PRINCE’S DATE
The public spotlight is growing ever brighter on Prince William as he moves into his middle age and another year closer to the crown, writes Kerry Parnell
AS PRINCE William turns 40, he’s moving, not only into his middle years, but the next stage of his royal role. And he’s marking the milestone by making a big change – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are packing up their Kensington Palace base, and moving to a house on the Windsor Estate. William and Catherine are taking Prince George and Princess Charlotte out of their Battersea school at the end of the school year next month and enrolling them in a school in Berkshire, where Prince Louis will join them in September.
They will retain their Kensington Palace home and Anmer Hall in Norfolk, but make their permanent base at the modest four-bedroomed Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate. It is thought the Cambridges will move into Windsor Castle itself when Charles becomes king.
“There is a sense of the future accelerating towards him,” an aide told Britain’s Sunday Times, adding that William was aware of the “added pressures on his father and his family being under even more scrutiny”.
Certainly, William and his family were markedly centre-stage at the Queen’s recent Platinum Jubilee.
While Louis received mixed reactions for his high-spirited antics over the celebrations, William was also reportedly an unruly toddler. Diana called him her “mini-tornado”, while the Queen thought him “out of control”, says royal biographer Tina Brown. At his kindergarten, “William was considered an entitled little monster and was known as ‘Basher Wills’,” she writes in The Palace Papers.
And while he has become practised at keeping his emotions in check in public, in private he still has a volatile temper, according to biographers.
His “fiery temper can blow up at any time – usually when he’s frustrated or when it comes to issues regarding his family,” writes Robert Jobson in William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch. “Even senior members of his circle will ‘check which way the wind is blowing’,” he says.
As the Prince celebrates his 40th birthday on Tuesday, June 21, he’s lived his whole life in front of the cameras – but behind the steely persona, who is the real William and what can we expect from the future?
“I think William will be a modern king – more like his counterparts in Europe,” says Brittani Barger, deputy editor of Royal Central. “Britain will always have the special pomp and circumstance, but he will be more in touch with the people and relatable.”
When previously asked about his vision for the future, William told the BBC, “Well, I think the royal family has to modernise and develop as it goes along and it has to stay relevant. And that’s the challenge for me.”
Whatever his decisions, he will enjoy more support than his father – according to a recent YouGov poll, 77 per cent of the British public think William will do a good job as king, compared with 57 per cent for Charles.
Charles has been vocal about his desire to modernise the monarchy and once he takes the throne, it is believed he will waste no time in slimming down the palace “machine”, moving from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace and possibly turning Balmoral Castle into a museum. Running several palaces while campaigning on environmental issues isn’t sustainable, so it is expected William would further slim down the properties and open some more to the public.
It’s also likely he will reign over a much smaller Commonwealth, with Jamaica announcing it is beginning the process of becoming a republic and
Australia appointing its first Assistant Minister for the Republic. William is reportedly sanguine about these changes. After criticism of their tour of the Caribbean in March, he issued a statement: “who the Commonwealth chooses to lead its family in the future isn’t what’s on my mind”. This direct approach to communication is a distinct break from that practised by his grandmother and father. The Duke of Cambridge often tweets personally, signing his messages, “W”, and he and Catherine keep abreast of public opinion, even having a joke after the Jubilee with a post saying, “We all had an incredible time, especially Louis”.
William and Catherine’s attendance at the Grenfell Tower memorial on Tuesday was hailed by locals as showing they cared, and he’s also determined to make a difference with his philanthropy, including a project on homelessness.
He was seen selling The Big Issue in London recently and while it raised some eyebrows over a prince having the means to alleviate much homelessness, aides say that is exactly what he plans to do when he takes over his father’s Duchy of Cornwall, with its vast estates which currently bring Charles an income of $37m a year and raises $175m for his charitable causes.
William, who is patron of homeless charities Centrepoint and The Passage, previously told the BBC that Diana taking him to shelters as a child had a profound effect on him.
“She realised it was very important when you grow up – especially in the life that we grew up – that you realise life happens beyond palace walls, and you see real people struggling with real issues,” he said.
The big issue for him is what he does with that insight.