Rare image of Prince William blows up on social media

The Prince of Wales has just stepped in for King Charles and one show has blown his image up.

What’s that sound you can hear? A loud chiming? Something like an exuberant, excitable pealing?

It’s 1001 social media users waking up today to see this new image of Prince William.

I have never had cause to write these two words before, yet here we are.

Ding. DONG.

Britain's Prince William looking very sharp. Picture: Yui Mok / POOL / AFP

Overnight, William hosted the third Buckingham Palace garden party of the season having invited, according to the Telegraph, his cousins Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Zara and Mike Tindall and Peter Phillips to help him make polite, cheery small talk while being incessantly filmed by Midlands charity volunteers.

These things are normally about as exciting as watching a forgotten mini quiche cool on an increasingly soggy paper plate but instead we are being presented with undeniable proof of the future King’s handsomeness.

Which is all well and good for a wintery Wednesday but what I think makes this image worthy of a second (okay, seventh) look is that it challenges the prevailing image of William that has taken hold in recent years.

William often appears as a middle-of-the-road plodder — could he own any more dull navy jumpers? — but he has been pushing the envelope further and further than most people have twigged.

William was all smiles at the Sovereign's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on May 21, 2024 in London, England. Picture: Yui Mok-WPA Pool/Getty Images

In all the kerfuffle and melodrama kicked and stirred up by the Sussexes’ exit from royal life, it has been extremely easy to overlook what the prince has been up to. But up to something he has certainly been.

The thing about the 41-year-old is that his slightly humdrum, beige appearance is deceiving; his more imaginative and unorthodox light having been hidden under something of a bushel.

Much of what we now know about the Prince of Wales comes via his brother Prince Harry via his autobiography Spare and his Netflix series of hurt feelings and iPhone photos.

Harry, across six hours and more than 400 pages, defined himself largely in opposition to his elder brother. He was the emotional, true heir of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales; the brave outsider calling out the emotionally barren House of Windsor; royal life a wasteland of stifled feelings and rife with pathological court intrigues.

Meanwhile, ‘Willy’, as the duke calls him, is a diehard company man.

In Harry’s account, his elder brother is jealous, petty, aggressive, screamed at him during the Sandringham Summit and was, on one occasion, allegedly violent. He also accused the prince’s office of briefing against him.

William is, moreover, cast as the goodie, goodie who has decided to submissively fall into line and to do Crown Inc’s bidding as he readies himself to take the job one day.

The Prince of Wales, Harry told the Netflix cameras, is “now on the institution’s side”.

What Wednesday’s picture begs is the question, is that quite the whole story? Is there more to the Prince of Wales than meets the eye?

Harry painted a rather average picture of his brother.

For one thing, the whole William equals plodding Dad-bod of a man while Harry is the exciting, dashing one is a line that doesn’t exactly hold water. Never let us forget that in his early 20s, William was a certifiable dreamboat who looked like he was an AI-generated male version of Diana.

More substantially though, the prince has proven himself to be a much more interesting and substantial player on the royal field.

William, right now, could be enjoying a whole other life.

He could, like a long procession of Princes of Wales before him, be spending his time in this understudy role essentially twiddling his thumbs and perfecting his spade handling for ceremonial tree plantings.

He could just turn up, when required by his office, to do some textbook royalling and to host the occasional investiture. He would do his military outings, demonstrate he has an excellent seat while riding in Trooping the Colour every year and annually do his utmost to not make the velvet, plumed cap of the Order of the Garter look impossibly naff.

But no.

William now runs one of the world’s most deep-pocketed, if not the most deep-pocketed, environmental prizes which is proactively supporting a raft of global initiatives to fight the climate crisis. This is not him paddling and dabbling around the edges but helping to distribute nearly $100 million over a decade to ensure that we all don’t drown in our beds.

In the three years it has been running, his Earthshot Prize has, according to the Telegraph, has “benefited 1.5 million people globally, restored 2.1 million hectares of the ocean and sequestered 35,000 tonnes of C02 emissions.”

Prince William with Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester. Picture: Yui Mok-WPA Pool/Getty Images

Or take the fact that the prince has taken it upon himself to end homelessness across the UK which has seen him to start to actually build homes on his Duchy of Cornwall estate for those in need.

Or take his mental health work, a cause that he and Harry and wife Kate, the Princess of Wales got stuck into together back in 2016. He has not just given a nice speech here and there but has repeatedly opened himself up and spoken about his own mental health including his struggles while he was an air ambulance pilot.

This week, in news that got pretty much zero coverage outside of the UK’s dedicated royal pages, it was announced that the prince is providing funding to support a 24/78 mental health line for the agricultural community to ensure that every one of the farmers on his Duchy land has access to mental health support.

William may very well be a crap brother and have behaved horribly towards Harry but he is not as two-dimensional as he is often cast.

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.

Originally published as Rare image of Prince William blows up on social media