As the Prince of Wales has given yet another candid interview about his family life, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond believes these more frequent personal insights will help the future king seem more relatable
Prince William has recently returned from Brazil, where he travelled for the annual Earthshot Prize awards. During his first day of engagements, the Prince of Wales did a candid interview with Brazilian TV host Luciano Huck, who hosted the Earthshot Prize Awards, as he spoke candidly about his home life.
William discussed how he and Princess Kate are stuck in a difficult position as they contemplate letting their eldest child, Prince George, have a mobile phone, while also opening up about how he and Kate decided to be open and honest with their three children about their mother’s cancer battle last year.
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The interview in Brazil isn’t the first time William has opened up about these family struggles, as he also spoke about Kate’s health issues earlier this year when he appeared on Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveller docuseries.
And according to former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, these candid chats about personal matters are a sign of changing tides for the royal family.
She told the Mirror : “When I was the BBC’s Royal correspondent, it was the dream to get a proper interview with any member of the royal family. And it remained just a dream. Charles and Diana did, in the end, do sit down interviews – though not with me. Both were disasters. So I can quite understand that William is choosing to do things in a different way. And I think it’s working.
“A formal sit-down interview is inevitably rather stiff and staged. William has found a way of allowing us to know some of his most personal thoughts and feelings in a very natural and rather charming way. And his words are reaching a multigenerational and far broader audience than if he did a formal interview with mainstream media. So, even though I’d find it extremely annoying if I were still the royal correspondent for one of the main tv stations, I think William has hit on an excellent strategy.”
Jennie went on to explain that by William letting royal fans have such an insight into his family life, it stands him in good stead to be seen as a more relatable member of the Firm. She added that William speaking out about his and Kate’s dilemma over when to give George a mobile phone is something every parent can relate to.
She said: “Parents across the world will identify with the concerns that both William and Catherine have about allowing their children mobile smart phones. They are on something of a crusade to highlight the dangers of the online world, but it’s clear that – as he comes up to his teenage years – George is beginning to hanker after having his own phone. It sounds as if William and Catherine might compromise by allowing him a brick phone. And that’s very much the way that many schools and parents are heading these days. Discussing dilemmas like that makes the Prince very relatable.”
In the interview in Brazil, William also spoke candidly about the decision to tell their three children, George, Charlotte and Louis, the truth about Kate’s cancer diagnosis in 2024, and how their family is very tight-knit. Jennie Bond explained how William has long made it clear that honesty is the best policy within the Wales family, and when it came to Kate’s health, it was better for the children to hear about it from them.
“We now know that William and Catherine have decided that honesty is the best policy for them – although William was keen to emphasise that each family handles issues like this in its own way,” Jennie said.
“For them, it was almost certainly the wisest course to tell the children as much as they could. However much they try to protect them from the outside world, headlines are everywhere and it is surely better for the children to hear about the health problems of both their mother and their grandfather firsthand, rather than in some random news report.”
With William seemingly giving more and more interviews about his family life, Jennie believes that the insights from the future king are almost guaranteed to boost the popularity of the royal family.
She said: “I think these interviews with William are brilliant. He comes across as a hugely likable, highly relatable husband and Dad who, like the rest of us, is trying to navigate the best way in this complex world to bring up his young family.”
