Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

0:00
0:00

Prince William holds future of British monarchy in his hands

While nearly all attention will be focused next week on Queen Elizabeth as she celebrates her 70th anniversary on the throne this year, for those with eyes on the future of the British monarchy, attention is switching to her grandson Prince William.

The British royals have suffered a bruising couple of years with the U.S. sex abuse lawsuit against Elizabeth's son Andrew, Prince Harry, William's younger brother, quitting duties to move to the United States in 2020, and police investigating alleged wrongdoing at the main charity of son and heir Prince Charles.

With the health of the popular 96-year-old queen an increasing source of concern, forcing her to pull out of public engagements, her Platinum Jubilee will mark not just a time to reflect on her past, but to look ahead.

Most polls show a majority of the British public support the monarchy, and, while his 73-year-old father commands less popularity, William - the second in line to the throne - and his wife Kate are the most liked royals after the queen.

But, surveys also suggest those aged under 50 are far more ambivalent about the institution.

"The future does rest on Prince William," Matthew Dennison, a biographer of the queen, said. "And we all know that public opinion can be unkind."

A decade ago, 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, 39, 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," said Charles Rae, a former royal correspondent at the Sun newspaper. "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, 40, 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 recent 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 has 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 - 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 Sunday Times. "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 has 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."
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×