News that the privacy-obsessed Prince William has found his ‘forever home’ in the isolated eight-bedroom Forest Lodge, where he says he will live even after becoming King, should raise red flags about what the heir might sacrifice to shield his family.
What damage will William’s control-freak tendencies and stubborn insistence on privacy wreak when he takes the Crown? Could the Prince’s obsession with protecting his own family eventually do for the Monarchy?
To paraphrase the mantra of his cherished and wise grandmother, the late Queen, for the Royal Family to survive in an ever-changing world: ‘We have to be seen to be believed.’
During her reign she carried out more than 21,000 engagements, even up to the days before her death.
In comparison, last year William did 71, a puny figure against his 70-year-old aunt Princess Anne’s 474 (even after she was kicked in the head by a horse) and his father’s 372 despite ongoing treatment for cancer. It does not bode well.
Yes, we all understood why he scaled back his duties while caring for Kate after her cancer diagnosis. How devastating it must have been for the entire family. As a nation we came together in sympathy – including the many thousands of families going through similar turmoil – respecting the Waleses’ need for time and space to heal. We gave them that time.
Of course, we realised his obsession with privacy and having a ‘normal a family life’ for his children was defined by his own deeply unhappy and dysfunctional childhood with warring parents, scarred by the death of his mother Princess Diana and wanting to protect his family from Royal duties for as long as possible.
We all recognise that while he is the King-in-waiting.
Yet with all due respect William, ‘privacy’ doesn’t come as part of the job description for the King of England. Which leaves us questioning: will Prince William put being a husband and father before King and country?
As a Prince he already enjoys eye-watering privileges – including inheriting the Duchy of Cornwall estate worth almost £1 billion – from which he receives a whopping £23million-a-year ‘salary’.
There will come a time – who knows how soon – when William has to man up for the role he was born into. Or not.
I fear a future part-time King hiding away in Forest Lodge on the Windsor estate could result in an even greater collapse of support among his subjects. Which by the time he takes the Crown, the population could be largely made up of Gen Z of whom, according to a YouGov poll from last year, only 29 per cent believe the monarchy is ‘good for Britain’ and are more likely to want an elected head of state.
There is something deeply unsettling about the fact the Waleses have chosen a comparatively modest home tucked away – a home which will require its own security staff as it falls outside Windsor Castle’s ‘ring of steel’ – accessible via a private road with one local saying: ‘It’s about as isolated as you can get.’
And William declaring, perhaps unwisely, that Forest Lodge is the home he and his family will live in ‘forever’ also raises worrying questions about what kind of Monarch he will be – in the age of a voracious social media world which cries out for more than the occasional snaps of the Royal brood or a tender video of Kate hugging a tree.
It also sends a strong message of what kind of King he intends to be.
Windsor Castle was earmarked for William and Kate by the late Queen, a lavish venue where she hosted many official events with presidents, prime ministers and other monarchs while in residence there, but that now seems unlikely to even be an official part-time home for the Waleses.
It is clear there will be no official audiences invited to Forest Lodge, unlike King Charles and Camilla’s London home Clarence House which is regularly used to host events for the great and the good, pictures of which are beamed worldwide.
Of course William and Kate can use their apartment in Buckingham Palace, refurbished as part of the £369million works on the building paid for by we taxpayers and they still have Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, where staff for their charities are based.
But will he and Kate’s so far underwhelming charitable work – his Earthshot Prize offshoot which encourages youngsters to devise ways to save the world or Kate’s Centre for Early Childhood – both woke, worthy and frankly forgettable – cut the mustard?
Kate’s passion for children’s early learning hardly compares with Diana walking through landmines to save children’s lives in war-torn African countries. William’s Earthshot Prize is also but a shadow of his father’s The King’s Trust that has helped more than a million young people into employment and businesses.
As for how our future King fathoms he could reconcile his own demands for privacy while being the head of one of the last thriving royal dynasties in the world, it’s not clear.
It’s not the kind of monarchy his beloved grandmother believed in. Nor his mother Diana who, despite her personal sadness, knew that visibility and glamour were key to keeping the Royal family vibrant and relevant.
One thing’s for sure, Prince William has a huge decision to make in the forthcoming years he spends hidden away in Forest Lodge before he ascends to the Crown.
Can he step up to the job he was born into and secure the future of the Monarchy?
Given his current form I, like so many devout monarchists, have serious doubts. After decades of King William, I fear the Royal family will be just like all other minor European royals: insignificant, unremarkable, occasionally appearing on the inside pages of Hello! magazine – and pure vanilla.
