Prince William has made some major moves over the last year as first-in-line to the throne, suggesting that his future reign may be a lot different to those that have gone before.
As well as being more open about his emotions, especially since Princess Kate’s cancer battle last year, the Prince of Wales has also said he wants to do Royal with a “small r” and use his position more than ever to help important causes in society.
While it seems William, 42, is prepping himself for his future job role, the prince was reportedly not always so keen on the idea of one day being crowned and even voiced this to his late mum Princess Diana.
Prince Harry was also understood to be aware of his older brother’s reluctance to have the responsibility in the future, and had a very different outlook on this than he does now as a non-working royal.
Despite stepping back from royal life with his wife Meghan Markle in 2020, as a child Harry was reportedly willing to take the burden of being a future King off William’s hands. Once, when William told Diana that “he didn’t want to be king”, Harry replied in a curt nine words: “If you don’t want the job I’ll have it.”
TV broadcaster Jeremy Paxman said this is what he heard when having lunch with Princess Diana before her tragic death in 1997.
He said: “We talked about our children and she said William often told her that he didn’t really want to be king, and then Harry would say, ‘If you don’t want the job I’ll have it’.”
Royal expert Robert Jobson also revealed that Diana privately called Harry GKH – or Good King Harry – and even at one point thought her youngest son would be better suited for the role as King.
Jobson told Channel 5 programme William & Harry: Princes At War: “She used to refer to Harry as GKH (Good King Harry) because she thought he’d probably be better equipped for the role in the future than William.”
While William is not expected to be King for some time, it seems he is more open to his future role now and wants to put his own modern spin on it.
The prince has also made clear that even in a senior royal role, he will continue to prioritise his family above all else – something he proved last year during Kate’s health struggles. While the princess was receiving treatment last year, William took a back seat when it came to some royal duties to ensure he could be there to support Kate, as well as their three children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six.
The future King also moved the family away from Kensington Palace to a small cottage on the Windsor Castle estate in 2022 to give his children a more ordinary upbringing away from Palace walls.
William said during an interview in Cape Town last year: “I’m trying to do it differently and I’m trying to do it for my generation. And to give you more an understanding around it, I’m doing it with maybe a smaller a smaller R in the royal.
“It’s more about impact philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people.And I’m also going to throw empathy in there as well, because I really care about what I do. It helps impacts people’s lives and I think we could do with some more empathetic leadership around the world. So that’s what I’m trying to bring, that’s what Catherine is trying to bring as well.”
