Royal Photographers Reveal What Prince William Is Really Like Off-Camera — and It's Not Pretty
A veteran royal photographer just called the future King of England "horrible" and "arrogant." He is far from the first person to say so.
There is a version of Prince William that his communications team has spent years constructing—a future king who recycles, takes selfies with fans, and projects the kind of steady, modernizing warmth the monarchy badly needs. And then there is the version that emerged recently from beneath a rain-soaked tree on the edge of the Sandringham estate. And one would assume they are not the same man.
With the press corps camped out in Norfolk following the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, detained in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office for sharing confidential data sent to Jeffrey Epstein, reporters found themselves with little to do but wait.
The New Statesman, which dispatched a journalist to cover the journalists, captured what unfolded when a group of seasoned royal photographers began swapping stories to pass the time. Their verdicts on the royals were not, by any measure, flattering. But it was their assessment of the king-in-waiting that was the most surprising, News.com.au reported. "Horrible. Arrogant." That was how one veteran royal photographer described the next King of England. William, the same photographer, added, "always tells me to f**k off." The New Statesman noted that the snappers "were swapping war stories about the royals" and "didn't seem to like any of them," but that William, specifically, was considered "the rudest of the lot."
The outburst from the press pack is striking, not because it is entirely unprecedented. Earlier, royal expert Duncan Larcombe had also portrayed a similar image of the Prince of Wales, noting there's one "problem" with William. "He does have a short fuse," he shared. “We don’t see it much, and we certainly haven’t seen it publicly in the way we have with Charles, Philip, or Harry, all of whom have shown their anger. It’s rare, but when something goes wrong, William can lose his temper and give the people who work for him a dressing down."
“There was an incident on a royal tour to Australia years ago when somebody shouted stuff out on a visit. William let it rip at the team who had put the visit together. But William is known as a fair boss," he continued.
In 2023, one of those moments was caught on film. A video circulated showing William confronting a photographer who had been filming the Wales family during a Saturday bike ride in Windsor. The footage showed the prince in a state of undisguised fury, bearing down on the photographer with the full force of his displeasure. "How dare you behave like you have done with our children? How dare you?" he shouted. "Stalking around here looking for our children and us. I'm out for a quiet bike ride with my children … You're outrageous, you're disgusting, you really are."
But William does not reserve his temper exclusively for the press. In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry recounted a confrontation between the two brothers that escalated well beyond raised voices. According to Harry's account, William "stepped towards me, swearing," leaving Harry feeling "a bit scared." The scene deteriorated further: "He was right on my heels, berating me, shouting. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dogs' bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me."
