Prince William Plans Return to Duties as a ‘WFH’ Royal

Prince William is planning a return to full-time royal duties beginning next week, combining work-from-home digital appearances and in-person engagements to maximize “impact” in what sources said would be “a template” and a “dry run” for his future reign.

William, who had not been seen or heard from in over three weeks since before his wife Kate Middleton announced she had been diagnosed with cancer, returned to public visibility Wednesday with a social media post paying tribute to a leading female soccer player retiring from England’s national team.

It was a carefully calibrated dip of the toe back into public life, and ongoing digital engagement of this kind is understood to be a key plank of his strategy for combining the unexpected intensification of his royal role occasioned by his father’s illness with being a “family man,” bringing a kind of “WFH” approach to the business of royalty as one friend put it.

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William has spent the past three weeks of school holidays at his country home on the Sandringham Estate with his family, time which will also have helped him prepare himself for what another source termed “a dry run at being king much sooner than he might have imagined”—referring to the fact that his father, King Charles III, has been forced to step back from public-facing royal duties due to his own cancer treatment, leaving William as the highest-profile member of the family still actively working.

He is thought to have appreciated his time out of the spotlight and was reportedly spotted earlier this week enjoying a pint in a local pub with his mother-in-law, Carole Middleton, confirming rumors that Kate’s family are rallying around to help the princess as she recovers from cancer.

Charles is thought to have spent several days in Scotland for his wedding anniversary, and although he has also been largely off the radar with the exception of an Easter Day appearance, it is not thought father and son met over the Easter holidays. Charles has left little doubt over his admiration for Kate, however, with aides briefing The Daily Beast that he is “proud” of the way she decided to address her illness publicly.

While Kensington Palace declined to comment on what exactly William’s plans for the next few weeks are, and did not respond to questions about whether William would be doing more work online, his office previously briefed journalists that he could expect to be seen back in public again once the school term recommenced on Wednesday next week. The Daily Beast understands that this is still the plan and he will be making a series of in-person public appearances over the coming weeks.

A friend of the couple told The Daily Beast: “In many ways the next few weeks and months will be a template for his future reign because he will have similar personnel available after he succeeds to the throne, even if that doesn’t happen for many years. I think you’ll see him try and balance the demands of state with the demands of being a good family man, taking care of his sick wife and making sure his kids are doing OK. I’m sure that will mean doing more stuff online. He can ‘WFH’ and do hybrid working a bit. Frankly, it has more impact because it reaches many more people.”

Another source, a former royal courtier, told The Daily Beast: “William and Kate had hoped to have several decades as Prince and Princess of Wales, and, God willing, they will still get them. But what is interesting about the next few months is that William is being forced into a dry run at being king much sooner than he might have imagined such a thing would come to pass. Of course he doesn’t welcome it, but there will certainly be some fascinating straws in the wind about what the reign of ‘King Billy’ will look like.”

One thing that seems certain when talking to friends and advisers of William, both recently and over the past few years, is that he has no intention of emulating his grandmother’s model of doing several hundred engagements a year and being the patron of hundreds and hundreds of charities. Instead, the goal will be to represent fewer causes but have more “impact,” to use a favored term.

Indeed, William himself said as much in uncompromising comments made to print journalists accompanying him on a trip to Singapore in November for the Earthshot Prize, which aims to develop technological solutions to the climate crisis.

William praised his family for “highlighting lots [of causes]” but said, in an explicit rejection of the former royal habit of taking on hundreds of charities (Prince Philip had more than 800 charities under his wing and Queen Elizabeth II was patron of more than 500) William said, “You have to remain focused. If you spread yourself too thin you just can’t manage it and you won’t deliver the impact or the change that you really want to happen.”

Citing his own involvement in the homelessness sector, he said his goal was to be involved “deeper and longer,” as opposed to “just having loads of causes that you sort of turn up and keep an eye on.”

But be in no doubt: If the last few weeks have shown anything it is that the needs of Kate and the kids will always, for William, trump the demands of state and charitable organizations. Kate is doing well, her team says, but if a conflict arises, William will likely have little hesitation in canceling royal engagements to focus on family.

As Duncan Larcombe, royal commentator and former royal editor of British tabloid The Sun, told The Daily Beast: “William has made it pretty clear that if push comes to shove, he will prioritize his wife and kids over royal duties. He is torn at the moment because he obviously has responsibilities to his family but also to his work as a royal. Doing more stuff online is clearly one way of balancing those demands.”