On Friday Prince William visited the headquarters of the London ambulance service in Waterloo. He knew then that, within hours, his uncle Prince Andrew would, in effect, be banished from the court of King Charles III.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the key strategic reputational decisions within the royal family have been run past \u2013 or driven by \u2013 the Prince of Wales. \u201cOf course William was very much involved,\u201d said a former courtier. \u201cThe former Duke of York always liked the grandeur and the connections he could make through his royal role. William is absolutely clear that\u2019s not the sort of monarchy he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as he walked around talking to call handlers and mental health nurses, William gave nothing away. When a young female paramedic described being sexually assaulted while responding to an emergency call, he listened intently then asked her gently: \u201cDoes that prey on your mind, going to more jobs?\u201d He was shocked to hear that the call handlers receive abuse on a daily basis. They told him it was just part of the role. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n
The royals are not my regular beat but I was there because for the past few weeks, even before Friday night\u2019s latest drama in the family, I have been trying to understand the plans of the future king. William has been sending signals that he plans for a very different kind of monarchy \u2013 fewer people on the balcony, a bigger impact on the ground.<\/p>\n
Prince Harry has left the UK for the US. Andrew has given up his royal titles. King Charles is still receiving treatment for cancer. Over the summer, the Prince and Princess of Wales announced that they had no plans to move to Buckingham Palace. Instead, Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom mansion on the Windsor estate, will be their \u201cforever home\u201d \u2013 at least while their children grow up. George is 12, Charlotte 10 and Louis seven. Within royal circles, preparations for William\u2019s likely long reign have begun.<\/p>\n
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, who worked as private secretary to William and Harry for a decade when they were in their 20s, watched the heir to the throne work out how to deal with having a role he never chose. \u201cOne of the things I really like about him is he\u2019s a reluctant prince but he\u2019s doing his duty,\u201d he said. He remembers going to an event with William when he was 22. \u201cThere were hundreds of people outside. He got into the car, looked at me and said: \u2018I simply cannot understand why they would want to come out and cheer like that.\u2019 He then said: \u2018But I tell you what \u2013 I\u2019ll do my best to use it to really good effect.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The buzzwords at Kensington Palace are \u201cimpact\u201d and \u201csolutions\u201d rather than pomp and ceremony.<\/p>\n
Next month, William will travel to Brazil to announce the winner of the Earthshot prize, his global environmental award that gives \u00a31m to each of five innovators helping the planet. He will also attend the Cop30 climate summit. The climate crisis has become more politically contested, with both the Tories and Reform UK calling for the government to scrap net zero targets, but the future king has no intention of keeping quiet on an issue he feels passionately about. Aides stress that his commitment to the cause is \u201cunwavering\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anthony Seldon, the constitutional historian, argues that, at a time when populists \u201cdeny the existence of objective truth\u201d, the royal family has an increasingly important role in defending the facts. \u201cThe monarchy providing that still point is more important than ever,\u201d he said. \u201cHe [William] can double down on talking about the environment without saying: \u2018It\u2019s net zero by 2050.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This week, the king will travel to Rome to pray in the Sistine Chapel, the first time a British monarch and pontiff have done so publicly since the Reformation. His son is increasingly concerned about the divisions that are emerging in the country he will one day rule and is considering adding social cohesion to the issues he champions.<\/p>\n
One insider said: \u201cThe thing William gets, which is different from Charles, is that you can\u2019t resolve this by getting a lot of faith leaders to write an accord \u2013 it\u2019s more about communities coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be no \u201cblack spider letters\u201d to government ministers. Julia Cleverdon, who helped Charles run his charities for more than 30 years, said: \u201cThe current Prince of Wales, unlike his father, is unlikely to work until 2 o\u2019clock in the morning signing letters which he has personally handwritten. The king has never used a computer in his life, although he can manage a WhatsApp message to a grandson. William is a man of his times and his age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Princess Anne describes herself as being like a \u201cvery good HGV driver\u201d and her brother Charles as \u201cone of the best fly-fishers in Britain\u201d, who casts his fly far and wide to catch multiple good causes. \u201cWilliam is not a fly-fisher \u2013 he\u2019s very focused,\u201d said Cleverdon. \u201cI think it will be much more like a European bicycling monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contrast with Andrew could not be starker. While the former Duke of York was addicted to the trappings and titles of royalty, the Prince of Wales wants to live a \u201cnormal\u201d life. He does the school run, makes breakfast for his children and reads them bedtime stories. He shops in the local supermarket, walks the family dog Orla and zips around the grounds at Windsor Castle on an electric scooter.<\/p>\n
His wife, Catherine, does most of the cooking – her favourite dish is miso salmon – but William takes his turn in the kitchen, knocking up spaghetti bolognese. There are no live-in staff. \u201cWhen they go to bed in the evening, it\u2019s just them and the kids,\u201d said a royal aide. \u201cHe wants to build that life for his children and give them the start that he didn\u2019t have. He says he wants to create something that George is proud of and give the children a bit of normality before they run the family business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew used to travel with a valet carrying an ironing board to press his trousers, and Charles insisted on bringing his own loo seat and painting easel.<\/p>\n
David Manning, the senior diplomat who was asked by the late queen to help set up a private office for William and Harry when he retired as UK ambassador to the US in 2007, recalled: \u201cWhen we went on the early foreign trips, William would be wearing jeans on the plane and carrying his own bag. I think that reflects a different sense of how he wants to be seen and how he\u2019s approaching monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people in the palace disapproved but Manning said: \u201cHe\u2019s never wanted to be just some kind of princely celebrity \u2013 he\u2019s always seen his role as to try and make a difference on issues he cares about. He wants to have an impact and he found he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he sits down with a child who says: \u2018I lost my mother\u2019 and he says: \u2018I know how that feels\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s pretty powerful . He doesn\u2019t do it for the cameras; he does it because he believes in it. I think as king he\u2019ll be extremely steady, responsible and thoughtful.\u201d<\/p>\n
When William was 11, his mother, Diana Princess of Wales, took him to visit the Passage, a homelessness shelter in Westminster. He still goes back every few months, often with no publicity, to chop carrots, do the washing up, serve meals or deliver food parcels.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople experiencing homelessness are good at sussing very quickly whether someone\u2019s genuine and authentic,\u201d said Mick Clarke, who runs the project. \u201dThe best way I can describe it is: he\u2019s just him. He\u2019ll be scheduled to stay for an hour and it\u2019ll be three because he won\u2019t leave until he\u2019s talked with everybody. There are no airs and graces.\u201d Clarke thinks the prince may invite some of the homeless people he knows by name to his coronation.Former foreign secretary William Hague, who chaired the Royal Foundation, which oversees the prince\u2019s charitable work, believes his greatest power is as a convenor. \u201cHe\u2019s an optimist in the sense that if you can assemble the right people to tackle something, you will make progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defenestration of Andrew and the departure of Harry to California mean that the burden of royal duties will fall increasingly on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children.<\/p>\n
Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert at Royal Holloway, University of London, who is writing a book on the monarchy, said the balcony lineup has shrunk. \u201cIn 10 years\u2019 time, you might just be looking at the Prince of Wales and Catherine, maybe as King William and Queen Catherine, and the three children, who aren\u2019t really much past 18, if at all. Having a very small family could be a real risk because, as Elizabeth II said, the monarchy needs to be seen to be believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recent conversation with the actor Eugene Levy, William said he did not want to be like the king on the chessboard who can only move one square at a time. Insisting that he did not want to be \u201csuffocated\u201d by history, he stressed that \u201cchange is on my agenda\u201d.The surgeon and former health minister Ara Darzi, who works with William as patron of the Fleming Initiative on antimicrobial resistance, thinks his curiosity and flexibility will serve him well as king. \u201cOur life is going to change completely in the next 10 years on the back of artificial intelligence,\u201d said Lord Darzi. \u201cWhether you happen to be a professor of data sciences or the sovereign of this country, they are the same challenges. I think he is an innovator in his role.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his novel The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa wrote: \u201cEverything must change for everything to remain the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowther-Pinkerton thinks it perfectly sums up William\u2019s approach to the monarchy. \u201cThere\u2019s a chameleon-like quality to successful monarchies which means they adjust to the epoch they\u2019re in \u2013 otherwise, they won\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
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