The Times of London’s Roya Nikkhah gets a lot of exclusives from Prince William and Kensington Palace. In the past four or five years, Nikkhah has definitely become one of their favorites – she’s not only interviewed William one-on-one, she’s also been tasked with writing odd profiles of him, like the infamous “The Other Brother” story. Roya, like all of the royal reporters, has written a summary and analysis of William’s appearance on The Reluctant Traveler, an episode which came out on Friday. Roya’s piece is currently called “What the William TV interview tells us about how he’ll reign.” But the original headline was “What the TV interview tells us about how William the Scooter King will reign.” OUCH! I guess she got a call from the Scooter King? Some highlights from her piece:
She brought up Harry right away: In my job, someone asks me almost every day: “What is the royal family really like?” More often than not, before I’ve had the chance to answer, they deliver a verdict: “Harry’s the fun one, isn’t he? The heart-on-his-sleeve guy. William’s the more serious, sensible one.” In a charming, informal, revealing wander around Windsor with the actor and comedian Eugene Levy, of Schitt’s Creek and American Pie fame, the Prince of Wales has sought to gently shift that narrative.
The Scooter King: The future King — who swung into Windsor Castle’s quadrangle, not in the state Bentley as his father often does but on his electric scooter — came very much prepared with what he wanted to say, and the markers he wanted to put down. It was the future Scooter King’s manifesto for monarchy: “Change is on my agenda. Change for good. I don’t fear it.” Timing is everything. For some time now, the next in line has been keen to “socialise” what the future reign of William V will look like, while ever-conscious of not queering his father’s pitch.
Scooter King doesn’t care about history: Last week, while joking with Levy that “if you want to know about history, I’m not the guy”, the next King let us know exactly what he thinks about history when it comes to decision-making. Under the last reign and the current one, decisions have often been made based on traditions established over centuries. William is calling time on that. As he told Levy: “If you’re not careful, history can be a real weight and an anchor round you, and you can feel suffocated by it, and restricted by it too much … tradition has a huge part to play in all of this, but there’s also points where you look at tradition and go ‘is that still fit for purpose today? Is that still the right thing to do? Are we still doing and having the most impact we could be having?’ I like to question things.”
The Spare: By his own admission, the idea of the top job no longer overwhelms William, but “worry or stress around the family side of things, that does overwhelm me quite a bit … because it’s more personal, it’s more about feeling, it’s more upsetting the rhythm”. Clearly emotional, the heir did not name the self-proclaimed “spare” at this point. He didn’t need to. Harry is still family, his absence still stings William.
Work-shy: “For me, the most important thing in my life is family,” said William, as he put down another significant marker with Levy, justifying why he chooses not to work a “nine to five” day. He may often top royal popularity polls, but there has historically been a question mark over his work ethic humming under the surface. His father and his aunt, Princess Anne, clock up far more engagements than him, year in, year out.
A work in progress: There are plenty of unanswered questions about what changes William will make to the monarchy. Much of his manifesto is still a work in progress, and he hopes it will be many more years before his time comes.
William’s forever homes: Explaining to a slightly bemused Levy that “we don’t actually live in the castle itself, but we come and use the castle for work and for meetings and see people”, that’s one conundrum William needs to crack on with. However modern and “relevant” a monarch he plans to be, if palaces and castles are no longer to be the home of the sovereign, what — and who — are they for?
Mission accomplished: As one of William’s closest friends told me, it’s mission fulfilled on that front: “Delighted that people get to see PW [Prince William] as he is behind the scenes.”
A few things. It strikes me that only someone as jobless and lazy as William would think “mission accomplished” about that interview. He had no actual plans, he is incurious about history, and he has no ambition to actually DO anything. He doesn’t come across as easy-going or charismatic – he comes across like a sad, middle-aged man desperately trying to come across as a normal bloke. There’s also a buzz about this interview… a buzz that the royal rota is not happy and they’re going to be much more critical about William’s ineptitude and failings in the weeks, months and years to come.
