Soon after King Charles’s 2023 coronation, there were stories about Charles wanting to schedule an investiture for Prince William as “the Prince of Wales.” Charles had his PoW investiture when he was 21 years old, and it was held at Caernarfon Castle, after Charles had gone to Wales for months to learn Welsh. William inherited the PoW title as a 40-year-old man, and he acted as if it never even occurred to him that he would eventually be PoW. William spent two years telling everyone that he had no plans to learn Welsh or have an investiture or buy or rent a Welsh home. We were also told that Will and Kate didn’t want to “rush things” when it came to doing anything around their Wales titles. Then, last year, William finally said that he was using Duolingo to learn Welsh. Well, on St. David’s Day, William showed off his progress:
Happy St David’s Day from The Prince of Wales 🏴
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus gan Dywysog Cymru 🏴 pic.twitter.com/0PryZlImBl
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 1, 2025
This reminds me of the controversy with The Brutalist, where the Brutalist team used AI to improve the Hungarian spoken within the film, and they apparently used it in some places for Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent. All I’ll say is that I wouldn’t put it past Kensington Palace to use AI on some of their official videos and photos, because I genuinely believe they’ve done it before. Here’s the Times of London piece about Peggy’s Duolingo use:
When Prince William accepted the title Prince of Wales as heir to the throne in 2022, he admitted he needed to “branch out a bit” with his limited Welsh.
True to his word, William, 42, has been learning the language with the help of the Duolingo language app, and delivered his first message in Welsh to mark St David’s Day on Saturday. Wearing a daffodil buttonhole and sounding confident in his delivery, William’s video message was broadcast on Kensington Palace’s social media platforms and featured Welsh landscapes and communities.
William is often heard greeting members of the Welsh community with the words “Bore da” (Good morning), but this is the first time he has spoken more than a few phrases of the language.
A royal source said William “felt it was important” to improve his Welsh. While he has not been taking formal lessons as his father did in his youth, he and the Princess of Wales, 43, are said to have been learning some conversational Welsh, as well as helping their children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, learn some too.
In the message, William said: “Helo. Heddiw, ar Ddydd Gŵyl Dewi, rydym yn dod at ein gilydd i ddathlu Cymru — ei hanes, ei diwylliant a’i phobl anhygoel (Hello. Today, on St David’s Day, we come together to celebrate Wales — its history, its culture and its incredible people).
“O’i golygfeydd anhygoel i’w hiaith, mae Cymru yn parhau i ysbrydoli. Heddiw, rydym yn dathlu popeth sy’n hudol am Gymru (From its incredible landscapes to its language, Wales continues to inspire. Today, we celebrate everything that is magical about Wales).
“I holl bobl Cymru ac i bawb ledled y byd, Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus (To all the people of Wales and to everybody around the world, Happy St David’s Day).”
A friend of the King said Charles “will be deeply touched that his son is making this effort with the role of Prince of Wales, that was so important to His Majesty for so many years”. Charles spent nine weeks at Aberystwyth University learning Welsh language and history before his investiture as Prince of Wales in a televised pageant at Caernarfon Castle in 1969. William chose not to have a ceremony when his father passed the title to him in September 2022, after acceding to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Royal sources said William and Kate were instead keen to focus on “deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time”.
Charles “will be deeply touched that his son is making this effort with the role of Prince of Wales.” So infantilizing – William is a 42-year-old man who, for decades, was too lazy to do a modicum of work to learn a language which would be vitally important for his inherited job. Yeah, I have every reason to doubt that this video is the result of diligent Duolingo usage. (Incidentally, one year ago, the Waleses released that janky Mother’s Day photo and the scandal over it unfolded throughout Oscar night. Will this Willy-speaking-Welsh video have the same effect?).
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace.
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales and Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales talk with people about the recent flooding in Wales, during a visit to Pontypridd Market, south Wales on February 26, 2025.,Image: 969210743, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: BEN STANSALL/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales reacts as he meets residents in the garden during a visit to Millennium House in Poole, on the south coast of England on February 28, 2025 to unveil a new Homewards Activator partnership which will help to deliver new homes across the six Homewards locations. Millennium House is an 11-bed mental health supported housing scheme where residents are given their own support plan, tailored to their specific needs, to help get them to a place where they can live independently.,Image: 970138753, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: HENRY NICHOLLS/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales reacts asm he meets residents in the garden during a visit to Millennium House in Poole, on the south coast of England on February 28, 2025 to unveil a new Homewards Activator partnership which will help to deliver new homes across the six Homewards locations. Millennium House is an 11-bed mental health supported housing scheme where residents are given their own support plan, tailored to their specific needs, to help get them to a place where they can live independently.,Image: 970138939, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: HENRY NICHOLLS/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales gestures during a visit to Millennium House in Poole, on the south coast of England on February 28, 2025 to unveil a new Homewards Activator partnership which will help to deliver new homes across the six Homewards locations. Millennium House is an 11-bed mental health supported housing scheme where residents are given their own support plan, tailored to their specific needs, to help get them to a place where they can live independently.,Image: 970139042, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: HENRY NICHOLLS/Avalon
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- POOLE, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 28: Prince William, Prince of Wales during a visit to see how Homewards Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) has helped bring local organisations together to create successful employment programmes at Bournemouth and Poole College on February 28, 2025 in Poole, England. Through the Homewards programme, members of the Homewards BCP Coalition, Sunseeker International and Faithworks, were united to address homelessness in BCP. Since September 2023, they had worked collaboratively to develop a range of new employment pathways, offering opportunities to people at risk of or experiencing homelessness in the local area.,Image: 970141595, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Jack Taylor/Avalon
This, again, is so half arsed. He is not making an effort. If he was he would be taking active lessons. With a tutor. Preferably in person. At least 3x a week for an hour or so.
Right??! Duolingo is a language app. (An American one no less!) It will help you with a basis for grammar and a bit of vocabulary, but it’s not designed to teach you a language. Hiring a Welsh instructor (Paying a person! From the UK! Showing far more effort!) or taking a course would have been much better.
So the truth is he can’t have an investiture with out learning Walsh. That’s why he lied that he won’t have a ceremony like his father. If this is Harry, he would have written a book about the Welsh culture. I remember an interview with meghan where she was asked about the national animal of Wales and she was excited to know it was unicorn. Like Harry, meghan was very excited and happy to learn. It was very lovely to see her doing short Q&A about new culture and it was also informative with lots of fun. But Kate never took any steps to explore the nation in her title, unlike Meghan.
A unicorn is the national animal of Scotland, not Wales.
W&K lived in Wales for a while. Meghan was wrong if she said unicorn – that’s Scotland! Wales is the Red Dragon
It’s half-assed and also stupid PR. Why in the world would he admit to Duolingo instead of a tutor. It’s really kind of embarrassing.
It’s like he feels proud to be seen bucking the Royal tradition, like finding a Welsh tutor and trying it out on the Welsh public, to be seen as showing some interest in a people and culture instead of just spending the huge allowance attached to his title! Such. A. Lazy. Putz! Not to mention a terrible role model to his own heir!
Is it me, or are they doing the MOST right now?
Everything they do is very controlled. He couldn’t use a tutor because he isn’t actually putting any time into learning the language, also less witnesses to that and the fact that he doesn’t have enough brain power to pick up a few phrases.
I’m sorry but I just can’t take him seriously (not that I did before) or even look at him as long as he has that gross, scraggly little beard.
Me either. It’s an ugly diaster and a joke. And Duolingo is the equivalent of throwing someone into the deep end of the pool and saying “sink or swim.” It doesn’t start out gradually but rather makes you guess that’s right. I don’t agree with how it’s set up. And we all know he’s a huge liar, so …
So he decided he had to finally do what he should have done years ago? It is suspicious that it is a video and we all know what can be done with videos. Maybe he has learned a few basic words like hello, goodbye, where’s the closest pub but I have suspicions that the video was helped greatly.
The bonkers thing about this is he literally could have just taken a tutor with him to day drink in pubs for a month with local welsh speakers and developed an authentic accent. Or got a Welsh mistress. Immersion is best/fastest way to learn.
Yeah, I find the whole oh I’m just learning on Duolingo thing arrogant af. He’s not doing this as a hobby and yet he’s saying he just gets to pick up his phone app whenever he feels like doing a little welsh practice. No shade to Duolingo but he should be paying an actual welsh tutor and spending real time on this. Duolingo is cute and fun and can be a supplement for sure but as POW I feel like there should be something more…
“where’s the closest pub” 😂
He could have learned Welsh when he lived in Anglesey. Though he spent most of his time there dodging shifts with the air rescue to party with his pals in England.
Why wasn’t he instructed when he was a child? If this is the progression of becoming king, then all the heirs should have some rudimentary Welsh under their belts. This is because Charles is a dogshit father, and if William doesn’t encourage George to learn Welsh, he’s cut from the same cloth.
Whenever I hear William attempting to speak a second language, it sounds like he’s auditioning for an Elvish role in the Lord of the Rings.
😂 and he looks the part of a character actor as well! Maybe more Wallace and Gromit than elf…
I will say—what a fascinating looking/sounding language.
He’s very shit at French too. He read something in Victoria BC and it was hard for any francophone to understand. Children in English grade school with their one French course per year could have done it better.
Victoria? What’s he doing speaking French in Victoria?
Probably similar to Rose Kennedy’s horrendous attempts to speak French.
With Welsh, that would be right. The Elvish language mostly spoken in the films is phonetically heavily based on Welsh.
He has a member of staff who’s deals with Welsh affairs. I have no doubt she helped him with this speech. I don’t believe he’s learning Welsh via Duolingo. I just think he’s too lazy and doesn’t have the discipline to do self-learning. I suspect KP got the idea to add Duolingo to narrative from Meghan who said in an interview that she was learning French via the app.
OMG! You’re probably right, Amy Bee. Anything to connect himself to the Sussexes! He’s a lying loser. The Welsh really should challenge this in real time. He needs to be shamed for being so lazy and doing the bare minimum despite taking all that cash! Shocking!
Probably a I. William can’t be bothered. Nothing from keen then
When you have nearly unlimited money, time, and potential access to the best instructors, why is he apparently using a free app to learn something so important? Duolingo is fine, but the focus is on vocabulary and receptive skills, not productive fluency (in my view). It’s the app that everyone says they are using as a new year’s resolution. To me, it demonstrates his unseriousness.
I don’t think this speech is necessarily an example of AI – most people can read or repeat a speech phonetically, especially if they are given multiple takes and a careful editor. Justin Biebs doesn’t speak Spanish, but he managed to sing his verses in “Despacito” ( I don’t know why this is the first example I thought of).
This is not live, and it’s not a conversation with an actual Welsh speaker. In fact It’s pretty much the least effort he could make.
We have been complaining on this site for years about him not learning Welsh so glad to see he is doing something but you are absolutely correct! You are telling me, that with all his resources, he couldn’t pay a Welsh speaker to practice with him a few hours a month? Seriously, we know he doesn’t really work and the kids are at school most of the time. What does he do with the time???
Rather ‘Whom does he do with the time?’…
We’re told he lived in Wales for years while ‘working’ part part part time for SAR. And this is the best he can do? So dim, so lazy, so very Won’t.
And The Times using the term ‘keen’ for W&K does not serve them well. They need to stop, because these two are so very NOT keen to do anything other than go skiing or go to the beach.
LOL! Yes, just seeing that word makes me think of a little kid trying kid stuff like roller skating, not a 43 year old multi-millionaire that needs to be bribed to do his duty! It’s beyond ridiculous what he gets away with! SMH
Whose decision was it to learn some Welsh, Will or his handlers? PoWs are a heart beat away from the throne and a reset is necessary. Various tabs were nipping at Will ‘s heels commenting on him ducking the BAFTAS for a luxury holiday in Mustique. Okay no one expects them to holiday at Butlins and compete in knobby knee contests but have a holiday after putting in the hard work. The tabs were pointing out that he’d let down the BAFTAS again to go on his second holiday of the year. Margaret and Fergie were famous for holidaying ahead of royal duties.
Will needs to pull his socks up and get used to working consistently and making an effort with diplomacy as UK needs all friends it can get.
I am wheezing, while imagining the Wailses at Butlin’s Skegness.
Harry’s brother has known his path since birth, but he never showed any interest in doing anything job-related. Not only did he never bother getting a degree in e.g. PoliSci or International Law, nor did he care about languages, or doing school or uni abroad, at least partly.
Leonor of Spain e.g. speaks regional languages, and already was fluent in Catalá as a teen, before she went off to school in Wales, making her fluent in English. She also speaks French.
The other heirs also speak multiple languages and studied abroad.
iirc the Spanish and Dutch royal children (now teens and twentysomethings) were also taught basic Mandarin for a few years.
Well I guess the Monary could all go AI, it would only be an improvement and think of all the money to be saved.
Some years ago, there was a documentary with Charles (I don’t think it was Charles at 70, but don’t know what else it might have been) where he was visiting Cornwall, and Will came with him. In one segment, Charles was actually, practically in tears that Will had accompanied him, which is pathetic enough. However, typical Will, in another segment, he’s shown talking to one of the local staff people about how he has no interest whatsoever in architecture, ha ha ha, and won’t be following in his father’s footsteps. (This was in the context of Charles’ interest in things like urban planning; the issues with the housing stock in the duchy weren’t touched on.)
I doubt Charles cares enough at this point to be “touched” by this minimal gesture; he knows what Will is, and besides, he’s got his own legacy to look after. This is likely just another one off for Will. I doubt he’s spending time learning Welsh, more likely just spent an hour or two being coached on how to say these few words. The most interesting thing about Will this year is likely to be how closely any “work” he and Kate do parallels everything Harry and Meghan do. It looks to be a very busy year for H&M; if the Wales aren’t careful, their end of year numbers will actually go up just because they’re shadowing the other two.
Keen won’t raise her numbers I doubt he will. Their major accomplishment may be another shampoo commercial
Running in slow motion by the ocean. It be fake Kate cooks video with William saying how delicious the food is.
Does anyone here speak Welsh? Is his accent good, does he sound like he understands what he is saying? Just looking at the captions it seems like it would be terribly difficult language to learn via Duolingo.
He never learned to draft an entire speech using Duolingo. Nor did he learn pronunciation there–last time I used it, maybe six months ago, they let you practice a little by talking into your speaker, but it’s not much. My guess is his Welsh staffer drafted the entire speech and then spent an hour or two coaching him on pronounciation. Maybe they typed it out phonetically.
Or it’s AI, who knows.
I had a go at it with duolingo, I gave up, both the grammar and the vocabulary are totally different from either English or French, mind you, I was supposed to be learning French at the time, so that’s my excuse.
If nobody is going to make him learn Welsh, then obviously he can get away with not learning Welsh.
He will remain the POW until his dad dies, and then he will be King, It doesn’t matter what he actually does.
Today KC met Zelensky on a Sunday at very short notice at the request of our PM. We all know why it has been vital since Friday to show Zelensky maximum support. Trump is potty about UK royalty so Zelensky getting recognised by KC is important. When Will is King he will have to be available on weekends if required and be capable of being pleasant even it is personally “inconvenient”. Big question: is Will going to do his duty as king or not? His stans say he’s saving himself for Kingship but that is easy to say. If he’s serious about being effective PoW in preparation for kingship, language skills including Welsh and French are a must.
WanK and their racist underlings earned the Monarchy a “Kill Notification” for their manipulation of a proof of life photo, if they would do that there is zero doubt that they would so something as underhanded and shady as dubbing in an AI voice over. Unless he is filmed speaking Welsh off the cuff in public with welsh citizens I don’t believe it, and that kill notification should have every questioning the authenticity of this.
I don’t know why he wasn’t forced to learn Welsh and other languages as a child. This is just bad parenting as they knew he was going to become the Prince of Wales one day.
I agree, it should have been a given that the Prince of Wales would learn Welsh.
The other European royals seem to genuinely value education, learn multiple languages, etc. The windsors meanwhile pride themselves on not doing any of that. Charles seems to be the exception but was never invested enough as a parent to try and encourage his heir to broaden his horizons.
You’re right! Except for a few photo ops with his sons in the Scottish dales, he was always far more invested in his fantasy life with Camilla!
Are there no teachers of Welsh in the United Kingdom?
I love how they are trying to say now that it’s William who chose not to have an investiture. That’s not what they were saying in 2022. It was the kings decision to announce it in his first address sans investiture. My my my, the propaganda.
It is the fault of Charles and DIanna. If you know your child will be the prince and the king of a country, you make sure he knows the language. I am not a royal and my parents made learn 4 languages when i was young (and so do all of my friends). It is not that hard.
Do i speak perfect English? NO! But is sure is better then WIll-not’s Welsh and i am not going to be the Queen of England. Why do these people know no languages?
Diana died young. Charles was the only parent from August 31 1997 to present. Diana barely out of her teens did learn some Welsh. Charles studied in Wales. Charles left William to his own devices. William checked out of Charles trying to get him interested in the duch y William did not care. The queen did nothing to sort it out and she allowed William to postpone full time duties and let him Take the fake air ambulance job
It seems that William was allowed to do as he pleases. Diana was gone and not around then
Diana did die young. But he was already 15 when she died. Why wasn’t he already learning other languages? Charles we know is a dogshit father, but Diana also dropped the ball in this area.
Diana would have been outvoted by
Her husband and mother in law. In any case.Apparently the queen did not ensure that William got those lessons. Charles did learn the language so why did he not have conversations and teach william at least some phrases. Diana did not drop the ball by any case. Maybe the queen did. William should have spent a semester in Wales. At least.
Diana didn’t “drop the ball”, once she and Charles divorced she pretty much lost any plans she had for the boys other than taking them on fun vacations. Every decision about their schooling, etc. went through Charles and TQ. Now we know what a distant and uninvolved father he was/is and how belligerent No. 1 son was/is so I think he just sort of waved him off and let others deal with him. If anyone dropped the ball it was TQ.
Easiest way would have been a Welsh nanny.
Where was the queen. She would be the one to direct William to learn welsh.charles was told to do so by his .mother.
In my view, we are missing a critical element in William’s lack of interest in speaking languages, and actually, his overall lack of intellectual curiousity. Perhaps it is indeed William who is dim.
I watched the video of him speaking Welsh and aside from the different sounds – he sounds exactly as he did when he gave a speech in French some years ago. Awful. Full on pomposity and no attempt to truly inflect.
You can see why Meghan was a problem for him. Her intellect likely intimidated him, shamed him. And there is no rage to be experienced like that of an insecure man.
100% right!
The British are like Americans in that they think you only need to speak English. The reality is that learning another language really should start at a young age. I think before the age of 3 kids can learn to form sounds in various languages that make them sound fluent in that language.
With all the aristo education, the Brits don’t prioritize learning other European languages. Charles and Diana should have pushed it more and even Harry too.
That said William should have learned it once he was in his 20s. He had time for it. And frankly Kate should have learned it too, once she got married.
They are both lazy and very dim people.
Kate had years to take courses before William settled for her. She had her top priority getting that ring and did not want to miss his phone calls.
William should have started learning Welsh as a child. It would have been much easier. He and Charles could have had conversations in Welsh but, nope. Hindsight, unfortunately, is always 20:20.
It is wild to me that the windsors don’t teach the heir welsh from childhood. ESPECIALLY given that the welsh don’t want a Windsor as their prince anyway! The effort to immerse the heirs in welsh language and culture would go a LONG way towards making them palatable.
A video can make you sound like a genius
Remember they’ve been to Wales and even if he knew a little of the language it wasn’t live and neither of them spoke it on camera also the crowds wasn’t big at all
Catherine has never hosted her Carol service or spoken live yet All of her activities even playing 🎹 was recorded
Anytime William wants to speak a language it’s always on video never live
This is what the future will hold for Britain two lazy who will be lowercase r royalty and the media will have to call out just to make them work
That’s why they’re already looking ahead at the three children
What a sad, unexplored life Silly Willy chose for himself. He has always had every opportunity available to him and choses to be a dull, uninformed, unprepared mess dangerously obsessed with his younger brother. He actually could have been a force for good, but always choses the easy way out. The media would crucify Harry for a lazy stunt like this (and not learning Welsh properly as a child).
Even choosing his wife came down to her being the last woman standing! What a way to live! So boring and predictable! What’s duds!
Welsh speaker here. This isn’t AI. If it was he might sound halfway convincing. Seems more like he’s reading phonetic pronunciations off a teleprompter- and still doing a terrible job.
So Michael Sheen will be laughing his ass off at Will again?!
Thats ‘Oor Wullie’ doing a half assed job again – FYI am Scottish and this is a reference to a famous Scottish comic strip character.
They could have just put George in front of the camera am sure he would have done a much better job.
The fifteenth century Owain Glyndŵr (anglicised as Owen Glendower) was the last true Prince of Wales. All these titles are just cosplay imitations.
We say a lot how uncomfortable Kate is speaking, but William can be too. All I noticed here was the heel lifting. He recorded a short message and couldn’t stand still?
The bar is underground for these two.
The Waleses are practicing conversational Welsh at home, eh?
So duo lingo will have opportunities to translate things like….
Where have you been for the past week, and aren’t those the same ill fitting pants you left in?
None of your concern you cow, go stay with your mother again.
Don’t talk about her that way or she’ll tell the world that you … REDACTED
Just let her try and watch what happens.
How many drinks is that today luv?
Not nearly enough to fix being married to you. You drove my brother away and I am nothing without him. That ahem “cancer” didn’t bring him back either, did it?
Your earthshot prize is a joke in America.
NYAH!
NYAH!
I don’t know how he pronounces it or what his accent is, because I don’t know Welsh, but his speech is just two-second snapshots, and he still can’t take his eyes off the prompter. Even though the recording was prepared in advance, edited, repeated, he couldn’t handle it and used only two seconds, the rest of the text was in the background. As inept as his inept wife. They were the perfect couple. Unfortunately, together with Waity he brought those awful Middletons to the palace… RF has gone to the dogs…
Still looks like a hobo.
Is he now advertising apps as heir to the throne? There are other members of the RF in the UK who also advertise, but I thought working members were banned from advertising on behalf of the Crown? At least Meghan and Harry were banned from advertising, right?
Totally off topic but I think the beard is hiding upcoming/current fillers or even surgery. We’ve seen it before in HW – Pitt stain, Affleck….he’s going to shave that off eventually to a new face.
It has been known from birth that William would be Prince of Wales one day. He should have been sent to Wales as a young man to study for a while and become familiar with the language and traditions of the country. However, instead he was spoiled and allowed to do things his “own way” which is why he is now one of the most ineffective royals in recent history and is a wonderful advertisement for the abolition of the monarchy groups.