Alex is trying to hold onto even as he is drawn into Henry's world. It is the place where he is most himself—a student, a son, a young man with ambitions—before the weight of his relationship with Henry forces him to confront who he wants to be.