Nasty Prince William revelation comes out

A new book lays out fresh claims about the Prince of Wales that are particularly unflattering, including petty and unchivalrous acts.

The world can look a bit dark right now. War. Division. Childless cat ladies being scapegoated by a glowering, bearded vice-presidential grasper who exudes some serious SDE. (The first word there is ‘small’ …)

What we need so badly are stories that are warm of heart, stories which inspire and show us a nobler, better humanity.

This is not one of them.

This is a story about a prince and a new book’s claims that when this prince is not spending his waking hours rhapsodising about biodynamic loo rolls and fixing homelessness, he has, at times, behaved like an arse.

Our source here is longtime royal biographer Robert Jobson whose latest book Catherine, The Princess Of Wales, has been serialised in the Daily Mail.

The characterisation he offers of Prince William is nuanced by which to say, often unappealing.

Take an incident from 2018. His little brother Prince Harry was about to tie the knot with former Suits star Meghan Markle and the British press was eagerly (and naively) banging on about the new power tetrarchy inside Kensington Palaces.

Four hadn’t looked so fab since the days of Ringo and Paul or Diocletian and Constantine.

So what was William, a man about to welcome his third child and with a royal foundation to help run, doing?

As his relationship worsened with Prince Harry, Prince William made an extraordinary intervention into his brother’s wedding. Picture: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

He was getting his Monday to Sunday day-of-the-week knickers in a twist over women's’ accessories.

By that point in time in 2018, things had “worsened” to such a degree between William and Harry, according to Jobson, that the elder Prince staged what sounds like a pretty extraordinary intervention.

He writes: “I have been told that, still concerned about the match, (William) sought assurances from the Queen that Harry’s bride would not be wearing any of Princess Diana’s jewellery, even though his own wife was allowed to wear it.”

The blatant hypocrisy of William’s jewellery decree does not appear to be an isolated

incident, as revealed by Catherine.

Earlier that same year, in January 2018, the Prince, “who expected to be treated with deference” had been “put out” when the soon-to-be Duke and Duchess of Sussex had planned a morning engagement in Wales “that clashed with one of his”.

“Competitive by nature, even when it comes to media coverage, he chose that same afternoon to debut a new and dramatic buzz-cut during a visit to a London hospital,” Jobson writes.

The soon-to-be Duke and Duchess of Sussex pictured during a visit to Cardiff Castle on January 18, 2018 in Cardiff, Wales. Picture: Ben Birchall – WPA Pool/Getty Images

The duo signed autographs and shook hands with children as they arrived to Cardiff Castle on January 18, 2018. Picture: Chris Jackson/Chris Jackson/Getty Images

“Some members of Charles’s household were amused that William had felt so affronted.

After all, the Prince rarely showed much deference to his father.”

For anyone who had “petty” on their bingo card of the Prince of Wales’ faults, you can easily cross that one off. If anyone has ‘unchivalrous’, just you wait.

Prince William meets a young patient during a visit to Evelina London Children's Hospital, in London on January 18, 2018. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

Remember, in March this year, the great Mother’s Day photo meltdown?

Kensington Palace had shared a photo taken by William of Kate, then the focus of rabid global conspiracy theories, and their kids. While the Prince might have been behind the lens it was the Princess who had them amateurishly edited the shot only for it to then be embarrassing deemed “manipulated”.

When the major global photo agencies like Getty and Reuters issued kill notices over the inexpert tweaking, the Princess fell on her sword to offer an apology.

Now Catherine has fresh insight into what went down. Spoiler alert – William does not come out of this looking particularly gallant.

Jobson reports William’s “PR team suggested he and Catherine issue a joint statement to help deflect the blame from her”.

“The initial prepared statement used the words ‘we’ and ‘our’, but the Prince decided not to release it,” Jobson writes.

“After all, it was his wife who’d manipulated the snap and nothing to do with him, and if the Press found out that he was covering for the Princess, the speculation would only grow. When the statement was finally issued, it came from Catherine alone.”

What makes Prince ‘it had nothing to do with me’ William’s shirking of any responsibility here all the worse is that we now know that Kate was dealing with a cancer diagnosis at the time too.

In the eternal words of Salt-n-Pepa, whatta man, whatta man …

The photoshopped Mother’s Day image of Kate Middleton the Princess of Wales, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Picture: Kensington Palace/Instagram

Another point Jobson makes about the Prince of Wales is about his temper, describing him as “a bit of a shouter”.

One person on the receiving end of a bit of this Princely invective is reportedly King Charles, though he sounds like he is able to give as good as he gets.

One courtier told Jobson: “The King’s relationship with both his sons has been difficult over the years. Even now he is King, with the Prince of Wales, there can be differences of opinion and tensions. Of course, they love each other, but they clash, and sometimes William needs handling with kid gloves.”

Still, this inclination towards hot-headedness sounds like it’s quite the royal standard.

Earlier this month a friend of the royal family told the Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes: “A tendency towards temper tantrums runs through the Windsors. Philip had it, Charles has it, William has it, and Harry has it. You wouldn’t believe what used to come out of William’s mouth when he was playing football!”

(Harry must have forgotten to put that bit about himself in Spare, a simple oversight I’m sure …)

“Charles can have a terrible temper,” a former employee of the King’s told the Beast.

“Anything he perceives as incompetence particularly brings it out. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”

Charles can have a terrible temper, according to a former employee. Picture: Paul Ellis/AFP

The interesting thing about Catherine’s depiction of William, as has come out so far, is that it lines up with Harry’s rendering of his brother in his memoir as tending towards resentful, self-involved, and inclined to throw his princely weight around.

Who can forget that, also in the lead up to the Sussexes wedding, when William wasn’t trying to block Meghan’s access to Diana’s jewellery box, he had been busy ‘ordering’ his younger brother, according to Spare, to shave off his beard.

Prince William didn’t want Meghan near his mother’s jewellery box. Picture: Tim Graham/Getty Images

Princess Diana had some amazing necklace. Picture: Tim Graham/Getty Images

“He hated the idea of me enjoying a perk he’d been denied,” Harry wrote.

Of course, heirs to thrones and their bulbous egos are not exactly renowned for their charming behaviour. Louis XVI, when he was the Dauphin, liked to head up to the roof of Versailles to shoot stray cats. I suppose the more surprising thing would be if William, raised his entire life knowing he will be King, turned out to be a man burdened with an excess of humility.

One final thought to leave you with: When Meghan, on that day in 2018, freshly made the Duchess of Sussex, appeared on the way to the Sussexes’ wedding reception, she stepped out in a stunner of a Stella McCartney dress – and one of Diana’s most famous pieces of jewellery, a very large aquamarine ring she had purchased after her divorce.

Foot stomping princes clearly don’t always get their way.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.