Prince William will make history when he eventually becomes king.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
According to a royal author, the Prince of Wales will become the first British monarch to have American ancestry.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
His American connection comes through his late mother, Princess Diana.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Prince William<\/a> will make history when he assumes the throne.<\/p>\n Prince William on June 3, 2026, in London.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n According to Stephanie Green, author of American Crown: From Revolutionaries to Royalty: The Story of Prince William\u2019s American Heritage<\/a>, the Prince of Wales would become the first British monarch to have American ancestry.<\/p>\n His American connection comes through his late mother, Princess Diana<\/a>, whose maternal great-grandmother was Frances \u201cFanny\u201d Burke Roche<\/a>, a New York-born socialite.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was one of the most celebrated beauties of the Gilded Age,\u201d Green told Marie Claire<\/a> on September 1. \u201cShe was born in New York in 1857, and I don\u2019t know if you watch the show The Gilded Age, but she is right out of that show.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After combing through Roche\u2019s diaries, Green noted several similarities between her and Diana.<\/p>\n Princess Diana, Prince William, and Prince Harry in September 1995.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cDiana, as you know, suffered from bulimia, from depression,\u201d Green said. \u201cSo did Fanny. She\u2019s writing in her diary and she\u2019s covering every little margin of the diary page with just spilling her guts out about how unhappy she is, how trapped she is in these marriages that didn\u2019t work out, how trapped she is by her father.\u201d<\/p>\n Green continued, \u201cSo as I say in the book, despite all of their beauty, their clothes, their fabulous homes, their jewelry, these two women are just proof that you can be miserable and still have all of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n The American Crown author also nodded to another American in the royal family, Meghan Markle<\/a>, adding that there\u2019s an \u201cirony in having a King with all of this American blood, but having a brother whose wife is American who\u2019s going back and forth across the pond.\u201d<\/p>\n Prince William and Prince Harry in Windsor, England, on September 10, 2022.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n Meghan, Prince Harry, and their two children\u2014Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet<\/a>\u2014have famously returned to the U.K. after spending several years in America. The family landed in Birmingham<\/a> on August 26 and will remain in England for an extended period.<\/p>\n As for William\u2019s American lineage, Green hopes that he will eventually become an honorary U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n \u201cMy hope is that someday Prince William will receive honorary American citizenship like Winston Churchill did,\u201d Green said. \u201cI just think it\u2019s a wonderful twist of history and I think it shows that families and countries are much closer than we think\u2014and that story is still unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Prince](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/a33b474b-8ae4-488f-9e7e-825e23ce624c.jpg\"\/)
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