LONDON — Prince William has said “change is on my agenda” and admitted to being overwhelmed by family stress in an unusually candid interview.
William was speaking with Canadian actor and comedian Eugene Levy in Windsor for Levy’s Apple TV+ travel series, “The Reluctant Traveler.”
Asked if the monarchy would be shifting in a different direction when he becomes king, the Prince of Wales said: “I think it’s safe to say that change is on my agenda. Change for good, and I embrace that and I enjoy that change. I don’t fear it, that’s the bit that excites me is the idea of being able to bring some change.”
William, heir to the throne currently held by King Charles, did not offer any specific changes he would be interested in making and said he did not want “overly radical change,” but said that “if you’re not careful, history can be a real weight and an anchor around you.”
“I think it’s very important that tradition stays, and tradition has a huge part in all of this,” he said in a clip from the upcoming episode. “But there’s also points where you look at tradition and go, is that still fit for purpose today? Is that still the right thing to do? Are we still doing and having the most impact we could be having?”
While giving Levy a private tour of Windsor Castle, where King Charles recently hosted a state banquet for President Donald Trump, William said he no longer found his royal duties overwhelming, but admitted that “stuff to do with family overwhelms me quite a bit.”
Speaking over a pint in a local pub, William told the “Schitt’s Creek” star he was “generally a very optimistic person” even in the face of the recent cancer battles faced by his wife, Catherine, and father, King Charles.
But “2024 was the hardest year that I’ve ever had,” he said.
Asked how his three children — George, 12, Charlotte, 10, and Louis, 7 — have been coping with their mother’s cancer, which is now in remission, William said: “Everyone has their own coping mechanisms for these sorts of things, and children are constantly learning and adapting. We try to make sure we give them the security and the safety that they need. And we’re a very open family, so we talk about things that bother us, and things that trouble us, but you never quite know the knock-on effects that it can have.”
William, who has historically been more averse to the media spotlight than his younger brother, Harry, also discussed how his experience of “insatiable” media intrusion around his mother, the late Princess Diana, during his childhood has shaped the way he handles the press.
“They wanted every bit of detail they could absorb, and they were in everything, literally everywhere. They would know things, they’d be everywhere,” he said. “And if you let that creep in, the damage it can do to your family life is something that I vowed would never happen to my family.”
