It's easy to imagine that members of the British royal family, like Prince William, have it
made.
But the royal existence isn't always a fairy tale, and this prince has seen his fair share
of hardship and heartbreak.
These are some of the tragic details about Prince William.
Prince William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, went through a very messy,
very public divorce - which was also incredibly prolonged.
Charles and Diana first announced their separation in 1992, when William was just ten years old.
Given their popular union and the royal family's historically fraught relationship with divorce,
however, it was several years before they made the split official.
Even after announcing their separation, the Prince of Wales and the People's Princess
"continued to carry out their royal duties," according to the History Channel.
However, their already-strained relationship continued to deteriorate, with much of the
drama playing out in the public eye.
In November 1995, when a 13-year-old Prince William was attending boarding school, his
mother gave an explosive, tell-all interview about her marriage.
Airing on BBC One's Panorama, one of the most memorable moments came when Diana was asked
if Camilla Parker Bowles, Charles' then-alleged mistress and now-wife, played a role in the
breakdown of the union.
She famously replied,
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
According to royal biographer Katie Nicholl, William was reportedly "mortified" by this
deeply personal interview - not only had his peers watched, but he was hounded by the paparazzi.
Eventually, Charles' mother, Queen Elizabeth II, urged the two to formally divorce, which
they did in August 1996.
Divorce isn't easy for any child, but for William, the very public breakdown of his
parents' marriage was reportedly extra traumatic.
One royal expert claimed in the 2017 documentary Kate: The Making of a Modern Queen,
"I think that he was quite seriously affected by the bad relationship of his parents."
On August 31st, 1997, Prince William suffered the greatest tragedy of his young life when
his beloved mother died tragically and unexpectedly in a car crash in Paris.
Members of the paparazzi had chased her into a tunnel, where her driver lost control of
their car and crashed.
William, who was only 15 at the time of his mother's death, memorably marched along with
his brother, Prince Harry, behind his mother's coffin during her funeral procession on September
6th.
The moment was understandably difficult for the teenage royal.
In the 2017 documentary Diana, 7 Days, William revealed,
"It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, that walk.
[...] It felt like she was almost walking along beside us to get us through it."
Twenty years after his mother's death, Prince William began opening up about the impact
of experiencing this loss for the first time - particularly in relation to the royal initiative
to break down the stigma surrounding mental health.
In the 2019 BBC One special, A Royal Team Talk: Tackling Mental Health, William explained,
"I think when you are bereaved at a very young age, anytime really, but particularly at a
young age [...] you feel pain like no other pain.
And you know that in your life it's going to be very difficult to come across something
that's going to be an even worse pain than that.
But it also brings you so close to all those other people out there who have been bereaved."
"It's okay to speak about mental health, everyone's gotta have mental fitness, everyone needs
mental health, we all have it, we got to normalize the whole conversation."
The following year, the Duke of Cambridge admitted that starting a family of his own
brought his grief about Princess Diana's passing back to the surface.
In the Football, Prince William, and Our Mental Health documentary, he revealed,
"Having children is the biggest life-changing moment.
[...] When you've been through something traumatic in life, that is, your dad not being around,
my mother dying when I was younger, your emotions come back in leaps and bounds because it's
a very different phase of life, and there's no one there to kind of help you."
With the constant media frenzy surrounding the royal family, dating wasn't easy for Prince
William, who began fearing for now-wife Kate Middleton's safety when they were dating,
according to the Daily Mail.
After Middleton was reportedly left in tears after being hounded by paparazzi on her 25th
birthday, a royal spokesperson released a rare statement on the subject in 2007, saying,
"Prince William is very unhappy at the paparazzi harassment of his girlfriend.
He wants more than anything for it to stop.
Miss Middleton should, like any other private individual, be able to go about her everyday
business without this kind of intrusion.
The situation is proving unbearable for all those concerned."
Considering what Princess Diana famously went through with invasive photographers, it's
understandable that William would take issue with this treatment.
On Diana, 7 Days, William said of his mother,
"I believe she cried more to do with the press intrusion than anything else in her life.
The impact it was having on her that we would then see and feel was very difficult to understand.
She was subjected to treatment that frankly nowadays people would find utterly appalling."
Unfortunately, the paparazzi continued to invade the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's
privacy.
In 2012, the couple vacationed in France, where Kate was photographed while sunbathing
topless on the private, 640-acre estate by a paparazzo using a long-range lens camera,
according to The Guardian.
The French magazine Closer published the photos without her consent, leading Prince William
and his wife to file a criminal complaint about the invasion of privacy.
A Parisian judge subsequently granted the royals' request for an injunction and ordered
the magazine to either turn the original photos over within 24 hours of the ruling or be hit
with a fine of 10,000 euros per day, according to BBC News.
The court explained,
"These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace
of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred metres from a public road, and being
able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly
intrusive."
Five years later, a French court ordered the maximum possible fines from two officials
from the publishing company.
According to Reuters, a royal spokeswoman said after the ruling,
"This incident was a serious breach of privacy, and their Royal Highnesses felt it essential
to pursue all legal remedies.
They wished to make the point strongly that this kind of unjustified intrusion should
not happen."
For Prince William, fatherhood has brought on new anxieties and worries having to do
with - you guessed it - the paparazzi.
In 2015, Kensington Palace issued a statement on behalf of the Cambridges to the British
press, asking photographers to stop harassing their oldest children, Prince George and Princess
Charlotte.
The palace's statement read, in part,
"Paparazzi photographers are going to increasingly extreme lengths to observe and monitor Prince
George's movements and covertly capture images of him to sell to the handful of international
media titles still willing to pay for them."
Explaining that photographers had begun using invasive tactics, like using long-range lenses
to capture pictures of Kate and her eldest son playing in private parks and monitoring
the movements of George and his nanny around London, the palace went on to recall a particularly,
quote, "disturbing, but not at all uncommon" incident.
The statement revealed,
"A photographer rented a car and parked in a discreet location outside a children's play
area.
Already concealed by darkened windows, he took the added step of hanging sheets inside
the vehicle and created a hide stocked with food and drinks to get him through a full
day of surveillance, waiting in hope to capture images of Prince George."
Even a fairy tale romance like William and Kate isn't immune from the rumor mill.
In 2019, reports flew that William had stepped out on the duchess with the couple's close
friend, Rose Hanbury.
What started as a hearsay about Middleton and Hanbury having an alleged falling out
quickly snowballed into speculation of an affair between William and his wife's former
bestie.
In Touch Weekly was the first tabloid to publish claims of infidelity, with a source alleging
that the prince, quote, "just laughed it off saying there was nothing to it" when the duchess
confronted her husband about the rumors.
The insider added,
"Kate sees their friendship in an entirely different light now.
They come across as a perfect couple who can do no wrong, but the reality is, most couples
have their issues and William and Kate are no different."
While there hasn't been any actual evidence to support these cheating rumors, William
took the hurtful gossip seriously enough to involve his legal team.
According to The Daily Beast, the royal family's go-to lawyers sent letters warning publications:
"In addition to being false and highly damaging, the publication of false speculation in respect
of our clients' private life also constitutes a breach of his privacy pursuant to Article
8 of the European Convention to Human Rights."
While appearing at a launch event for the United Kingdom's Mental Health at Work portal
in 2018, Prince William spoke candidly about the long-term impact his military service
had on his mental health.
According to People, he said,
"I took a lot home without realizing it.
You see [so] many sad things every day that you think life is like that.
[...] You're always dealing with despair and sadness and injury.
The attrition builds up and you never really have the opportunity to offload anything if
you're not careful.
You're human and a lot of people forget the battles, you have shut it off to do the job
- but ultimately something pierces the armor."
The following year, the prince used his mental health initiative platform to take aim at
the British Armed Forces during a royal visit to Blackpool, revealing that he "never really
understood" why it had only just started to offer mental health training to match the
physical training soldiers endure, according to The Telegraph.
William said,
"They talk about being the best the whole time.
You're physically trained to do all the stuff you do, but never once in the process was
the mental aspect of what you were going to see at war time [...] actually processed through,
'How do we actually train people physically and mentally be the best soldier?'"
"There is no amount of talking, no amount of explaining, no amount of counseling you
can have that can get a whole generation past the atrocities and the grief."
As the 2010s came to a close, Prince William and Prince Harry began facing rumors of a
feud - which royal experts traced to the ginger prince's decision to propose to his now-wife,
Meghan Markle.
A royal correspondent claimed during TLC's 2019 special, Kate v Meghan: Princesses at
War?,
"William was quite concerned that the relationship had moved so quickly.
And being close to Harry, probably the only person close enough to say to Harry, 'This
seems to be moving quickly, are you sure?'
I think what was meant as well-intended brotherly advice just riled Harry."
Harry seemed to confirm the brotherly tension during ITV's Harry & Meghan: An African Journey
documentary.
Revealing that he and William were, quote, "certainly on different paths at the moment,"
Harry admitted,
"We don't see each other as much as we used to [...] but I love him dearly."
"As brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days."
By January 2020, Harry and Meghan decided to step back from royal duties, which further
heightened rumors surrounding the royal brothers' alleged feud.
This led them to release a rare joint statement through their spokesperson addressing the
ongoing speculation, which read in part,
"For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use
of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful."
Prince William has become increasingly open about his own mental health.
During an interview in BBC One's Football, Prince William, and Our Mental Health documentary,
which premiered in May 2020, the Duke of Cambridge got candid about a number of personal issues.
These included his coping strategies for dealing with anxiety during public speaking engagements.
William explained,
"Certain days, especially certain speeches as well when I was growing up, you definitely
get a bit of anxiety.
My eyesight started to tail off a little bit as I got older, and I didn't used to wear
contacts when I was working, so actually when I gave speeches I couldn't see anyone's face.
And it helps, because it's just a blur of faces and because you can't see anyone looking
at you.
[...] And actually that really helps with my anxiety."
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