Prince William Is Already Planning His Coronation and He’s Looking to ‘Switch Things Up': Report
Prince William may still be years away from taking the Crown, but he’s already thinking about how to make his coronation his own. While he has no desire to be a carbon copy of his father, the Prince of Wales also isn’t looking to throw centuries of royal tradition out the window. Instead, he’s reportedly planning a ceremony that reflects his style: modern and relevant.
That vision became clearer when William spoke to reporters in late 2024, shortly after his trip to South Africa. As reported by The Telegraph, he had said, “I can only describe what I'm trying to do, and that's I'm trying to do it differently and I'm trying to do it for my generation... to give you more understanding around it, I'm doing it with maybe a smaller 'r' in the royal, if you like, that's maybe a better way of saying it.”
Royal historian Gareth Russell believes William will “navigate the difficulty of the coronation in a way people won’t expect.” Speaking on True Royalty TV’s The Royal Beat – Back in Time, Russell said: “He was essentially tutored by Elizabeth II, and he does have this sort of modernizing, quite reformist spirit from his mother. I think the public will see a very different coronation. He is a reformer, but not a radical," the Royal Insider reported.
One tradition William is reportedly ready to abandon is the “homage of the people,” a historical part of the service where those attending, and watching from home, are invited to swear allegiance to the monarch. King Charles included it in a toned-down form at his coronation last year, but William has no plans to feature it at all. It’s a balance William is already weighing carefully, how to honor tradition without feeling trapped by it. Robert Hardman, royal author and commentator, told Harper’s Bazaar that the future King’s coronation would be 'less ceremony' and 'shorter', adding, “I wouldn’t say modernize, but maybe some of the elements will feel more contemporary.”
According to The Times’ royal editor, Roya Nikkah, William “wants his coronation to look and feel different” from the King’s service so it appears 'relevant' in today's time. She writes that he has been 'taking stock' since Charles’ coronation, thinking: “That was a supreme success, and it was because Pa altered things. I’ve got to be cognizant of how that evolution happens in my day. What is it that stays? What do I need to change? What will our relationships with the realms and the Commonwealth be then? I don’t think he’ll be taking the filleting knife to it, but he will be checking it is sharp.”
While the planning is still hypothetical, the weight of the role is never far from William’s mind. The news of the King’s cancer earlier this year brought the prospect of William’s reign closer than he had hoped. Writing in The New York Times, author Tina Brown noted, “The almost simultaneous news of Charles’s cancer has put William and Catherine in frightening proximity to ascending the throne just when they had hoped for years to parent their children out of the public eye. The prospect of it, I am told, is causing them intense anxiety.”