William & Kate - Too Good To Be True - British Documentary

[Music] prince william born to be king he often used to say to his mother that he didn't really want to be king his childhood was a mixture of enormous luxury and privilege and disaster kate middleton a middle-class home county's upbringing [Applause] probably received some rather standoffish or condescending views towards her because she wasn't an aristocrat unlike diana or even sarah ferguson this is the remarkable story of a prince and a commoner one day they will reign over us how have they juggled traditional royal life and the modern world it's not all about you know palaces and kings and quarters there are real people out there so that mixed together is making william a very successful king in waiting without a doubt we'll look back at rarely seen images of their lives there was him at one stage on his hands and knees cleaning out a loo now you don't see a future king doing that very often and hear from insiders who've watched their every step for years to reveal how kate has adapted to her royal role his girlfriend was being hounded in just the same way as his mother had been and of course we all know the outcome of that she's moved from being weighty katie who was seen as rather lightweight to the cape we see today who's absolutely embodies her royal role how william has embraced his sense of duty while those around him have rocked the boat you couldn't be in williams view a member of the royal family dipping in and out you are either in or you are out and ask does the perfect image they portray mean the future of the monarchy is too good to be true the queen and the duke of edinburgh they will be watching very carefully especially given that younger royals in the past have got things very badly wrong and they don't want that to happen again i think they have been being tested out i think people have been watching to see whether the crown is safe in their hands [Music] prince william's destiny was determined from the moment he became the first child of prince charles and princess diana second in line to the throne very early on he would have had quite a potent sense of his destiny he would have known that one day he was due to become king and he often used to say to his mother that he didn't really want to be king and his brother harry would introduce and say well i'll have the job then if you don't want it and as a member of the royal family and the future king william's upbringing was anything but ordinary williams childhood would have been very much as an 18th century aristocrats childhood would have been governesses nannies the absolute best of everything but also added to that he would have been cosseted well william's world was extraordinary growing up he you know from the moment he was born he was surrounded by a team of royal protection officers everything he did from his first haircut to losing his first tooth to taking his first steps were all chronicled in the press living with one foot in the 18th century and one foot in the 21st century as it were that isn't necessarily a good thing i mean it would be very hard for someone with that kind of childhood that kind of upbringing to live an ordinary life williams childhood was also filled with well-documented challenges charles and diana tried to be as present as possible but they also were required to fulfill their royal role there were long tours where a royal tour these days might be nine days charles and diana were going three four five weeks william as we know was brought up by parents who were mostly at war with themselves and one another william and harry had to cope with the breakdown of their parents marriage not just on a personal level but as it played out in front of the whole world which would have been incredibly difficult from an early age william was exposed to both traditional and modern approaches to the monarchy both of which have influenced him i think william grew up in a family where he had two very opposing influences he had the court influence his father his grandmother he absolutely knew what his regal destiny was and then he had this humanizing emotional sort of common touch of his mother diana in particular made sure that william was very aware of his privilege she was taking him to aids hospitals she was taking him to visit homeless centers where he would interact and meet the homeless she wanted him to understand that with enormous privilege comes great responsibility so i suppose he had to work out where he stood in between those quite different influences and i think what we see today is a man who's kind of married both of those very well diana wanted normality which of course is the one thing the royals cannot have but i think they did have as close as possible a normal upbringing behind the railings of kensington palace but you know it is a gilded cage william and harry have always been princes who relished normality just the chance of going to the record shop or the the burger joint on kensington high street that was a highlight for them they just wanted to do what normal people did they had a a secret door there out of the palace confines where they would just slip out unnoticed and go and play in kensington gardens often with other children and the parents will be looking at their kids thinking hang on that's william and harry [Music] the princes did have to abide by traditions william and his brother were educated at eaton following in the footsteps of many royals before them i heard a wonderful story that diana used to tease the the rather stuffy old guard advisors who were themselves older tonia she used to tease them and say i really think i must look at sending wills and harry to holland park comprehensive school it would do them good to be educated with you know ordinary children [Music] william's upbringing shaped him and gave him his first chance to marry royal formality with a more normal and relaxed approach to life i think the great connection about william himself is the fact that he is a very approachable very down-to-earth person that really comes from the upbringing that the late great princess diner gave him it's not all about you know palaces and kings and cortiers there are real people out there at just 15 william experienced the pivotal moment of his childhood his mother diana died and he was forced to grieve on the most public stage imaginable we have reports from paris the diana princess of wales has been killed in a car accident [Music] you can't help but feel desperately sorry for that particular period in the boy's life that went on to fall the rest of their teenage years it was uh very difficult and of course it's gone on to affect them in their adult lives as well living through this ordeal drove harry to anger and upset whereas william appears to have turned inward buttoning up and holding back his feelings at a fairly young age william really was thrust into a crisis and i think he's been very honest talking about grief and how he processed it and i think he's been really helpful to a lot of people he's met who have experienced the same so his childhood was a mixture of enormous luxury and privilege and disaster and those two things have created a man who's both confident and vulnerable kate middleton was born fewer than six months earlier than the prince but in an entirely different world to her future husband clearly william and kate had completely different upbringings kate came from a very regular family upbringing she was very close to her two siblings close to both her parents carol and michael they themselves came from working class backgrounds but hold themselves up into the middle class stratosphere wanted for better expression kate had a relatively normal childhood albeit one that was you know quite a privileged upper middle class she went to one of the best public schools in the country marlborough william's father charles grew up in buckingham palace and his mother diana in a 90 room stately home kate's family background was much more modest kate's mother herself was brought up in a council flat on the edge of london but it was a great credit really to kate's mother carol and her husband mike middleton who met when they both were for british airways and then established their own business there's a tremendous element that behind catherine has been a mother who very much wanted her to move into circles that she wasn't born into kate moving up in the world has helped teach william to navigate between traditional royal life and the modern world we know from talking to people in the duke and duchess of cambridge's circle how much william values catherine's home life how fond he is of her parents and how that kind of stable slightly middle-class very close-knit family has been quite a sow for him actually it's produced in kate a woman who is very level she's interested in other people which i think is at the moment in the modern world is probably the perfect background for being the queen and especially when her husband the future king has such a different upbringing a damaged upbringing and so what william lacks is made up for by kate the future king had yet to meet his queen they would be brought together not by royal tradition but by chance when they were at university at andrews i have it on good authority that one of the few girls not chasing william or trying to catch his eye was catherine one of the funny stories is he was so desperate to meet her that as he walked towards her apparently he tripped and said oh that's a terrible start you're going to think i'm a complete plot young royal much of prince william's life has been determined for him but he has made some bold choices that have nodded to the modern world while still being a traditional royal like taking a gap year the first british heir to do so i thought this was a bit more of a way of making trying to help people out and meet a whole range of different people from different countries william was allowed the luxury of a gap year his father the prince of wales was determined that he needed to be educational he's not just going to be allowed to go and spend a year playing polo in argentina williams gap year really was a great mix of a number of different activities he spent time in belize doing his military training exercises with the welsh guards he spent time on a dairy farm where he had to get up at five o'clock in the morning to milk the cows all sort of very hands-on far too early but he also spent time doing a rally international program in his duties were really helping to teach some very poor kids in that part of the world there was construction involved there was cooking involved there was a bit of education and there was a bit of play william was allowed to have those life experiences because we are in a unique position where we have the longest reigning monarch it was always going to be some time before william came to the throne that great freedom will ensure that william is a king who is in touch with his people the young prince shook off the stuffy image of the monarchy by showing he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty the pictures were memorable because there was him at one stage on his hands and knees in marigold rubber gloves cleaning out a loo now you don't see a future king doing that very often here he was a prince of the united kingdom but he was going to have to muck in with everybody else and pull his weight just like everybody else and i think william really enjoyed that it was an opportunity to just be william as opposed to prince william oh my god i'm sorry i'm so embarrassed i'll try it first then come back some more i thought you will it seems the prince knew the importance of being approachable to the public i think those kind of experiences where he was mixing with young people from a very different social background to his own helped give him a good base and understanding about basically people towards the end of his time there they invited the cameras in and he recorded an interview about his experiences down there it was a sort of first sight of how this young man was developing i don't like being treated any different at all i don't like special treatment at all i love being having no restrictions here there's no one out here chasing me around i think it's brilliant what william didn't know at the time was that his future wife would join the exact same volunteering program just a few weeks later i think it just shows that they have got a lot in common which has given an enormous amount of stability not just to their marriage but to the kind of couple they intend to be or they will be when they are king and queen [Applause] rather than join the military after he finished school like most royals before him william chose to take a different path and went to st andrews university it was here where he would meet his future wife one of the funny stories is he was so desperate to meet her that as he walked towards her apparently he tripped and said oh that's a terrible start you're going to think i'm a complete clot they met very early on when they both joined saint andrews in 2001 because they were sharing the same halls of residence they also shared a number of classes they were both covering art history at the time so yes they shared classes they'd walked classes together they really became friends first but uh we were obviously we met at university at andrews and uh we were friends for over a year first and it just sort of blossomed from then on when they were at university at andrews i have it on good authority that one of the few girls not chasing william or trying to catch his eye was catherine and if that's true she played an absolute blinder he was definitely the target of lots of uh sloany girls there at university but it wasn't until the infamous fashion show that william noticed catherine this future king and queen were initially brought together by a charity fashion show and a very memorable dress william saw kate in a very kind of see-through dress at the college fashion show and urban myth suggests that he said to his friend there wow kate's hot we've always been led to believe that kate had another boyfriend at the time and william might have been still dating one of his old high grove era girls but neither of those relationships lasted long william and kate grew closer when in their second year at saint andrews they moved into a private house with two friends it was in their second year that william and kate's friendship i suppose really jump to the next level and that's where they were able to really get to know each other that much better we just spent more time with each other and had a good giggle had lots of fun and realized we'd share in the same interests and just you know had a really good time she's got a really normal sense of humor which kind of helps me because i've got a very dear sense viewer they've both joked about who cooked for who who was the better cook she did cook for me quite a bit at university and it would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong and i'd have to wander in and save save something before williams started university an agreement had been made with the press so that he could get on with his studies without intrusion the deal we smile for the cameras now then you leave us alone until the autumn at that point they were really out of control you know we had paparazzi pictures we'd had phone hacking and embarrassing headlines for prince charles and camilla it really was a mess and i think what you actually saw was the very first time the royal household if you like taking control of the narrative of the story but william and kate had to go to extra lengths to ensure their blossoming romance remained private they would employ all the obvious tactics they wouldn't hold hands walking down the street they'd arrive to a party at different times william was always very protective of the relationship because he knew once a light was shown on it there was really no going back he once said to me you know you don't know the pressure you meet a girl you want to enjoy developing your relationship with them quietly in private but the minute i start dating somebody you know the world knows about it despite the media embargo it wasn't long before the press got wind of the relationship inevitably stuff leaked out about his relationship with kate it was beginning to be in the gossip columns you know if you're the future king you just can't hide that sort of relationship while rumors were rife william denied reports he had a girlfriend kate did attend william's 21st birthday party at windsor castle but at the time william was quoted in the press as saying he didn't have a steady girlfriend william are you here with some good friends yeah with some friends definitely had a good good laugh now of course we now know he and kate were pretty serious about each other then this morning william of uh kate i wonder how you feel about that and how she's bearing up under the scrutiny i haven't seen any of it i'm just gonna get on the slopes basically simple as that despite their efforts the rumors blew up when in 2004 the couple were pictured together for the first time but in 2004 the relationship really did hit the public eye but unfortunately for them a paparazzi photographer took pictures of william and kate clearly very close on the ski lift together a red top tabloid newspaper splashed it all over their front page and william was furious and he was also genuinely worried for kate and her family about what this would now mean for them [Music] william was right to be concerned as the relationship was seemingly confirmed kate's mother was accused in the press of engineering their meeting so at the time there were a lot of rumors going around that you know kate's mother carol middleton might have tried to kind of orchestrate the relationship by ensuring she went to san andreas there was talk of kate having a poster of william on her wall at marlborough that said i have spoken to a lot of kate's friends who were at school with her over the years nobody remembers having that poster there's a story that goes around that you had a picture of him on your wall just one that was like 20. he wishes no um no i had the levi's levi's guy oh my not a picture of william sorry sorry it was me and william's first term at university was not easy in many respects and was made more difficult by his own indecision around his degree first 13 weekends he was at home more often than he was at college and matas came to a head that first christmas when he got back to highgrove and he couldn't decide whether he really wanted to continue i think the real problem was that he was probably on the wrong course when you're a royal if you suddenly change you know your course a lot spread into that i mean if you remember when prince edward didn't like being in the marines he was suddenly called a and he couldn't do it the fact is he just didn't like it kate supported william through this dilemma and in part on her advice he changed course to study geography it would be the first of many important decisions that the couple would help each other through well the queen once famously said of prince philip that he was her strength and stay and that you know people underestimated what effect he'd had on her life and how it enabled her to do the job that was expected of her and i think that's very much the same for william and kate gap year university and then william started to seriously date a commoner a first for an heir to the throne it demonstrates he was determined to try out a less traditional royal route that's something that so many people can identify with but it was also starkly different to how royals of old had been sort of pushed together diana and charles had barely spent any time together before they got married they certainly weren't allowed to live together the queen and prince philip and prince andrew and sarah ferguson were also brought together through royal connections but for william and kate it was simply a love match i mean it wasn't like anyone else was thinking or saying you know she would make a good future queen and that happened with diana and the result was a disaster i think the difference between diana and charles and william and catherine you know they were allowed to grow to develop to kind of do things that no other royal couple had done previously i think all those aspects of how they got together and what happened afterwards are very important to the entire story and therefore the stability that they offer the royal family going forward even in these early stages william and kate learned the power of fostering a modern approach in a modern age by going to university by undertaking gap years by spending time with regular people doing regular things in a very ordinary fashion that is really going to set william and kate up for a future as king and queen consort in which they can relate to the people that they are supposedly governing but as william and kate left saint andrews many challenges lay ahead that would test their relationship but really i think graduation for william and kate it was their last moment in that protective bubble and i think perhaps they may have both been a little naive about what was to come [Music] william wales [Applause] [Music] in june 2005 william and kate graduated from saint andrews university that he is deeply grateful is not in doubt and partly of course it's been about this woman [Applause] [Music] it meant an end to the shelter and privacy that university life had offered their budding romance they obviously went public at their graduation there were lots of pictures of of kate and william and there's huge interest in this very bubbly brunette from berkshire and it was really a warning of of what was to come graduation for william and kate it was their last moment in that protective bubble and i think perhaps they may have both been a little naive about what was to come i mean william understood how the media works but kate would have had no idea what it meant to be on the receiving end of the tabloid press after university you know the media pack were really on to kate and wanting to get the pictures wherever she went she was the number one cover girl after all you know she's a princess in waiting not just a princess in waiting but potentially a queen in waiting the press and public wanted to know who kate middleton really was there was a lot of speculation that william might be ready to pop the question and you know she would open the front door of her flat in chelsea and find dozens of paparazzi photographers [Music] now their relationship was fair game to the world's press kate experienced the curse of dating an heir to the throne the scenes outside her flat in 2007 on her 25th birthday were eerily reminiscent of the scenes diana faced when she was leaving her flat when the relationship with prince charles was revealed can you tell me if there's any possibility i'm not going to say anything but a lot of people don't realize it's that you know when you're dating someone within the royal family you don't have any protection there's not suddenly you know the the senior royal scotland yard protection officers i remember she was photographed on a london bus going down the kings road and to me it's an historic photo this is a photo or probably somebody who's going to be our queen in future sitting downstairs on a london bus palace didn't like it william started to worry that his girlfriend was being hounded in just the same way as his mother had been and of course we all know the outcome of that so he stepped in to issue a statement saying that he wanted catherine more than anything else to be left alone william's statement to the press didn't stop the criticism of kate her suitability as a royal bride was questioned and she was mocked for waiting around for a proposal the problem for kate was that she didn't have a career plan williams had already been mapped out he was going to go to sandhurst and after that he was going to go into the raf so kate's career path was far less certain and she did become the um topic of a lot of negative stories in the press and she was called weighty katie kate did get a job she worked as an accessories buyer but interestingly someone from the firm told me at the time she went to the boss and said to them i i need a job but it needs to be part time so i can work it around my relationship with this very high profile man that's quite unusual for a modern working woman she did that job for a while but unfortunately you know the attention of photographers following her to and from work got too much and in the end she went to work for her parents family firm party pieces where she was more protected kate was quick to charm williams family but the aristocratic circles that surround the palace took longer to win over the aristocrats the old etonian advisors they saw um kate's background the fact that she worked for a company for her her parents company that the old-fashioned part of the palace didn't like it at all powerful people cannot help in many cases looking down on other people and wanting to preserve their their little club kate was sort of pushed out because she was tainted by association with this family who you know sold party hats what a disgrace kate's entrance into royal circles was helped by her ability to win over traditionalists in the palace she avoided breaking protocol and even changed her style of dress to look more like a royal bride-to-be her clothing almost began to reflect what people saw in her character a kind of restraint a kind of modesty almost and i think that did come about because william and kate were moving towards the point where they would announce their engagement and i think it was kate starting to behave in ways which would be seen as more appropriate for a future queen at the same time william did what was expected of him by following royal tradition and training at the prestigious sandhurst military academy well the bottom line is that the royal family is a military family and it has been for hundreds of years uh winning various battles to to keep them on the throne [Music] he will one day be king he will one day be commander-in-chief of the military so he really wanted to serve he really feels that he'll only be able to look service men in the eye if he has served himself kate was highly supportive of william's military career and when she attended his sandhurst graduation ceremony with her parents press speculation about an engagement went into overdrive [Music] i specifically remember williams passing out parade we hadn't expected kate and her family to turn up and myself and a number of photographers and journalists were standing on a press stand together and suddenly at the corner of our eye we saw kate and her mother and father being ushered down to the front of the seating and i remember turning to the person next to me and saying that's it it's a done deal this woman is going to be our future queen suddenly the engagement whispers were starting there was intense pressure on william and kate and short of printing the tea towels everyone had these two walking down the aisle imminently [Music] behind the public fairy tale there were private issues in the relationship just months later the couple shocked the world when they publicly separated in early 2007. the press was quick to blame the split on kate's family there was some rather cruel and unkind commentary about the inadequacy if you like of the middleton family as sort of future royal in-laws it was very snobbish if anything it possibly uh propelled william back into kate's arms because it was a fairly short break and he he soon realized what he was missing when the couple reunited a few months later some believed it was on kate's turns when they reconciled it was definitely an unspoken agreement if not a spoken agreement between william and kate that this wouldn't happen again that if they got back together again it would be an eye on having a long-term future together but it still took william another three years before he finally proposed and after dating on and off for seven years they announced their engagement in november 2010. it was a total shock when it came and very excited william had made the surprise proposal three weeks earlier in africa using his mother's sapphire engagement ring obviously she's not been around to any of the the fun and excitement at all this is my way of keeping her sort of close to it all the symbolism of this of course was that he wanted to carry his mother into his future as well as having her in the past although it there there's this sort of beauty of the moment of william bringing his mother into the mix there's also on the other side of it the kind of wisdom that he had not allowed his wife to be to be led like a lamb to the slaughter as diana had called herself but instead had allowed her to choose her future and to go into the marriage with her eyes open [Music] william didn't want to repeat the mistakes of his parents rushed courtship and ill-fated marriage and i suppose in love of course whatever in love means this future king was determined to do things differently i had been waiting this long as i wanted to give her a chance to see and to back out if she needed to um before it all got too much because you know it's i'm trying to learn from lessons done in the past and i just wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and see what you know what happens the other side from that engagement interview we realized if if anything that um we'd misnamed kate as weighty katie it should have been weighty william because it was william who sort of put the brakes on rather than rush into engagement and marriage as many royal young men have done over the years william waited and waited william wanted to be sure that the woman he was marrying was in it for the long run you know he he doesn't want his marriage to end the way his parents did unlike diana kate had her eyes open to the challenging road that lay ahead she wasn't just marrying into the royal family one day she would be wife to the king and from the very beginning she seemed to be aware of the traditional role she would need to fill it's obviously nerve-wracking because i don't know what i'm um um sort of i don't know the rapes really william i was obviously used to it but um but now i'm i'm willing to learn quickly and and work hard now yeah [Music] kate will be the first queen consort in 350 years who is not from an aristocratic background we haven't seen a member of the royal family certainly not an heir marrying a commoner so here was william breaking the mold doing things differently and establishing a first for the royal family despite kate adapting to royal life remarkably well for an institution that is hundreds of years old this was a concern [Music] i'm quite convinced that in the early days kate probably received some rather standoffish or condescending views towards her because she wasn't an aristocrat unlike diana or even sarah ferguson and that would have been frowned upon kate may not have an aristocratic background but during the run-up to the wedding she carefully cultivated a regal image and convinced the public she was the perfect royal bride she's relatable he's not an aristocrat she doesn't have titles through marion commoner william has brought a common touch to the monarchy which has been very very valuable to the house of windsor [Applause] william and kate's wedding would be the biggest royal event of the decade i think the key part of it was this is the man who will be king and he represents a new generation he's not tainted by the past [Applause] but will the future of the monarchy be safe in the hands of the new generation when we look at the scale of this wedding we won't see scenes like this for this particular couple until william's coronation [Music] [Music] on the 29th of april 2011 prince william of wales and catherine middleton were married at westminster abbey several billion people watching it across the world 2 000 guests almost 9 000 journalists there so it really was a very big thing but i i think the key part of it was this is the man who will be king and he represents a new generation he's not tainted by the past it showed that the royal family had learned the lessons of diana and fergie and you know catherine wasn't rushed into it she was given every chance to back out at one point they got to know each other before they got married and you can't say that about quite a few royal weddings we were starting to see a new approach to the royal family because of this combination of william bringing a royal and aristocratic background catherine being drawn from very ordinary british society and their very ordinary meeting meant that we could imagine the british royal family in a new way the wedding was an opportunity for william and kate to show the world what they will one day look like on the throne when we look at the scale of this wedding we won't see scenes like this for this particular couple until william's coronation i think people could start to see that you know following the queen's incredible reign is that the monarchy would really be in very safe hands while it was a day steeped in tradition it was also a chance for william and kate to give a nod to the modern world they were the first senior royal couple to have a maid of honor a best man and a spontaneous second kiss on the buckingham palace balcony william and kate treated us to two kisses so make of that what you will maybe that's sort of pushing us into the future um maybe we'll get more kissing when prince george or charlotte or louis get married the royal wedding day allowed william and kate to carefully cultivate the image they wanted everyone to see it wasn't so stage managed it was very much more about love romance and what this couple wanted and we lapped it up the world laptop once william and kate had married it sort of sealed the future as it were william will become the king and kate will become the queen console so um it it gives us a chance to look into the future and and when we look we see something which is young and fairly modern and something that makes people feel optimistic [Music] the queen conferred dukedom on william and the couple became officially known as the duke and duchess of cambridge it was time to step up as working royals since their wedding they've had to get more into focus you know because let's not forget you know her majesty the queen is now over 90 she has bestowed certain charities on both of them and he has to take a more of an active role well they both do i think he's made a good job of it and it will be something the more he does it the better it will be when he finally becomes king i mean his whole life has led up to this kate has had to do it in what sort of ten years [Music] kate may have been born a commoner but she quickly adapted to being royal with a little help from the queen the queen is not one who likes to tell people how to do things she likes to lead by example she took kate and camilla with her to fortnum mason uh where they had tea and they uh unveiled a plaque but that was rather special seeing the current queen and two future queen consorts out on an engagement together it was very significant when she went on some of those trips in the early days with the queen and the duchess of cornwall which were really set up to put her at her ease and to give her an idea of what royal duty was like kate's image transformation was clear to see during the couple's first tour of north america after their wedding of course kate looked to million dollars especially in the states where what she wore and how she looked was uh so critical over that i think the other evolution of kate is the fact that you've seen her become more regal she knows exactly how to connect she's more comfortable giving speeches providing children and their families with us a place of support care and enhancement at a time of great need is simply life-changing kate now speaks in this wonderfully uh rp accent um which her parents don't have once you burnt your boats and you've married the future king you've got to learn these things it's like you know if you go to italy and you want to live there on your own you've got to learn to speak italian you've got to and i think it's the same thing so kate's very um good as it were learning to speak italian kate has absolutely managed to change the narrative about her and the press about her brilliantly so she's moved from being weighty katie who was seen as rather lightweight doing nothing with her life waiting for her prince to propose to the kate we see today who's absolutely embodies her royal role kate wasn't born with a royal platform like william but now she has one she is making the most of it the duchess has made the role her own by choosing the causes she wants to support like mental health fear or reticence or a sense of not wanting to burden another means that people suffer in silence what we're really seeing is just a sort of blossoming of who she really is she may not have been born to this role she may not have been born to be queen but she's a hell of a classy lady and class doesn't come from one's social status it comes from one's upbringing and it comes from one's character and she has that in spades during the early years of their marriage the couple juggled their new royal roles with a seemingly normal modern life they stopped short of becoming full-time working royals and maintained some privacy living in anglesey where william worked as an raf search and rescue pilot in terms of of william being ready to take on the throne i think it was quite interesting that he was allowed with the queen's blessing sometime out of the spotlight after the royal wedding william was allowed to continue his career in the raf and they continued living in anglesey william was desperate to stay in the military and of course he trained to be a helicopter pilot but in the end he wasn't allowed anywhere near the front line the ultimate boss said no because he is second in line to the throne guys you are clearing for the trucks please we don't need a bar thank you okay he retrained as a search and rescue pilot on angle c he helped save many many lives flying that yellow seeking helicopter around the british isles so that gave him a meaningful role and that means an awful lot to him he did have those early years of married life out of the spotlight able to pursue his career and knowing that in the not too distant future his life and catherine's life would be a life of royal duty for the rest of their lives [Music] [Applause] as the future king and queen there was also implicit pressure on the couple to produce future heirs to the throne historically royal wives have tended to have their first baby within a year of marriage well it sounds awfully clinical but that was never going to happen for william and kate because the year following their wedding was the queen's diamond jubilee and nothing could detract from the queen's diamond jubilee talk about impeccable timing in december 2012 suddenly they announced kate's pregnant seven months later in july 2013 the couple welcomed their first child prince george and the new mother and father julie pleased the traditionalists around the world and posed for the cameras just hours after the birth william and kate came and stood on on the doorsteps of that famous lindo wing at saint mary's hospital in paddington where he had been cradled as an infant by his mother and prince harry too and i think the world was very happy [Applause] i think you could see the relief on the queen's face the first time she was photographed with prince george and with with william and kate afterwards the focus of the royal family changed from this is a being about the queen and her children to being the future of the royal family while prince george's birth may have been in keeping with tradition it was a milestone in modernising the royal family before he was born the law of succession to the throne was updated for the 21st century it was exciting to see the changes in the laws of succession that determined that if william and kate welcomed a girl first that girl would retain her place in in the line of succession versus being stepped over by a younger born brother that was all very exciting of course those uh changes became inconsequential temporarily because a boy was born first but charlotte maintains her place in the line of succession even with the birth of a younger born brother so that's an exciting thing to have come about in light of william and kate expanding their families [Music] [Applause] princess charlotte was born in 2015 and prince louis followed in 2018 and while other royals have caused upset by treating childbirth as a private affair kate has continued to smile for the cameras [Music] william and kate's growing brood gave a boost to the royal family's popularity [Music] but with a string of royal scandals to follow how have william and kate weathered the storm and kept the monarchy on course no one knows more than harry what kind of life william has got in front of him and william had every expectation and reason to think that harry was going to be there supporting him when the time came and now it looks like he won't be i know william watches interview with a mixture of shock and horror harry was kind of publicly airing their dirty linen and i know he debated long and hard about what to do [Music] [Applause] throughout his life prince william has been groomed for his future role as heir to the throne with each passing year his responsibilities have increased he made three overseas visits in 2019 attended 220 royal engagements and is now the patron of 29 charities it's a workload that's likely to increase what's impressive about prince william is you absolutely get his sense of his own duty and his responsibility to the crown and possibly at times that duty comes ahead of personal relationships no one knows this more acutely than his younger brother prince harry as a future heir to the throne william was taught that one day he would have to make tough choices but when the brothers were children it was easy for them to enjoy a close relationship you couldn't put so much as a sort of a sliver of paper between william and harry they were they were so close they looked out for one another william was a constant presence in harry's life and they were very protective of one another as they grew up and as young men they both lived through the very rocky separation and divorce of their parents and then of course the devastation of diana's death diana princess of wales has been killed in a car accident that kind of pulverizing grief that changes your life forever the two young princes joined the procession accompanying their mother the final mile to westminster abbey and then the whole world watches them walking in the courthouse behind their mother's coffin i mean nobody who saw that will ever forget it and it clearly was a transformative experience for them williams supported harry during his efforts to seek counselling after their mother's death their close and supportive relationship was maintained as they grew into young men when they pursued similar careers in military service the brothers actually lived together when they were both training to be pilots at raf shawbury and i actually got the chance to interview both of them together and it was really wonderful to see there was a real camaraderie between them he did all the washing out he does do a bit of the washing up then he leaves most of it in the sink and then it comes back in the morning and i have to wash it out other lies and even when william was dating kate middleton harry was always part of the gang if you like and briefly of course when megan came along we had the fab four that's what they were dubbed megan's hollywood background gives her tremendous confidence if meghan markle was the slightest bit nervous about stepping out in front of the british public it didn't show and initially she drew the spotlight away from kate megan being an actress was so much more comfortable in front of the cameras there was a sharp distinction between the two women that a lot of people were marked on kate and megan did not particularly get on you know they both have such different backgrounds william and kate do feel they have to be slightly more composed in public as future monarchs the cambridge's devotion to duty has helped them ride out these tensions but the brothers clashed again over the speed of harry's whirlwind romance some say william urged him to take more time over it as he and kate had done with theirs but this was hard for harry to hear i think sadly this was interpreted as william not being all together sufficiently welcoming it sort of all started to drive a wedge between the brothers as a monacan waiting one of william's toughest problems has been how to protect the future of the royal family while staying true to his bond with harry hurting his brother's feelings may have been the unfortunate but hopefully short-term side effect of his devotion to duty actually williams was shown to be right that marrying into the royal family yes it seems like it's a fairy tale with carriages and the gilded life but actually it's quite a punishing routine in many ways in october 2019 prince harry brought his private differences with prince william into the public domain during a tv documentary we're brothers we will always be brothers and we're certainly on different paths at the moment but as brothers you know you have good days you have bad days i know william watch this interview with a mixture of shock and horror harry was kind of publicly airing their dirty linen and i know he debated long and hard about what to do no one knows more than harry what kind of life william has got in front of him and william had every expectation and reason to think that harry was going to be there supporting him when the time came and now it looks like he won't be william values duty and responsibility over all else and though both princes have shared the same tragedies and both their wives have suffered negative press the cambridges haven't run away from their royal duties i don't believe for a minute that the press had been any more difficult towards either couple really the sussexes i think have seen rogue elements that really weren't there like their accusation of racism towards megan the difference between the two brothers and their wives is one has behaved stoically and earned phenomenal respect whereas the sussexes have gone down in our estimation and we have far less patience with their mimi me antics in january 2020 the royal family were forced to deal with harry and megan's plan to divide their time between the uk and america the so-called sandringham summit was a big moment for william to prove he puts duty to the monarchy ahead of loyalty to his brother the queen wants a swift agreement to end this crisis before it causes more damage apparently megan was going to be on speakerphone well the queen put paid to that and so harry had to face the music alone they very much thought they could have a kind of half in half out status by which they you know did some royal duties but were able to live abroad and pursue lucrative commercial careers william with his developing awareness of the constitution knew harry and megan's plan would never work you couldn't be in williams view a member of the royal family dipping in and out you are either in or you are out and so the decision was made okay if you want to go we're desperately sad about that but you are out and you will not be using hrh and you will not be using sussex royal instagram i'm not sure william had much choice in the matter you know he is going to be king even if it means the expense of his familial relationships mexit could mean the cambridges have to take on extra duties but claims by anna pasternak in a controversial tattler article that kate is furious about any extra workload have seen denials and reports of threatened legal action against the magazine they wanted as i understand it to be much more hands-on parents and suddenly they have this massive workload which they weren't anticipating tatler say they stand by anna's reporting but kensington palace also denied the claim that kate disliked megan's wedding plan for her bridal party not to wear stockings as it would be a breach of protocol and the cambridge's honor royal conventions we've really seen them take on a very traditional royal role william and kate have really embraced that mexit wasn't the only crisis that's engulfed the royal family that william and kate have had to deal with in november 2019 prince andrew was forced to retire from public life senior royals including prince william was said to be horrified by the comments he made in a tv interview trying to defend his friendship with a convicted pedophile jeffrey epstein but you were staying at the house of a convicted sex offender it was a convenient place to stay pretty much everyone told andrew it was a great mistake to give an interview to explain a relationship with jeffrey epstein you can't control it and andrew he's no genius so he said some very silly things in the interview and they would have horrified william and we understand that it was william who was very much of the view that prince andrew could not continue to have a public role i think that was very significant not only that we were being leaked that information but that william was involved at the very highest level it's really the first time we've seen that removing prince andrew and the sussexes from royal life will make life complicated for the windsors and especially william and kate they've already been set forward by prince charles's long-term plans to reduce the number of working royals well prince charles feels that moving forward the public appetite for lots of aunts and uncles and cousins doing royal duties isn't there there are many distant royals who live in grace and favor apartments and are effectively subsidised by the taxpayer and do very little for that money depending on the queen's ability to continue working in her mid-90s the plan could leave a public-facing monarchy of just four the duke and duchess of cornwall and the duke and duchess of cambridge how do four people oversee the commonwealth how do four people do all the ceremonial occasions all the official engagements oversee all the charities that they do william has a great sense that he has inherited something which is important and he needs to step up to the mark even if it becomes his whole life [Music] mexic and prince andrew's departure have shown how prince william places duty over close family relationships but the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 would pitch the cambridges into their greatest challenge yet something as terrible as this awful pandemic has actually given william and kate a chance to shine in a very modern way [Music] with the departure of prince andrew and the sussexes behind them william and kate and the other windsors must have been hoping to resume their royal duties albeit with a busier diary than usual but it wasn't to a be jump in coronavirus cases and the first death here in britain the pressure ramps up while politicians and scientists look for strategies to protect the public and the death toll rose into the thousands the british public looked to the royal family the windsors and especially william and kate now found a new duty of care and consolation the queen has been out outstanding and has given a series of of public broadcasts which have done an awful lot to reassure the population i think but beyond the queen it has been very much william and kate who have come to the fore the queen is effectively in confinement at windsor castle charles tested positive for the virus so william and kate are really picking up the slack three days before lockdown started the couple took part in the first royal engagement in connection with the pandemic when they visited a south london nhs helpline how many causes are you getting from the public around mental health and listening to the concerns of nhs staff and thanking them for their dedication william and kate showed great sympathy something as terrible as negative as as this awful pandemic has actually given william and kate a chance to shine in a very modern way they've revealed things about themselves that will always be remembered that during the pandemic they were there when the nation went into lockdown on the 23rd of march the cambridges proved to be the most successful of the royals to embrace new technology and stay working within social distance and guidelines continuing traditional royal duties but in a clever modern way staying connected staying positive and being able to talk to friends and family is so crucial so suddenly the duke and duchess of cambridge are at the front of the royal family are the most visible royals and have been doing all sorts of things virtually whether it's opening hospitals or visiting schools or helping to found a couple of new charities you know what we're seeing now is is the nhs and the frontline workers doing the most extraordinary job and that's really come to the forefront in the last few few weeks and i think it's going to dramatically change how we all value and see our frontline workers [Music] william and kate have isolated themselves with their children in norfolk where they have joined in the weekly applause for nhs carers and in a call back to william's former career as an air ambulance pilot they've offered their london home as a refuelling post for emergency flights william was given permission for helicopters to land in the grounds of kensington palace which is remarkable that would never have happened in the past the royals who lived there even during the war were a bit sniffy about people growing cabbages nearby they haven't patronized us but they're one of us they absolutely have managed to blend their sense of duty with a real tangible humanity and personally i've never admired them more than i do for how they've coped during the pandemic throughout his life prince william has made choices that have stepped away from the royal standard i don't like being treated any different at all make special treatment at all he took a gap year volunteering for charity and chose a wife from a non-aristocratic background should we expect the cambridges to break even further with tradition when they reach the throne i think if anyone was wondering whether the crown is going to be safe in their hands you only need to look at how they've conducted themselves during this pandemic to see that the answer is a resounding yes william and kate may be many people's idea of the perfect king and queen but it may be a very long time before they are given the opportunity to serve the nation in this way will anyone still want a monarchy by then there could be suggestions that it's an outdated institution william and catherine have managed to keep their slates pretty clean and they are people who haven't really put a foot wrong who have maintained popularity and are doing pretty well so well in fact that a recent survey found nearly half of those polled would like to see prince william take the throne instead of prince charles the queen doesn't believe in breaking the rules she does not want charles to step aside when she passes william doesn't want that to happen there are a lot of people who want to skip charles and go straight to william it would be shocking to skip prince charles i think that's more driven by william's youth hello everybody he will be william v one day she will be queen catherine and i honestly think what you see is what you get they're not fakes they will be a modern couple and although the monarch's power is extremely limited just to giving advice kate will be an important part of that the person i would actually liken kate to is the queen mother who was known as the steel marshmallow very fluffy on the outside but with a core of steel underneath and i think that actually sums up kate william and kate at the same age and while he was born into privilege and schooled as the heir to the throne she was brought up in an everyday family despite the differences in their backgrounds and the obstacles they faced along the way they forged a lasting partnership which has skillfully married tradition with modern sensibilities i do think that they will have a warmer feeling a warmer approach to the british public very happy birthday on valentine's day from everything we've seen to date with william and kate i think that they're going to demonstrate a monarchy that is caring and compassionate that proceeds with dignity but also with a bit of humor and i do think that they show the sort of approachability and relatability that will safely sustain the monarchy into the late 21st century [Music] [Music] [Music] how william has embraced his sense of duty while those around him have rocked the boat you couldn't be in williamsview a member of the royal family dipping in and out you are either in or you are out and ask does the perfect image they portray mean the future of the monarchy is too good to be true the queen and the duke of edinburgh they will be watching very carefully especially given that younger royals in the past have got things very badly wrong and they don't want that to happen again i think they have been being tested out i think people have been watching to see whether the crown is safe in their hands [Music] prince william's destiny was determined from the moment he became the first child of prince charles and princess diana second in line to the throne very early on he would have had quite a potent sense of his destiny he would have known that one day he was due to become king and he often used to say to his mother that he didn't really want to be king and his brother harry would interdict and say well i'll have the job then if you don't want it and as a member of the royal family and the future king william

Channel: Classic Stars

Views: 246,297

Keywords: royal, royal drama, royal fan, meghan, meghan markle, queen, the queen, charles, prince charles, prince william, william, archie, kate, kate middleton, duke, duchess, philip, prince philip, oprah, oprah winfrey, oprah interview, bombshell

Id: tsHQJiJKhAM

Length: 69min 49sec (4189 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021