Prince William's Response to Work-Shy Criticism Goes Viral—Video

Prince William's response to past criticism that he was "work-shy" and not undertaking a full-time royal role has gone viral after an interview clip from 2016 resurfaced on social media site TikTok. The Prince of Wales is now the most senior member of the royal family after King Charles and Queen Camilla—but has, over the past decade, faced criticism for not undertaking as many duties as other members of his family. Over the years, this led British tabloids to label the prince "Workshy Wills" and in 2016 the royal was asked outright about his commitment to royal duty in an interview given to the BBC to mark Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday. At the time, William was working as a pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance and only undertaking royal engagements on a part-time basis.

Uploaded to TikTok by user @princessmiddleton_ on September 27, a clip from the interview, undertaken by BBC royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, shows William's discussion of his responsibility to his young family, as well as the royal family in response to the criticism. In an extended version of the interview, Witchell told William: "There is an impression in some quarters that you are in some ways a slightly reluctant royal. "You will have seen—or I'm sure people will have told you about—some of the stories, some of the headlines, in recent weeks and months, 'Work-shy William' I think some of them have said. There's also been criticism of the duchess [Kate] in a similar vein. How do you respond to that. Do you regard that criticism, that impression, as being a fair one?" To this, William drew attention to the fact that he has faced criticism from the media and other quarters all his life. "To be honest, I'm going to get plenty of criticism over my lifetime and it's something that I don't completely ignore but it's not something I take completely to heart," he said. "I'm concentrating very much on my role as a father, I mean I'm a new father, and I take my duties and my responsibilities to my family very seriously and I want to bring my children up as good people and with the idea of duty and service to others as very important. But, if I can't give my time to my children as well I worry about their future." In addition to this, not seen in the TikTok clip, William adds that it was Queen Elizabeth who decided how many royal duties were delegated to him and that he was willing to accept more. William left his role with the air ambulance service in 2017 and took up royal duties on a full-time basis.

Read more

• Prince William's US charm offensive has only just begun
• Prince William: Work-Shy Criticism is 'Part of the Job'
• Prince William Facing 'Work-Shy' Allegations

Captioned "William has stuck to his word to this day, A true King 👑," the video has been viewed over 100,000 times so far and gained in excess of 4,000 likes and numerous comments on the social media platform. The prince was recently defended against the "work-shy" label that has been applied to him by critics in the years since taking up full-time royal duties, by brother, Prince Harry, who wrote about the internal diplomacy within the monarchy and sharing duties in his January 2023 memoir, Spare. Writing about a period of time in 2015, Harry told readers that: "The papers were awash with stories about Willy [William] being lazy, and the press had taken to calling him 'Work-shy Wills,' which was obscene, grossly unfair, because he was busy having children and raising a family." "Also, he was still beholden to Pa [Charles]," the prince continued. "Who controlled the purse strings. He did as much as Pa wanted him to do, and sometimes that wasn't much, because Pa and Camilla didn't want Willy and Kate getting loads of publicity. Pa and Camilla didn't like Willy and Kate drawing attention away from them or their causes. They'd openly scolded Willy about it many times." William and King Charles did not publicly respond to the revelations made by Harry in his memoir. James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page. Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.