Prince William began his new job as a commercial ambulance pilot the last week of March. And when I say “began his new job,” I mean that he still has months of training to officially be flight-ready. But that training is going to have to wait, y’all. Of course it is! Kensington Palace confirms that William has started his unpaid paternity leave today, and he won’t be going back to Bond Air Services until June.

Kate Middleton was expecting to spend the last days of her pregnancy at Kensington Palace while Prince William worked 115 miles away in Norfolk – but she’s been given a happy surprise. The Duke of Cambridge, 32, has started his paternity leave early after completing the first phase of his air ambulance training ahead of time, meaning he can be by The Duchess of Cambridge’s side as she prepares to give birth to her second child.

The Prince, who is training to become an air ambulance helicopter pilot with Bond Air Services in Norfolk, was due to remain at his and the Duchess of Cambridge’s country residence, Amner Hall, in the run up to the birth of their second child. The distance apart meant that if the Duchess went into labor while William was at work, he faced a two hour drive to London.

Originally, the Duchess, 33, who is currently residing at Kensington Palace to be near to St Mary’s Hospital, was expected to remain at the couple’s London home with their first son, Prince George, in the days leading up to her due date. But thanks to some hard work, and some unseasonably pleasant British weather, the future King of England has completed the first phase of his training early, and has embarked on his unpaid paternity leave ahead of schedule.

“The Duke of Cambridge has completed the first phase of his in-work air ambulance helicopter pilot training with Bond Air Services earlier than anticipated,” a Kensington Palace spokesperson tells Us Weekly. “This is due to a combination of The Duke performing well in the various modules and having very good flying conditions that allowed flight training and assessment to progress more quickly than had been planned,” they added.

William will not have to return to Norfolk for the final part of his training until 1st June, as was always planned, following a “period of official royal engagements in late May, details of which will be announced in due course,” the rep continues.

[From Us Weekly]

Part of me thinks it’s nice that England encourages such generous paternity leave to all men, even princes. Another part of me thinks that William could have planned out his whole scheme-to-avoid-royal-duty a lot better. After all, William is “donating” his salary to charity, which is difficult to do when you’re on unpaid paternity leave. And it must suck to be in such intensive training for such a difficult job and have to skip out for six weeks. It probably doesn’t matter though – I still say that by this time next year, William will already be “bored” with this job and looking for the next scheme to avoid royal work.

Oh, and Harry is probably going to be around for the birth of his new niece or nephew too – Harry is flying back to England (from Australia) in a few days. Harry is coming back to attend an event for the London Marathon. So… Harry might not be in London for the birth, but he’ll definitely get to meet his niece or nephew if Kate gives birth by the weekend.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.