Prince William is celebrating his 40th birthday today. Together with Duchess Kate, he leads an almost perfect life as a future king.
Prince William turns 40 on June 21. Much has been written about his life since his birth. Some current phrases come from Mrs. Clare Maclennan: William has “grown into a senior member of the royal family, a devoted husband and a loving father of three children”. Mrs. Maclennan is Director of the Royal Mint, the Royal Mint of Great Britain. With her warm words, she painted a truly royal gift: a new five pound coin (5.90 euros) is being released to mark the 40th birthday of the second heir to the English throne.
Coin in honor of Prince William
The coin shows William, of whose “maturity and grace” Mrs. Maclennan raves, in semi-profile with a “40” on the left, a “W” (for William) on the right and “HRH The Duke of Cambridge” (His Royal Highness) on the margin the Duke of Cambridge). As with all British coins, the reverse features the profile of his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II (96). This makes William the only living man in the western hemisphere whose fortieth is immortalized on a regular currency. What other prince can say that about himself?
His path in life has always been planned
Prince William’s future is almost determined from birth: William becomes king after his father Prince Charles (73). It’s going to be a few more years, but William won’t be able to escape it even if he wanted to.
His future differs fundamentally from that of other forty-year-olds: Where other men of this age try to arrange their lives according to their ideas or dreams, fate as the firstborn of the heir to the throne takes over the role of life planning for him. Since his birth, the path to the throne has been laid out step by step. Deviations are out of the question, the unforeseen is not planned: the prince stays on track. Of course, unplanned events also occur in his life, and they all have something fateful about them.
His serious accident as a child still accompanies him
Shortly before his ninth birthday, William was seriously injured on a golf course when the child was hit in the head by a classmate’s club. The prince suffered a fractured skull, he later said: “We were on the green when a seven-iron came out of nowhere and hit me.” During the operation, the fracture on the forehead was corrected. To this day, a scar over his left eye reminds of the incident, which could have ended worse. “I call it my Harry Potter scar because sometimes it glows and people notice it,” says William, who eventually became a passable golfer.
He lost Princess Diana early on
The big drastic drama happened on August 31, 1997. His mother Princess Diana (1961-1997) had an accident. England and the whole world were shocked by the death of the Queen of Hearts. At the procession to the funeral service in London, 2.5 billion worldwide watched TV screens as 15-year-old William and his two-year-old brother Prince Harry (37) followed their mother’s coffin. In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, William spoke publicly about the tragedy for the first time. In a documentary, he said: “When you’re very young and you have to experience a loss like this – almost always, but especially at a young age – you feel a pain like no other.” Then the audience heard a sentence never heard from a royal before: “We are not robots.”
“It’s a very sad club that you don’t want to be a member of,” William said of the pictures showing him and his brother, close-ups of their heads bowed so the audience wouldn’t shed a single tear. “All I know is that I hid behind my bangs.”
He spoke of the depression that had “shut down” his feelings for 20 years. “I stuck my head in the sand, refusing to even think about my mother’s death. Why would that help? It would only make me sad anyway. Feelings shouldn’t play a role. I was walking around pretending my life is great”.
Prince Philip was his mainstay
The death of his beloved grandfather Prince Philip (1921-2021) also hit William hard, although this event was foreseeable. The Queen’s husband was always there for the problems and worries of his grandchildren and had looked after them especially after their mother’s death.
The much-cited dispute with his brother Prince Harry should also burden William. The two are said to have crossed over the role of Harry’s wife Duchess Meghan (40). However, Royal Watchers are certain that William will settle this dispute.
Otherwise, the tall William (1.91m) is the darling of the British public. Darlings of the Empire. He completed school and studies (first art history, then geography) without incident. He completed his military service in 2013 after seven years as a helicopter pilot with the rank of Flight Lieutenant (equivalent to the German officer rank of Hauptmann). Notable incidents: He landed a giant Chinook helicopter in his fiancé Kate Middleton’s backyard. A former soldier praised William about the green clover. The prince, who was briefly called William Wales (after his father’s Prince of Wales title) in the military, is a great comrade and very down to earth.
Duchess Kate and he are considered a dream couple
Even when choosing his wife, the prince did nothing wrong. William and Kate, who is six months older, have become an international trademark for perfect elegance, likeable openness and natural noblesse. They didn’t even do that much for it, in fact they refrained from everything that was and is typical of most marriages in the Windsor house. No scandals, no affairs. Their three children George (8), Charlotte (7) and Louis (4) are growing up as naturally as humanly possible. “I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, not behind palace walls. He needs to be out there,” William said years ago. The same goes for his siblings.
So this summer the family is moving from Kensington Palace in London to the much more modest Adelaide Cottage in Windsor in the country. Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth has retired, is only a few minutes’ walk from her grandson.
Prince William knows life out there. Not only the parades, the receptions, the state banquets, but also the downsides – and death. With his rescue helicopter he has seen people in need often enough and learned to “share moments of extreme emotion, from relief that we gave someone a chance to fight to deep sadness”. He then felt what tasks life still had in store for him.