Prince William holds future of British monarchy in his hands

Record ID: 1688737

  • Title: Prince William holds future of British monarchy in his hands
  • Date: 27th May 2022
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - MARCH 9, 2020) (REUTERS) HARRY AND WIFE MEGHAN LEAVING WESTMINSTER ABBEY / GETTING INTO CAR CAR DRIVING OFF
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2022 12:19
  • Keywords: Kate Middleton Platinum Jubilee Prince Charles Prince William Queen Elizabeth II
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA003942420052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Ahead of the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, 2022, Reuters spoke to royal experts on the future of the British monarchy, and the important role played by her grandson Prince William.
    Since the death of the queen on Thursday (September 8), Britain's new King Charles bestowed on his eldest son William and daughter-in-law Kate the titles of Prince and Princess of Wales, which he and his late wife Diana previously held.
    Around the time of the main jubilee celebrations earlier this year, most polls showed a majority of the British public supported the monarchy, and, while his father Charles commanded less popularity, William and his wife Kate were the most liked royals after the queen.
    But, surveys also suggested those aged under 50 were far more ambivalent about the institution.
    "The future does rest on Prince William," Matthew Dennison, a biographer of the queen, said ahead of the Platinum Jubilee in June, 2022. "And we all know that public opinion can be unkind."
    A decade earlier, amid celebrations for Elizabeth's then Diamond Jubilee, there was a notable moment when she greeted crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace accompanied by Charles, his wife Camilla, William and his wife Kate, and Harry.
    It reflected the long understood plan of Charles to slim down the monarchy effectively to his immediate family when he became king.
    But the shock exit of Harry and his wife Meghan to the United States has put paid to that, placing even more pressure on William and his young family to maintain the institution's long term viability and popularity while
    navigating a rapidly changing society.
    'LAST OF THE MOHICANS'
    "William is the key person because William is going to be king one day," Charles Rae, a former royal correspondent at the Sun newspaper said earlier in the year. "He's the last of the Mohicans, basically. I think an awful lot rests on William's shoulders for the future of the monarchy."
    William and Kate have enjoyed highly positive media coverage over the last five years as one of the world's most glamorous couples with Hollywood star appeal. The prince has shaken off the "work-shy Wills" nickname British tabloids gave him in the last decade when they suggested the couple were lazy.
    "To be honest I'm going to get plenty of criticism over my lifetime and it's something that I don't completely ignore but it's not something I take completely to heart," he said in a 2016 interview to mark the queen's 90th birthday.
    William has also received much praise for his work on mental health, homelessness and the environment, but the couple's 2022 tour of the Caribbean was a wake-up call after they faced protests over Britain's imperial past and criticism that some of the tour had echoes of a colonial throwback.
    "I know that this tour has brought into even sharper focus questions about the past and the future," William said in a highly unusual statement issued at the end of their visit.
    According to the Sunday Mirror newspaper the visit prompted William and Kate to rethink how the monarchy should look, with the couple saying they wanted to be known by their names and not their titles, which at the time were - the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
    "They want to try to avoid the bows and curtsies in public, be more approachable, less formal, less stuffy, and break away with a lot of the tradition and focus on a modern monarchy," an unnamed source told the paper.
    Miguel Head, who was a key aide for the prince for a decade until 2018, said while William did not like ceremony, he understood its importance.
    "When he gets the top job he won't do away with it all," Head told the paper. "He's mindful the monarchy represents something timeless that's above all of us, and many people like the magic and theatre of it."
    William accepts the monarchy needs to move with the times to stay relevant, something the queen had been praised for. The prince in 2016 called her his best role model for the job.
    "That's the challenge for me is how do I make the royal family relevant in the next 20 years time, and it could be 40 years time, it could be 60 years time... I hope that's something that I can do."
    (Production: Will Russell, Sarah Mills, Michael Holden)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register