How Prince William Is Preparing to Be King Amid the Monarchy's Uncertain Future

A few days after the United Kingdom finished celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee, her grandson headed out to sell magazines.

"I felt my birthday was a good opportunity," Prince William, who's celebrating what he called his "big four-zero" June 21, said in an interview for The Big Issue, which is typically sold by vendors who are working to lift themselves out of poverty and homelessness. "I wanted to make sure we were highlighting something that matters to me."

While his outing was chronicled by the publication, no other press was invited to watch the man who's second in line to the throne don a bright red vest and cap and set up outside a supermarket in Victoria, about a 15-minute walk from Buckingham Palace.

Still, social media lit up with sightings and passersby did double-takes as they saw the future king swiping credit cards and posing for pictures with fans who bought a copy off him. Unsurprisingly, he sold his entire stack in under an hour.

Prince William Turns 40

"Somebody said to me Prince William's around the corner standing outside Sainsbury's. I thought yeah, of course…" Tolu Desalu, a charity worker who was out for a walk, told The Big Issue. "Life is funny."

Added a young man named Khalid, "It's like meeting a normal person."

So...mission accomplished?

Princess Diana told the BBC's Panorama in 1995, "I would like a monarchy that has more contact with its people, and I don't mean by riding round bicycles and things like that, but just having a more in-depth understanding."

Explaining why she took sons William and Prince Harry from a young age to homeless shelters, hospitals and other places a world away from the palace walls, she said, "I want them to have an understanding of people's emotions, people's insecurities, people's distress, and people's hopes and dreams."

William invokes his late mother all the time when discussing his approach to public service—and when he was done hawking magazines, he visited The Passage, a homelessness prevention and outreach organization Diana first brought him to in 1993 and which is now one of his patronages.

How Prince William and Prince Harry Have Paid Tribute to Princess Diana Over the Years

"I count myself extremely lucky to have a role that allows me to meet people from all walks of life, and to understand their full story—whatever it may be," he wrote in an essay for The Big Issue that couldn't help but echo his mum's mantra. "It's a privilege that many of us, busy with our days, don't always afford. And while I may seem like one of the most unlikely advocates for this cause, I have always believed in using my platform to help tell those stories and to bring attention and action to those who are struggling. I plan to do that now I'm turning 40, even more than I have in the past."

Even though pomp, circumstance and lavish ceremony remain a regular portion of his life, the dress code for Royal Ascot on June 18 a top hat and morning coat, William has over the years been subtly shaping his role into one more suitable for the kind of person he is—and for the kind of monarchy he believes will be most useful and sustainable in this day and age.

"You learn on the job. There is no rule book," William told British GQ in 2017, adding, "Having that difference in how we do things makes the royal family more interesting and more flexible. If we all followed the same line, it would all be quite stifled. Our characters are different and the different opinions are important to have."

He said the queen had done "a remarkable job leading the country—her vision, her sense of duty, her loyalty, her steadfastness, it has been unwavering." And so far he felt the monarchy was well-positioned to keep up with the times. But, he added, "You are only as good as your last gig and it is really important you look forward, plan, have a vision."

With 73-year-old Prince Charles still planning to assume the throne when duty calls, the current plan is for father and son to "work closely together," a royal insider told Us Weekly in February, in mapping out their vision.

Charles "will ensure that his son is up to speed the ins and outs of the royal family on a deeper level," and William will help Charles come up with new, fresh ideas about modernizing the monarchy."

The Duke of Cambridge is said to be onboard with Charles' plan for a more streamlined institution—fewer full-timers making for "less drama," the insider added.

Not that anyone from the House of Windsor is on the record talking specifics, even though it's widely known that the inevitable moment of transition has been planned down to the letter.

Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Celebration

"How do I make the royal family relevant in the next 20 years' time—you know, it could be 40 years' time, it could be 60 years' time," William said in a 2016 BBC special about his work as an air ambulance pilot, back when he was still considered a part-time royal. "I have no idea when that's going to be and I certainly don't lie awake waiting or hoping for it because it sadly means my family have moved on and I don't want that."

The queen's Jubilee couldn't help but be clouded by a tinge of last-hurrah melancholy, not least because she wasn't feeling well enough to attend every event on the itinerary. Prince Philip's death in April 2021 after 73 years as her devoted consort was also a major blow.

But as the calmest and most stoic member of the bunch, the 96-year-old had already been releasing herself from obligations, passing on patronages and delegating duties to Charles and William for some time.

The queen still has the final say when it comes to basically everything, but William and Charles are in the inner circle more than ever, such as in 2020 when they joined her in negotiating what amounted to an exit package for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after they opted to step down as senior royals and move to California.

"William knows he's going to be the king in due course, after his father, and I think that's a process of preparation on his part in terms of being diplomatic, being considered sensible and magnanimous," royals expert and broadcaster Jonathan Sacerdoti told E! News ahead of the Jubilee. "He just does everything he's meant to."

Knowing "what's coming his way," as Diana once put it, William has spent much of the last decade, let alone these past few controversy-courting years, getting himself into the right head space to wear a crown.

"You have to project the strength of the United Kingdom—that sounds ridiculous, but we have to do that," he told British GQ in 2017. "You can't just be carrying baggage and throwing it out there and putting it on display everywhere you go. My mother did put herself right out there and that is why people were so touched by her. But I am determined to protect myself and the children, and that means preserving something for ourselves. I think I have a more developed sense of self-preservation."

Diana told biographer Andrew Morton in 1992 that her then-10-year-old was "appallingly embarrassed by the whole thing," meaning the fact that he was a future king, and "very uncomfortable" with any special treatment.

Kate Middleton, Prince William & Kids at Easter 2022 Service

Charles also said around that time, per his biographer Sally Bedell Smith, that he felt William and Harry "should be protected as much as possible from being dragged from pillar to post. I don't want them to do too many official things until they have to."

But the pillar and post were waiting when the boys came of age, though Harry—as the spare heir—had the choice of opting out, shocking as it may have felt in the moment.

After his "heartthrob Wills" teen years and reluctance to settle down too young ("I'm only 22 for God's sake," William chided a reporter who dared ask), marrying Kate Middleton in 2011 was a major step toward establishing himself in the public eye as a grown-up who took his career path seriously. It so happened the young prince had the good fortune to fall in love with a woman who has since proved she was tailor-made for the role of queen.

William's popularity has also only benefited from peeks behind the curtain at his and Kate's life as involved parents, Prince George, 8, Princess Charlotte, 7, and Prince Louis, 4, a picture-perfect brood even in their fussiest moments.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's balancing act has grown trickier of late as they've become more in demand as representatives of the queen while their kids are becoming more aware of the world around them—and George starts to get a lesson here and there about what awaits him when he's much older.

"Stability at home is so important to me. I want to bring up my children in a happy, stable, secure world, and that is so important to both of us as parents," William told British GQ. "I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, I don't want him growing up behind palace walls, he has to be out there. The media make it harder but I will fight for them to have a normal life."

Kate Middleton & Prince William's Best Moments

But though the Cambridges have enjoyed a pretty impressive run of glowing press as a unit, William will take all the doting-dad capital he can get—anything to combat the notion that he's merely part of a fusty old system that, sure, plenty of people in the U.K. still love and revere, but which some merely tolerate out of respect for the queen.

Journalist and longtime royal watcher Tina Brown, whose latest book The Palace Papers examines the health of the Crown amid the latest spate of scandals, told The Guardian's Today in Focus that there is "no real appetite to get rid of the monarchy in the U.K...largely because it is such an emblem of Britishness."

That being said, the people won't accept just anyone living in Buckingham Palace.

"I don't think that the monarch gets to be there whatever the comportment and whatever the behavior," she said. "And that's the sort of pressure on the Cambridges, is that they know they're going to have to be perfect, just like the queen was perfect for 70 years."

Well, they're working on it.

Kate Middleton and Prince William's 2022 Caribbean Tour

William and Kate's royal tour of the Caribbean in March, their first big trip since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, was marred by protests and a vow from Jamaica to break from Commonwealth rule—and then William was criticized for sounding too contrite in acknowledging the British Empire's violent colonial history.

"There are people who were upset with the concessions he made in his speech because the royal family is meant to be this apolitical unifying feature," Sacerdoti explained, "so the minute they start to express views, however in line they might be with some parts of public opinion, they're starting to divide."

At the same time, he said, "there are probably loads of people who are pleased they were there, who wanted that tour of the Caribbean, who were pleased with the visit."

And that about sums it up, the fact that pretty much every move they'll make will please some and rub others the wrong way.

When William and Kate returned home from their uncharacteristically controversial trip, the prince did meet with his aides to dissect where it went south and figure out how they can avoid certain tonal missteps in the future. So the plan moving forward is, he and Kate are going to trust their instincts.

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