‘It overwhelms me’: Prince William gives his most honest interview to date
In one of Prince William’s most honest chats to date, the future King has revealed how he’s really coped behind closed doors amid endless family upset.
Prince William has given an extremely rare interview – perhaps his most candid chat to date – where he made telling comments about how he’s coped with family turmoil.
It’s been a turbulent few years for the British royals, from the loss of both Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s outspoken comments about members of the firm and Kate Middleton and King Charles’ respective cancer diagnosis’.
Amid it all, William has remained typically stoic, seldom making public comments about private matters.
But in a new TV appearance, the Prince of Wales has opened up for a wide-ranging interview with US actor Eugene Levy for his AppleTV+ travel program, The Reluctant Traveler. William’s walls came down over a pint in a Windsor pub as he shared how the weight of the crown didn’t remotely compare to tough times involving family.
“Stuff to do with family overwhelms me quite a bit,” he said.
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William continued, “Worry or stress around the family side of things does overwhelm me quite a bit.
“But in terms of doing the job and things like that, I don’t feel too overwhelmed by that … When it’s to do with family and things like that, then that’s where I start getting a bit overwhelmed — as I think most people would, because it’s more personal, it’s more about feeling, it’s more about upsetting the rhythm.”
While William wasn’t drawn into specifics, it’s easily the most insight he’s given into how he’s coped behind closed doors, particularly amid his highly-publicised estrangement from brother Prince Harry, who has publicly outed the family’s dirty laundry several times since moving to the US in 2020.
The Prince went on to reveal his “strong line” against exploitation of his family, vowing he would “fight against” threats to their privacy, particularly after watching what his late mother Princess Diana endured in the public eye.
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“If you’re not careful, you can intrude so much into someone’s life that actually you start unpicking everything,” he said.
“And growing up, I saw that with my parents, the media were so insatiable back then — it’s hard to think of it now, but they were much more insatiable. They wanted every bit of detail they could absorb, and they were in everything, literally everywhere. They would know things, they’d be everywhere. And if you let that creep in, the damage it can do to your family life is something that I vowed would never happen to my family.
“And so, I take a very strong line about where I think that line is, and those who overstep it, I’ll fight against.
“But equally, I understand, in my role, there is interest. You have to work with the media. So, you have to have a grown-up sort of situation with it as well. It’s about knowing where the line is and what you’re willing to put up with.”
Harry told the BBC in May he was eager to finally reconcile with his family, confirming reports the once-close brothers still weren’t on speaking terms.
Further, Harry claimed his father Charles “won’t speak to me”, though the pair recently reunited for tea in London in early September. William wasn’t present at the meeting.
Elsewhere during the interview, William gave an update on his wife, who went public with her cancer diagnosis in March last year. He revealed Catherine was now in remission.
“Everything is progressing in the right way, which is all good news,” William said, while also breaking his silence on how the couple’s three children George, Charlotte and Louis, have coped with the process.
“Everyone has their own coping mechanisms for these sorts of things, and children are constantly learning and adapting,” he said.
“We try to make sure we give them the security and the safety that they need. And we’re a very open family, so we talk about things that bother us, and things that trouble us, but you never quite know the knock-on effects that it can have. And so, it’s just important to be there for each other and to kind of reassure the children that everything is OK.”
The future King also made a rare revelation about how he approaches marriage and fatherhood after watching the breakdown of Charles and Diana’s relationship.
“You have to have that warmth, that feeling of safety, security, love,” he said.
“That all has to be there, and that was certainly part of my childhood. My parents got divorced at 8, so that lasted a short period of time.
“But, you take that and you learn from it and you try and make sure you don’t do the same mistakes as your parents. I think we all try and do that and I just want to do what’s best for my children, but I know that the drama and the stress when you’re small really affects you when you’re older.”
Finally, William told how his relationship with his grandparents grew “warmer and warmer” over the years, up until the Queen’s death in September 2022. Philip earlier died in April 2021.
“I do miss my grandmother and my grandfather,” William said.
“It’s been quite a bit of change, so you do sort of think about them not being here anymore and particularly being in Windsor, for me Windsor is her. She loved it here; she spent most of her time here.
“I had a good relationship [with them]. My grandparents were of a different generation. I think when we were younger, it was harder to have that very close relationship because it was quite formal, but as they got older and I got older, it got warmer and warmer, and I definitely think my relationship was best with my grandparents when they were more in their eighties. When they’d sort of relaxed a little bit.”
Originally published as ‘It overwhelms me’: Prince William gives his most honest interview to date
