Prince William is ‘a modern young man’ who is ’embarrassed’ by religious faith

Robert Hardman is one of King Charles’s go-to biographers/commentators. Hardman, like Robert Jobson, has a lot of “insider sources” connected to Charles and Camilla. But both Hardman and Jobson will sometimes play it like they’ve got some tea on Prince William and Kate. I would imagine that William and his people are in regular contact with these kinds of biographers too, especially when the authors “add chapters.” I could go on and on about this and cite Robert Lacey and Valentine Low, but suffice to say… trust me, bro. This happens all the time, where William’s people call up a biographer and dump a lot of sh-t on them for the paperback edition. That’s what happened with Hardman’s King Charles book too. The new chapters have a lot of sh-t about William, Kate and the Sussexes, of course. Here’s some new stuff about William’s lack of faith and his “strength of character.”

The changes at Kensington Palace: Whereas the royal operation around the King and Queen had not altered a great deal since his diagnosis, there had been great changes afoot in the smaller household of the Prince and Princess of Wales, with its 66 staff. Earlier in the year, the Prince’s private secretary Jean-Christophe Gray had returned to the Civil Service, from where he had been seconded. The Waleses had jointly hired a new chief operating officer, Sean Carney, brother of former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, to run the financial side of things.

William didn’t inherit many of his father’s staffers: As one aide puts it: ‘Since the death of the late Queen, it has been a case of redoing the plumbing – hiring a finance team, an HR [human resources] team and all the rest.’

William’s lack of Christian faith: Might the health scares afflicting his wife and his father have led to a little soul-searching? ‘No change of course there,’ is the firm response from one who knows him well. ‘He is a modern young man,’ says another, ‘and I think he gets embarrassed by certain aspects of ceremonial and religion.’ The Prince’s position, say those in a position to know, is that, when the time comes, he will observe all his constitutional obligations to the Church of England. He will not, however, suddenly become a regular worshipper or feign an enthusiasm for something that he does not feel personally, however bleak the situation.

Kate is getting slightly more religious: The Princess, on the other hand, is said to have become rather more interested in questions of faith as a result of her condition. ‘I would say that things are more hopeful there,’ says one church- going friend of the family.

William’s lazy as hell: Since becoming Prince of Wales, the new heir to the throne had not accumulated a vast portfolio of patronages, as his father had done, but was keen to keep his focus on a deeper connection with a smaller number of organisations. There was also his contrasting attitude to public disclosure, be it with regard to those Duchy accounts or the Princess’s illness.

William doesn’t want an old-hand consigliere: How the Waleses choose to handle their communications is one of those issues on which the King knows well to steer clear. If there is one element of the Kensington Palace operation that does concern some old hands in royal circles it is a sense that the Prince of Wales lacks the odd wise old consigliere who might step in to point out a potential misstep.

William’s Gaza misstep: One veteran of the late Queen’s era points to the Prince’s intervention on Gaza in February and the lack of consultation with the Foreign Office as ‘a worry’. The Prince had called for ‘an end to the fighting’ and ‘a desperate need’ for humanitarian support. Though perfectly benign sentiments, they were not entirely in line with government policy. Senior Foreign Office sources now say that the Prince’s statement had not been authorised. ‘We were briefed it was happening,’ says one, ‘but we were certainly not asked in advance.’ However, the Palace veteran adds: ‘I have to hand it to [William]. When he does appoint staff, he does choose very good people.’

William doesn’t want to do anything on his father’s behalf: ‘William is just doing what his father did,’ says a former member of staff who worked for the King in princely days. ‘If Prince Charles was ever asked to do something by Buckingham Palace, he would triple-ask. He would say: ‘Who told you? Why?’ He might well ring his mother to check.’

William’s “uniquely difficult situation in 2024.” ‘He’s lost his mother, he’s effectively lost his brother, his wife’s got cancer, his father’s got cancer and he’s trying to keep the show on the road. It could hardly be more stressful,’ as one friend puts it.

William’s trip to Normandy for D-Day: ‘There he was among twenty-odd world leaders, having just done events with the Canadians at Juno Beach and a walkabout in the crowd at Arromanches, speaking a bit of French, following big events in Portsmouth the day before – and he looked entirely comfortable and statesmanlike. We know about his commitment to duty and service. But what you’ve seen since the start of this year, more than ever, is the Prince of Wales’s strength of character.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I’m not particularly religious and I don’t like a lot of the ceremonial aspects of organized religion either. But I’m also not the next in line to be Defender of the Faith of the Anglican Church. Would it simply not occur to William to feign more interest in his religion? It’s so weird, it’s like William wants credit for being terribly uninterested. It drives me crazy that William and Kate are both so incurious, lacking in imagination, lacking in work ethic, not to mention anti-intellectual and anti-spiritual. They have this enormous platform and access to top-tier advisors, scholars, experts and intellectuals, and instead of doing anything with all of that access and with that platform, they just hole up in Norfolk and watch TV and whine about every single f–king thing.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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53 Responses to “Prince William is ‘a modern young man’ who is ’embarrassed’ by religious faith”

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  1. yipyip says:

    WTH?
    Who thinks this is going to go over well?

    Religion is such a personal issue. Be quiet.
    I do know many under 50s are moving away from organized religion, but William should be quiet .

    • Indica says:

      I think he’s saying this so he can basically say ‘nope, not doing that part of my future job’. He’s setting the bar below hell now.

      • swaz says:

        This doesn’t surprise me at all, HARRY IS WILLIAM’S RELIGION 😍😍he is completed consumed with Harry 😍

      • Sarah says:

        The bar is set very low on a mediocre man who has no intellectual curiosity nor any spirituality.
        I’m also reminded of a joke he blurted out a few years ago when he cut a ribbon at new library at Oxford University considered among the best. He said he had been too busy ‘doing other things’ to step 1 foot in the library during his 3 years at St Andrew’s University. If indeed true, he should be ashamed, but he’s so dumb and full of himself that he thought what he was saying was funny, embarrassing everyone around.

    • goofpuff says:

      Especially since as King, William will be the head of the Anglican church, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. That was the whole point of the Henry the VIII splitting from the Catholic church so he could do whatever he wanted (ie: divorce and murder his wives) and make himself an inherited Pope position of his own.

      What does that say about the Anglican church if William, the future head of their church, can’t even feign support for it. Its a bad move for William to even let this talk about his faith continue negatively.

      • goofpuff says:

        Also wanted to add, I know there were other reasons the reformation wanted to happen from actually reformists, but if Henry 8 didn’t want his own fiefdom and control of all that monastery wealth, he would never have bothered and it would have taken much longer to happen.

      • Megan says:

        A lot can happen in 500 years. In a multi-racial Democracy, is it still appropriate for the monarch to be head of the church?

  2. Alicky says:

    What absolute drivel!

  3. seaflower says:

    “modern young man” hahahahaahaaaa

    • kelleybelle says:

      So modern that they still dressed Louis is shorts instead of long pants for how many years?

  4. Miranda says:

    He wants to be a “global statesman”. Well, the vast majority of people across the globe hold some sort of spiritual beliefs. They may not be “religious”, as such, but it would behoove him to at least not be dismissive towards such sentiments.

    • Megan says:

      I think pretending to believe something you don’t is never a good look. As an American, I find having the same person be head of church and state extremely problematic, and exclusive since they represent only one faith that less than half the UK now identify with.

  5. So Peg is lazy, doesn’t like doing things for dad, doesn’t believe in religion and is just an all round idiot. Got it.

    • HuffnPuff says:

      And he happily accepts money from public properties that he charges fees on while blathering on about how much he cares for the unhoused.

  6. yipyip says:

    I did read previously that William is not personally very religious.
    But, as future head of the Church of England, he isn’t looking good here.
    And I completely think he is setting it up so in the future he won’t even do the walk to Church for the holidays.

    • ArtHistorian says:

      He may not be religious but describing as finding religion and faith embarrassing is not a good look.

      • Irish Eyes says:

        Exactly! Finding religion “embarrassing” only makes him look bad. Formal religion is maybe not so front and centre in people’s lives especially in the western world, but many many people have a spiritual life, and for the future head of the Church to be “embarrassed” by that, is a sad state of affairs. A “modern young man” who one day will be King and Head of the Church in a country with a population who practise many many different religions/spiritual beliefs , should be tolerant of, and interested in, other people’s beliefs rather than embarrassed by them. His utter lack of interest in anything but himself does not bode well for the future of his children and his subjects.

  7. Anonymous says:

    They’re actually just trashy. Little britain vibes but with access to looted jewels. It’s all so boring and tacky without a big star like Diana or the queen or harry

  8. Snuffles says:

    For the past five years, William has made it pretty clear since Harry and Meghan left that he and Kate plan to do only the bare minimum—just enough to fulfill their roles and no more. It seems like they’re intentionally setting the public’s expectations as low as possible, even when it comes to religious and ceremonial duties. Whether or not people will accept this approach, I’m not entirely sure. On one hand, I don’t think there’s a huge public demand to see them all the time. William has always kept a certain distance, and as for Kate, it seems like people mostly want to see what she’s wearing. I’m sure there’s interest in seeing more of the kids, but I doubt there will be many chances for that either. Honestly, I don’t think the kids should be in the public eye too much, at least for another 10 years or until they’re 18. But with all the recent revelations about them basically acting like slumlords and grifting off the public purse while doing next to nothing, I wonder how much longer the public will tolerate the status quo.

    • Becks1 says:

      I think this is a good point. As W&K have made it clear for years now that the public should expect the bare minimum from them even when they are “full time.” There is a legitimate question of “bang for your buck” for the British taxpayer.

      If they are making all this money direct from the taxpayer (the money from local schools, governments and the military is all taxpayer money) and are seemingly content to have their residential tenants live in slums to increase their profit and annual income……

      …..are they worth the cost?

      • HuffnPuff says:

        All good points. They booted the Sussexes who wanted half in, half out because it had to be full time or nothing. But the Wails’ have behaved as part time royals this whole time with no uptick in responsibilities since kicking out the Sussexes. Now we see the news that they are charging the public for use of land that should have been given to the public ages ago. Any attempts by any of them to show sympathy to the struggling public will fall completely flat now. “Allow me to grace you with my presence while I pick your pockets and give you my best sad face. I am so brave, aren’t I?”

    • Harla says:

      At the rate WandK are going there won’t be much of, if any monarchy left for George to inherit. I have long wondered if William secretly harbors anti-monarchist sentiments, I mean he wants all the perks and rights but none of the responsibilities so if there’s no monarchy left, he’ll be able to live as a country gentleman. The next decade is going to be very interesting for the House of Windsor.

  9. Nicole says:

    Isn’t the Royal families whole thing being anointed by God and the “divine right of kings”? I mean, the King is the head of the church, right? Otherwise you are just another effing oligarch. Brits, based on this, isn’t this further justification and argument for Republicanism? Again, confused American here just trying to understand.

    • Blubb says:

      He is not sent in Charles name like his father did?
      Charles had to postpone his second marriage when the pope died and the queen sent him to the funeral.
      Isn’t it more like you can’t sent William anywhere?

    • anotherlily says:

      The concept of ‘divine right’ was killed, literally , by the execution of Charles I. The subsequent Republic under Oliver Cromwell did not last beyond Cromwell’s death. The monarchy was restored with Charles II accepting his place as a constitutional monarch who could not rule without Parliament. This was ultimately established in 1688 when Parliament acted to remove James II as King and his son as heir. James had converted to the Catholic faith of his second wife and was raising his son in that faith. Parliament invited his daughter Princess Mary and her husband Prince William of Orange to rule jointly. William of Orange had a claim to throne in his own right. Since then the law, established by Parliament, restricts the succession to those of Protestant faith. If you look at the full list of the line of succession there are a number of people who are listed as removed from the line because of their Catholic faith. These include several grandchildren of the Duke of Kent. Being married to a Catholic used to mean removal from the succession but Parliament altered this after the Duchess of Kent converted to the Catholic faith.

      Parliament is not going to change the whole basis of constitutional monarchy in this country to suit Prince William. Parliament has the power to move the line of succession. This was most recently considered following the abdication of Edward VIII. The next in line was the Duke of York who was a nervous man with a noticeable stammer. The Duke of Gloucester was ruled out because of aspects of his personal life (he was reportedly bisexual and promiscuous) and the Duke of Kent was a child. So the Duke of York became King and made great efforts to overcome his stammer.

      I believe there has long been serious concern about William’s fitness to be King. I can see hints in recent press reports that suggest discussions are taking place about moving the succession away from William.

  10. SueBarbri33 says:

    I remember reading a few years ago (?) that Kate told people at an engagement that Charlotte was singing a song called “Shine Jesus Shine,” and that hearing her daughter sing made her very happy or….something. And I thought it odd and interesting, since we never hear either of them mention religion at all. William is so determined to do the bare minimum with his role, it’s really quite astonishing.

  11. Mel says:

    Meh… I wouldn’t want to pretend to be religious either. Especially when people judge and hold you to it. Their lives are constrained enough without having to practice performative religion.

    • MrsBanjo says:

      Except he’s literally the future head of the Anglican Church. There’s already no point to a monarchy existing but considering they justify their existence by “divine right anointed by god,” this just further demonstrates the monarchy shouldn’t exist.

    • Jaded says:

      I don’t pretend to be religious but I’m not next in line to be the future head of the Anglican church. The first thing the UK needs to do is separate church and state. Remove the reigning monarch from being a useless titular head of the church. They already have the Archbishop, and once Wilbur becomes monarch you know he’s going to shirk doing all but the barest minimum of churchy events and probably roll his eyes when he has to.

  12. Kadie says:

    All I could think after reading was my mom saying: trying to be everything to everyone ends up with you being nothing to no one. So, Peg is a barely functioning human pretending to be a real boy.
    Be Best, William. Be Best.

  13. wolfmamma says:

    William could benefit from some meditation at the very least …. But here we are. It must be some kind of rallying cry to him to claim how disinterested he is in anything … including doing his job. Such a teenage posh boy thing to say and do

  14. Eurydice says:

    As king, William doesn’t have to pretend he’s personally religious, but he should respect that his realm contains people of faith and that he is their representative.

  15. aquarius64 says:

    William becomes Head of the Church of England when he becomes king. How does he get out of that? Does Parliament put forth a measure to have that title taken away from the sovereign going forward? Do the religious elements of the coronation get stripped out too? KP as usual doesn’t think things through.

    • anotherlily says:

      Parliament will not make drastic changes just to accommodate William. Parliament has the ultimate authority and if William cannot accept the role with any integrity then he cannot be King. The Coronation is essentially an ordination similar to that of a priest. Charles wanted a minor change to the vows to reflect the Uk’s multi faith society and his own regard for other faiths. He wanted be a ‘defender of faith’ rather than a ‘defender of the faith’. He was not allowed to change the vows.

  16. girl_ninja says:

    I’m telling you, Chuckles purposely withheld critical skills he was taught from Will on purpose. He wanted his son to fail, and the Lazy Price is doing a bang-up job looking like a lazy loser. Because they made Harry feel like he was the royal fuck up, he went to the military not just to serve his country but to find a purpose. This on top of meeting Meghan helped him to further do great works.

    • Megan says:

      Charles definitely didn’t train him and William is the opposite of a self-starter, so he will never learn.

  17. Chrissy says:

    I look forward to the public outrage if this behaviour continues – keeps spending money while not doing his duty, while being outed as a slum landlord. How long before William plays the “my Dad has cancer!” and “my Mommy’s dead!” cards as excuses to not do anything, but keep giving me the cash please! Wake up, Britain!

  18. LauraD says:

    The king in waiting is quite simply an awful human being who is living in cloud cuckoo land if he believes he can get away with this. Hopefully, his walking away from the church will be the final straw for the monarchy. An awful lot of monarchists are also regular church goers so it will be interesting to see how this goes down with congregations up and down the country. The church and the crown are so intertwined into the establishment that I don’t think William will be allowed to do this. It would be like the Pope telling the attendees at Vatican Square that he’s no longer going to attend mass.

    William is well protected at the moment and would be as king. BUT, I believe he will face the full wrath of the establishment if he tries to water down his responsibilities to the Church of England. If he thought the fallout from Saturday’s expose was bad, he can expect a no-holds barred character assassination if he goes ahead with this ill-advised plan.

  19. ShazBot says:

    How long is “commitment to service and duty” going to hold when he VERY CLEARLY has none?
    This whole article is about how he doesn’t have it and then ends with saying we know he has it.
    Give up the game. Service and duty was barely anything when the Queen prattled on about it, but let’s not pretend that William gets anywhere remotely near her low bar.

  20. tamsin says:

    When Charles passes, William then should not be crowned in the Church by the Archbishop. Perhaps he should just have Parliament declare him king like other monarchies these days. It is probably time to separate Church from State, which is a seismic change and should affect the thinking about the role of monarchy. If William were intelligent and interested, he would be discussing this with scholars and historians to understand the implications of this action. I believe Charles once said that he would like to be defender of all faiths. I can see a monarch supporting the right of all Britons to practise whatever their faith is since they are more multicultural than in the days of Henry viii. However, I think William’s stance suggests to me that he lacks any spirituality, perhaps even a moral compass. He certainly seems to lack compassion and intellectual curiosity. William seems to be evolving into someone without spiritual, moral, intellectual compass, governed only by his own appetites. I like how the writer declares at the end about William’s strength of character without offering any evidence whatsoever of any of it. The emperor has no clothes is emerging as a strong meme between the lines.

  21. CC says:

    Young man?

    • Nic919 says:

      They need to stop pretending that 42 is young man. It’s not. He’s an elder millennial too. This is more infantilizing to justify how he has not stepped up especially when you look at what Charles was doing at age 42.

  22. Lulu says:

    Who does this remind you of ?
    Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a chronic behavioral disorder that involves a pattern of angry or irritable mood, defiance, and vindictiveness that lasts for at least six months:
    Symptoms
    Children with ODD may argue with adults, refuse to do what they are asked, or be unkind to others. They may also be touchy or easily annoyed, or brood over negative things.

    • Nic919 says:

      William and orange one are similar in that they were born in generational wealth have been protected from their mistakes from day one.

  23. KC says:

    This is infuriating. I’m an agnostic but have a lot of respect for a true believer as in one that follows the tenets of their faith rather than use it as a tool to manipulate or dominate. Plenty of modern men and women have a sense of faith.

    This is just another example of this pathetically lazy man with his entitled, slow brain looking for an opportunity to look down on others. The monarch doesn’t change the job responsibilities, the responsibilities are to change him to be a better person and ruler.
    I’ve always been fond of Elizabeth II as a monarch and admired Diana for a variety of reasons, but this twit isn’t capable enough to handle a fast food job. What an insult to fast food workers and laborers. He is literally on the dole except his payout is worth millions.

  24. Miss Scarlett says:

    “It drives me crazy that William and Kate are both so incurious, lacking in imagination, lacking in work ethic, not to mention anti-intellectual and anti-spiritual. They have this enormous platform and access to top-tier advisors, scholars, experts and intellectuals, and instead of doing anything with all of that access and with that platform, they just hole up in Norfolk and watch TV and whine about every single f–king thing.“

    I could not have said this better myself. It sums up exactly how he comes across. Why is he so lazy? Why is he so uninterested? Why does he think it’s such a feather in his cap to be the most bland, boring, lazy and uninterested person ever? It’s truly appalling that this is the future head of state. He brags about his cheese toast but can’t be bothered to read a book or think intellectually about an issue? It’s so sad and not impressive to anyone. He seems like a stunted 15 year old boy who quite literally has never grown up beyond that mindset.

  25. Miss Scarlett says:

    If William’s beliefs were anything to do other than from sheer laziness and disinterest in anyone except himself, I could respect his decision. Had he studied philosophy or theology or even some sort of science and simply landed somewhere else, that is ok. But no, here is Mr Geography, never went to university classes anyway, has shown zero intellectual interest in anything at all, and has frankly shown no interest in anything other than doing f all. His beliefs are due to a resistance to his role and a complete and total lack of preparation by anyone in his family. It’s rather sad, he seems like he’s trying to be a cool teenager instead of a grown up 42-year old man.

  26. Hypocrisy says:

    One photo of Prince Harry attending a church service in California would be all it takes to make this man the most religious person ever, and we would be getting stories on how many decades he’s prepared, in private, to be the head of the church.

    (Please Harry go to a church service and let it hit insta gram lol)

  27. NotSoSocialB says:

    Young man???? oh, good lord.

    How tf is this gonna go over, with the King being the head of the anglican church for over a thousand years?

    • Myself says:

      Church of England established in 1554.

      2024-1554 = 470.

      Of course there was other Christianity in England, but I don’t think it’s historically accurate to call it “COE”

  28. yipyip says:

    William is 40+.
    He is not a “young man” at this age.
    He is middle age, married, with 3 children.
    I think of a Young Man as 19-24 or so.

    I say again, William will be the Last King of England.

    G, C, L will be free to live their own lives.
    The Monarchy will be as France, no royalty but great sights for tourism.

    If Charles could have been decent to Diana, and she had lived, Diana was beloved and she repped the UK beautifully on the world stage. She could have done so much!

  29. Oh come on. says:

    “Young.” Ok 👀

  30. Jean says:

    You guys here care more about the BRF than the Brits themselves…..nothing to see here