William and Kate have a more relaxed and personal approach to royal duties, raising their children in a relatively hands-on manner and presenting a more modern vision of monarchy for a new age.
The popular couple, officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, wed in 2011 and presented themselves and their three children – George, Charlotte and Louis – as a model family.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said they had “mastered both the formal and the informal” with carefully curated glimpses into their lives on social media, in a clear break with the past and to satisfy constant press interest.
“They have been tremendously successful in protecting that mix of normalcy and royal status,” he told AFP.
William and Kate, both now 40, met while studying at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
At the time, the prince was considered a heartthrob as his attendance massively boosted applications to the old Scottish university.
Like his uncle Prince Andrew, brother Harry and father Prince Charles, William chose a military career and became an army officer in 2006.
He qualified as a Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Helicopter Pilot in 2009. After marrying Kate, he lived with her and young George, born in 2013, for several years in a rented farmhouse in Anglesey, off the coast of North West Wales.
William then switched to work as a civilian ambulance pilot from 2015, living in Anmer Hall on his grandmother’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England.
He became full-time king in 2017 and moved the family base to a flat in Kensington Palace in London.
The family moved to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor and this week all three children started at a nearby private school called Lambrook.
Charlotte and George previously attended a private day school in London, where tuition exceeds £6,000 ($8,000) per semester, while Louis went to kindergarten.
Kate and William’s children are reportedly being raised to enjoy outdoor activities with limited screen time.
William spoke about the difficulties of sharing home schooling duties with Kate during the coronavirus lockdown – despite living in a 10-bedroom country house given to him by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
– Causes –
William has gradually taken on more royal responsibilities, including being bestowed knighthoods, while also championing a variety of causes.
Contrasting with previous generations’ emphasis on a stiff upper lip, William has encouraged initiatives to improve mental health
He has spoken about his “pain like no other pain” at the death of his mother, Princess Diana, as well as traumatic experiences as an ambulance pilot.
He has also devoted himself to the environment and founded the Earthshot Prize, which rewards people who find solutions to the problems threatening the planet.
Like his father, William contracted Covid-19 in 2020 and has spoken out against anti-vaccination disinformation. Both he and Kate were photographed being bitten.
The couple has taken to social media and their official Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts have millions of followers.
In August 2022, a YouGov poll ranked William and Kate as the second and third most popular royals with the British public, behind only the Queen.
“I think William and Kate reflect a young Queen and Philip in many ways,” said veteran Royal correspondent Robert Jobson.
“They are not so young now, but in that respect they will certainly bring to the monarchy, after monarchs so old, a sense of modernity that is probably needed to help ensure its continued existence,” he told AFP.
His father’s reign “will be seen as a transition to his son – much younger, more glamorous. And of course William will be on the throne for much longer,” he added.
– supportive –
Despite a more modern style, William is a strong supporter of the royal family and its values, and was reportedly furious when Harry said he and her father were “trapped” in a narrow-minded institution.
He also reacted sharply after Harry and Meghan claimed an unnamed royal asked about the skin color of their unborn baby and told a journalist the Windsors were “very much not a racist family”.
In 2021, however, he denied fueling a rift with his brother following Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding after a BBC documentary said there was a behind-the-scenes briefing war between the couples.
William makes no secret of his distrust of the British media, fired by the death of his mother while being hounded by paparazzi photographers in Paris.
Both he and Harry were furious when a court inquest confirmed that BBC journalist Martin Bashir received a bombshell interview with their mother under false pretenses in 1995.
William urged the BBC never to air the interview with his mother again, saying it “contributed significantly to her anxiety, paranoia and isolation” in her final years.
When he unveiled a statue of Diana in the summer of 2021, he and Harry said they remembered “her love, strength and character” and “we wish every day that she was still with us.”
Showing his strong sense of family ties, William named his daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana after “Grandma Diana”.
