Prince William is a ‘hands-on, caring father’ and ‘is not a workaholic like his father King Charles’, claims a royal expert.
The Prince of Wales, 40, completed just 190 engagements last year compared to his father’s 497 – but former BBC royal correspondent Jenny Bond praised William’s different approach to royal life.
He said the father of three is making his family a priority because he knows how important it is to his children [Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five] ‘On weekends and whenever he can’.
William has previously commented on the monarch’s workaholic nature, saying in a 2018 BBC documentary that he wanted to spend more ‘family time’ with his hard-working father.
Ok speaking! magazine, Jenny said: ‘Due to the late Queen’s ill health, William has probably had to move into his full-time royal job faster than he had hoped, but you can see now how committed he is.
Prince William is a ‘hands-on, caring father’ and ‘not a workaholic like his father King Charles (pictured together)’, claims a royal expert
‘However, I also really appreciate the fact that he is not a workaholic like his father, he knows how important family life is… He seems to be a complete, hands-on, caring father,’ she added.
Prince, Son and Heir – Charles was asked in 2018 by the 70 BBC documentary whether his father ‘had time to be a grandfather on top of everything else’, William replied cautiously.
In previous years, Charles has privately expressed his frustration that he doesn’t get to see his grandchildren as much as the Middleton family, a claim his aides have always vehemently dismissed.
But his eldest son has made it clear that he wants to spend more ‘family time’ with his hard-working father.
William said: ‘It’s something I’m working on more heavily, put it that way. I think he has time for it, but I wish he spent more time with the kids.
‘Now he’s in his 70s it’s a good time to consolidate a bit because, as most families do, you’re worried about being around them and making sure they’re in good health – and he’s the fittest man I know but equally I want him. He has to stay fit till he turns 95.
‘So it will be lovely to spend more time with him at home and be able to play with the grandchildren. Because when he’s there, he’s brilliant. But we need as many as possible there.’
Queen Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, added: ‘He would crawl with them on his knees for hours, you know making funny noises and laughing, and my grandchildren adore him, absolutely adore him.
The Prince of Wales (pictured with his three children), 40, completed just 190 engagements last year compared to his father’s 497 – but former BBC royal correspondent Jenny Bond praised William’s different approach to royal life.
King has been described as a ‘radiant’ grandfather who would spend hours crawling on the floor with his young grandchildren. Pictured, Princes George, Louis, Princess Kate and Charlotte, Prince William and King Charles and Queen Camilla in June 2023
‘He reads Harry Potter and he can do different voices and I think the children really appreciate that.’ Aides said Charles couldn’t be prouder to be a grandfather.
The King, then Prince of Wales, happily showed the documentary crew an arboretum he had planted for his eldest grandson at his Scottish home of Birkhall, which he called ‘George’s Wood’.
Meanwhile, talking about how hardworking his dad is, William added: ‘He has amazing personal discipline.
‘So, he has – and this has frustrated me a lot in the past – he has a routine. The only way to fit all these things is to split things up. The man never stops.
‘I mean when we were kids there were bags and bags and work bags that the office sent him. We rarely go to his desk to say goodnight to him.’
Camilla said she tried to encourage her husband to ‘pace himself’ but admitted he was too driven to take any notice.
He smiled wryly: ‘My dad once told me, ‘As you get older, there’s one thing you have to do and that’s pace yourself’. And I want to tell him to pace myself, but I’m afraid it won’t happen.’
In May, King Charles was revealed as the hardest-working royal of the past ten years – completing nearly 5,000 engagements during that period, just ahead of Princess Anne.
2010 2010 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Qu443432021 341 332 296 283 295 133 184 120 Philip 356 330 325 1 84 273 250 219 131 Charles 585 601 592 537 533 527 530 546 507 521 271 385 497 Camilla 243 250 276 246 224 235 221 235 219 224 120 166 194 224 120 166 1942081 385 497 Camilla 1 220 220 153 235 190 Kate 34 111 44 91 62 140 105 87 126 108 123 138 Harry 53 16 61 52 94 108 152 209 193 201 Meghan 96 83 Andrew 529 455 436 330 367 275 323 326 394 274 Edward 323435345344 291 463 308 129 204 276 Sophie 188 191 324 228 307 218 179 218 239 236 154 194 280 Anne 514 568 566 454 528 544 509 540 518 506 233 387 474 Duke of Gloucester 307 251 337 22222420202020203 115 183 Duchess of Gloucester 120 155 146 132 132 145 121 113 90 84 48 56 110 Duke of Kent 223 211 239 198 206 206 202 159 160 174 203 68 77 91 Princess Alexandra 82 118 110 28 83 88 88 65 67 60 13 34 48 Data compiled by Royal Watcher Tim O’Donovan The Times Newspaper
The monarch, who has spent much of the past decade as heir to the throne, completed 4,854 engagements between 2013 and 2022 – compared to 4,693 for her sister Anne.
In third place was their brother Prince Edward with 3,155 – followed by the Queen with 2,721 and Andrew with 2,289. The Duke of York’s position in fifth place is a surprise as he stepped down from royal duties four years ago in 2019.
Sophie (2,253) and Camilla (2,084) were close behind, with Sophie stepping up last year for her biggest engagement since 2014 as the Queen’s health deteriorated.
But while Prince William (1,704) and Kate (1,024) are now two of the most glamorous royals, they actually completed fewer engagements than the lesser-known Duke of Gloucester (2,056) and Duchess of Gloucester (1,031).
The Duke of Kent has also made a huge contribution to royal life although not as often as others – completing 1,538 engagements in a decade.
He was followed in the league table by Prince Philip (1,057), whose last engagement was in August 2017, nearly four years before his death in April 2021. Philip completed more engagements than Harry (1,009) and Kate over the past decade.
Meghan is at the bottom of the list, having completed 179 engagements in her short royal life before she and Harry stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to North America.
The data was compiled by the Mail’s Royals section based on figures compiled each year by renowned royal watcher Tim O’Donovan from Datchet, Berkshire.
The retired insurance broker used the court circular, the official daily list of royal engagements, to make quarterly totals before noting all the engagements, and then sent an annual table of his results in a letter to The Times.
Mr O’Donovan has always been keen to point out that his work should not be transformed into a ‘league table’ of individual royal performances, writing in his most recent letter to the newspaper in December 2022: ‘All engagements differ in time and content . Preparation also takes time, be it a trip, an investment or a speech.’
Mail Royals compiled its totals from 2013 to 2022 to complete the ten-year time frame for analysis, as well as going back a few years to 2010 to provide a longer view of how engagement numbers have changed for each royal.
Last year’s data showed Charles had the most engagements at 497, followed by Anne at 474. In third place was Sophie at 280 and Edward just behind at 276.