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William, Prince of Wales

William, Prince of Wales, born on August 4, 1982, is the eldest son of King Charles III and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. As the first in line to the British throne, his public life has been shaped by both his royal duties and personal experiences, including the early loss of his mother in 1997. Educated at prestigious institutions, he graduated with a master’s degree in geography from the University of St. Andrews in 2005. Following his education, William served in the British Armed Forces, including as a search-and-rescue pilot in the RAF and later as an air-ambulance pilot, completing nearly 1,000 emergency flights.

In addition to his military service, William is committed to various charitable causes, focusing on mental health, homelessness, and wildlife conservation, notably through initiatives like the Heads Together campaign and the Earthshot Prize. He is also an advocate for emergency workers' mental health through the Blue Light Together initiative. William married Catherine "Kate" Middleton in 2011, and they have three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. The family resides primarily at Kensington Palace and continues to engage in royal duties and philanthropic efforts.

Full Article

William, Prince of Wales, is first in line to the British throne. His father, King Charles III, ascended to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. William was an active-duty search-and-rescue pilot and later an air-ambulance pilot. He served the royal family as a spokesperson for various charities that helped the homeless, those in the armed forces, and those struggling with mental illness. He also worked with wildlife conservation and community development in Africa.

Background

Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born on August 4, 1982, in London, England. His parents were Diana, the Princess of Wales, and Charles, the Prince of Wales. He was educated at Mrs. Jane Mynors' nursery school (1985–87), the Wetherby School in London (1987–90), Ludgrove School (1990–95), and Eton College (1995–2000). His attendance at Eton followed his mother’s family tradition, as that was the school attended by both her father, Lord Spencer, and brother. Eton was a departure for the royal family, as both Prince Philip (husband of Queen Elizabeth II) and Prince Charles had been educated at Gordonstoun in northeast Scotland.

While at Eton, William experienced the very public decline of his parents’ marriage, which provided fodder for the press throughout the early 1990s. Princess Diana was said to have cooperated with biographer Andrew Morton, who penned Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words (1992). The book detailed the princess’s struggle with bulimia, her suicide attempts, and her knowledge of her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles (who later became Prince Charles's second wife). The couple suffered several more embarrassing revelations in the press before their divorce in 1996. In 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, France, along with her boyfriend, Dodi al-Fayed, and their driver. William was only fifteen years old, and his brother twelve.

Her death was a great loss to her two sons, as Princess Diana was said to have been an unusual royal parent, taking a more active role in their upbringing than had her predecessors and insisting that her children experience many of the joys of "normal children." She tried to align her schedule with theirs, picked them up from school when possible, and took them to amusement parks and fast food restaurants. She also made a point of educating her sons about the lives of people who were not royals. She familiarized them with her various charities and raised them with a sense of humility and obligation to help others.

After leaving Eton in 2000, William spent a "gap year" (a postgraduate year) gaining experience outside of the classroom. He chose to spend some time training for the Welsh Guards in Belize, doing construction in Chile, and working on a dairy farm in England.

Following his gap year, William enrolled at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He began by studying art history and switched his focus to geography after his second year. William graduated from St. Andrews in 2005, earning a master’s degree in geography.

Military Career

William has performed royal duties since childhood, but it was only after his graduation from university that he assumed a more active role in the royal family. In 2005, he traveled to New Zealand to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of World War II. He also gained some insight into the business world, working as an intern at global financial company HSBC and studying land management at Chatsworth House, a classic English manor house in Derbyshire.

His participation in these royal duties was curtailed, though, when he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in the British Army’s Household Cavalry (also known as the Blues and Royals) in December of that year. He spent four months at Bovington Camp in Dorset while training, joining his younger brother, Harry, who was also a troop commander. He was trained in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) and was expected to leave the armed forces after three years.

In 2008, it was announced that William would pursue active duty in the RAF. He transferred from the army to the RAF and began training as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. Because of their positions as heirs to the throne, both princes Harry and William had to be cleared for certain active duty roles, as their participation in missions might draw unwanted attention to a particular action and put others in danger. There was also their personal obligation to their country as future leaders—they must make decisions that balance their desire to serve and their royal duties. In September 2010, William graduated as a search-and-rescue pilot in the RAF, with the rank of lieutenant.

Over the next three years, William conducted more than 150 operations and was deployed to the Falkland Islands, a contested, British-held territory off the coast of South America. He left the RAF and, unusually, became a civilian pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. He spent more than two years, from early 2015 to mid-2017, completing nearly one thousand emergency response flights.

Charitable Duty

William and his brother formed their own foundation in 2009. Originally called the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry (later renamed the Royal Foundation), it focused on helping young people, building awareness of those persons serving in the armed forces, and developing sustainability models that address the challenges of climate change and the shortage of natural resources. Palliative care, addiction, cyberbullying, and wildlife conservation were among the other issues their foundation sought to address.

One cause of special concern to William was mental health. In 2016 he, his brother, and his wife launched Heads Together, a Royal Foundation mental health campaign to promote awareness and openness about mental illnesses and combat stigmas related to it. As part of this campaign, William publicly talked about his own mental health challenges as a result of his emergency ambulance experience and the loss of his mother at a young age.

In June 2019, the brothers went their separate ways, with William and Catherine continuing to manage the Royal Foundation and Harry and his wife establishing their own nonprofit entity. They pledged to work together on Heads Together and future projects.

William also remained active in several of his mother’s charities, including Centrepoint, a homeless charity. He was a patron of dozens of organizations, including the Tusk Trust, a charity that seeks to preserve wildlife in Africa, and the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, which supports schools in Uganda. He was also the president of the Football Association, which governs English football (soccer).

As a senior royal, William continued during the early 2020s to make official visits both around the country and overseas, welcome foreign dignitaries, present medals to award recipients, and engage in philanthropic pursuits, among other royal duties. In 2020, he founded the Earthshot Prize, an international prize awarded to recipients who provide innovative solutions to environmental challenges facing the planet. In support of his mental health work, William launched the Blue Light Together initiative in 2021 to support the mental health of emergency workers.

On September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of ninety-six. After his father ascended the throne as King Charles III, William became heir to the throne. Soon after, he was named Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, as well as Prince of Wales. He issued a statement after his grandmother's funeral, acknowledging his gratitude for "The Queen's wisdom and reassurance" throughout his life.

In the mid-2020s, William took on more forward-facing roles, appearing in official capacities internationally as a representative of the Royal Family. He attended the reopening ceremony of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in late 2024. While there, he also held a meeting with Donald Trump, who had just been reelected as president. The following year, he attended Pope Francis' funeral and spoke at the United Nations Climate Change conference, known as COP30, in Brazil. William also visited children from Gaza who were being treated by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for serious illnesses in late 2025. He appeared on the Apple TV+ show The Reluctant Traveller, hosted by Canadian actor Eugene Levy, that year as well. In it, he discussed his personal life and his interest in changing the monarchy as king.

Personal Life

In November 2010, the royal family announced that William was engaged to Catherine "Kate" Middleton, his college girlfriend. The two met while at the University of St. Andrews and began dating in 2003. After a short breakup in 2007, the couple reunited later that same year, and Catherine was granted police protection.

The couple had three children: George (b. 2013), Charlotte (b. 2015), and Louis (b. 2018). Their children became the next in line for the British throne. They reside at Forest Lodge.

In March 2024, Princess Catherine announced that she had cancer and would be undergoing chemotherapy treatments. A month earlier, William’s father, King Charles, had also announced he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Catherine made few public appearances as she underwent treatment, but in September 2024, she appeared with William and their three children in a video saying she had completed chemotherapy and was looking forward to the day she is “cancer free.” The following year, she announced she was officially cancer free and in remission.


Bibliography

“About.” Royal Foundation, royalfoundation.com/about/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Andersen, Christopher P. After Diana: William, Harry, Charles, and the Royal House of Windsor. Hyperion, 2007.

Coughlan, Sean. "Kate Reveals She is in Remission from Cancer." BBC, 14 Jan. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2m8g2vp41o. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

Coughlan, Sean. "Prince William to Attend Funeral of Pope Francis." BBC, 22 Apr. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg41ed60gp5o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Kindelan, Katie. “Kate Middleton Says She Has Completed Chemotherapy 6 Months After Announcing Cancer Diagnosis." ABC News, 9 Sept. 2024, abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate-middleton-completed-chemotherapy/story?id=113156389. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Lambert, Guy. "William Pays Visit to Severely Ill Children from Gaza." BBC, 29 Nov. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9zq4xn543o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

The Prince of Wales. The Royal Household, www.royal.uk/the-prince-of-wales. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

“Prince William Speaks about ‘Traumatic’ Air Ambulance Callouts.” BBC, 20 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46279724. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Relph, Daniela. "I'll Change the Monarchy When I'm King, Says Prince William." BBC, 2 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20vyjevxe3o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Sawer, Patrick, and Hannah Furness. “Princes William and Harry Admit They Never Spoke Properly about Their Mother’s Death.” The Telegraph, 21 Apr. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/princes-william-harry-admit-never-spoke-properly-mothers-death/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Walker, Amy. "Prince William and Trump Meet After Notre-Dame Reopening." BBC, 7 Dec. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05ppeym6jro. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Full Article

William, Prince of Wales, is first in line to the British throne. His father, King Charles III, ascended to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. William was an active-duty search-and-rescue pilot and later an air-ambulance pilot. He served the royal family as a spokesperson for various charities that helped the homeless, those in the armed forces, and those struggling with mental illness. He also worked with wildlife conservation and community development in Africa.

Background

Prince William Arthur Philip Louis was born on August 4, 1982, in London, England. His parents were Diana, the Princess of Wales, and Charles, the Prince of Wales. He was educated at Mrs. Jane Mynors' nursery school (1985–87), the Wetherby School in London (1987–90), Ludgrove School (1990–95), and Eton College (1995–2000). His attendance at Eton followed his mother’s family tradition, as that was the school attended by both her father, Lord Spencer, and brother. Eton was a departure for the royal family, as both Prince Philip (husband of Queen Elizabeth II) and Prince Charles had been educated at Gordonstoun in northeast Scotland.

While at Eton, William experienced the very public decline of his parents’ marriage, which provided fodder for the press throughout the early 1990s. Princess Diana was said to have cooperated with biographer Andrew Morton, who penned Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words (1992). The book detailed the princess’s struggle with bulimia, her suicide attempts, and her knowledge of her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles (who later became Prince Charles's second wife). The couple suffered several more embarrassing revelations in the press before their divorce in 1996. In 1997, Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, France, along with her boyfriend, Dodi al-Fayed, and their driver. William was only fifteen years old, and his brother twelve.

Her death was a great loss to her two sons, as Princess Diana was said to have been an unusual royal parent, taking a more active role in their upbringing than had her predecessors and insisting that her children experience many of the joys of "normal children." She tried to align her schedule with theirs, picked them up from school when possible, and took them to amusement parks and fast food restaurants. She also made a point of educating her sons about the lives of people who were not royals. She familiarized them with her various charities and raised them with a sense of humility and obligation to help others.

After leaving Eton in 2000, William spent a "gap year" (a postgraduate year) gaining experience outside of the classroom. He chose to spend some time training for the Welsh Guards in Belize, doing construction in Chile, and working on a dairy farm in England.

Following his gap year, William enrolled at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He began by studying art history and switched his focus to geography after his second year. William graduated from St. Andrews in 2005, earning a master’s degree in geography.

Military Career

William has performed royal duties since childhood, but it was only after his graduation from university that he assumed a more active role in the royal family. In 2005, he traveled to New Zealand to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of World War II. He also gained some insight into the business world, working as an intern at global financial company HSBC and studying land management at Chatsworth House, a classic English manor house in Derbyshire.

His participation in these royal duties was curtailed, though, when he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in the British Army’s Household Cavalry (also known as the Blues and Royals) in December of that year. He spent four months at Bovington Camp in Dorset while training, joining his younger brother, Harry, who was also a troop commander. He was trained in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (RAF) and was expected to leave the armed forces after three years.

In 2008, it was announced that William would pursue active duty in the RAF. He transferred from the army to the RAF and began training as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot. Because of their positions as heirs to the throne, both princes Harry and William had to be cleared for certain active duty roles, as their participation in missions might draw unwanted attention to a particular action and put others in danger. There was also their personal obligation to their country as future leaders—they must make decisions that balance their desire to serve and their royal duties. In September 2010, William graduated as a search-and-rescue pilot in the RAF, with the rank of lieutenant.

Over the next three years, William conducted more than 150 operations and was deployed to the Falkland Islands, a contested, British-held territory off the coast of South America. He left the RAF and, unusually, became a civilian pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance. He spent more than two years, from early 2015 to mid-2017, completing nearly one thousand emergency response flights.

Charitable Duty

William and his brother formed their own foundation in 2009. Originally called the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry (later renamed the Royal Foundation), it focused on helping young people, building awareness of those persons serving in the armed forces, and developing sustainability models that address the challenges of climate change and the shortage of natural resources. Palliative care, addiction, cyberbullying, and wildlife conservation were among the other issues their foundation sought to address.

One cause of special concern to William was mental health. In 2016 he, his brother, and his wife launched Heads Together, a Royal Foundation mental health campaign to promote awareness and openness about mental illnesses and combat stigmas related to it. As part of this campaign, William publicly talked about his own mental health challenges as a result of his emergency ambulance experience and the loss of his mother at a young age.

In June 2019, the brothers went their separate ways, with William and Catherine continuing to manage the Royal Foundation and Harry and his wife establishing their own nonprofit entity. They pledged to work together on Heads Together and future projects.

William also remained active in several of his mother’s charities, including Centrepoint, a homeless charity. He was a patron of dozens of organizations, including the Tusk Trust, a charity that seeks to preserve wildlife in Africa, and the Henry Van Straubenzee Memorial Fund, which supports schools in Uganda. He was also the president of the Football Association, which governs English football (soccer).

As a senior royal, William continued during the early 2020s to make official visits both around the country and overseas, welcome foreign dignitaries, present medals to award recipients, and engage in philanthropic pursuits, among other royal duties. In 2020, he founded the Earthshot Prize, an international prize awarded to recipients who provide innovative solutions to environmental challenges facing the planet. In support of his mental health work, William launched the Blue Light Together initiative in 2021 to support the mental health of emergency workers.

On September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of ninety-six. After his father ascended the throne as King Charles III, William became heir to the throne. Soon after, he was named Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, as well as Prince of Wales. He issued a statement after his grandmother's funeral, acknowledging his gratitude for "The Queen's wisdom and reassurance" throughout his life.

In the mid-2020s, William took on more forward-facing roles, appearing in official capacities internationally as a representative of the Royal Family. He attended the reopening ceremony of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in late 2024. While there, he also held a meeting with Donald Trump, who had just been reelected as president. The following year, he attended Pope Francis' funeral and spoke at the United Nations Climate Change conference, known as COP30, in Brazil. William also visited children from Gaza who were being treated by the UK's National Health Service (NHS) for serious illnesses in late 2025. He appeared on the Apple TV+ show The Reluctant Traveller, hosted by Canadian actor Eugene Levy, that year as well. In it, he discussed his personal life and his interest in changing the monarchy as king.

Personal Life

In November 2010, the royal family announced that William was engaged to Catherine "Kate" Middleton, his college girlfriend. The two met while at the University of St. Andrews and began dating in 2003. After a short breakup in 2007, the couple reunited later that same year, and Catherine was granted police protection.

The couple had three children: George (b. 2013), Charlotte (b. 2015), and Louis (b. 2018). Their children became the next in line for the British throne. They reside at Forest Lodge.

In March 2024, Princess Catherine announced that she had cancer and would be undergoing chemotherapy treatments. A month earlier, William’s father, King Charles, had also announced he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Catherine made few public appearances as she underwent treatment, but in September 2024, she appeared with William and their three children in a video saying she had completed chemotherapy and was looking forward to the day she is “cancer free.” The following year, she announced she was officially cancer free and in remission.


Bibliography

“About.” Royal Foundation, royalfoundation.com/about/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Andersen, Christopher P. After Diana: William, Harry, Charles, and the Royal House of Windsor. Hyperion, 2007.

Coughlan, Sean. "Kate Reveals She is in Remission from Cancer." BBC, 14 Jan. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2m8g2vp41o. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.

Coughlan, Sean. "Prince William to Attend Funeral of Pope Francis." BBC, 22 Apr. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg41ed60gp5o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Kindelan, Katie. “Kate Middleton Says She Has Completed Chemotherapy 6 Months After Announcing Cancer Diagnosis." ABC News, 9 Sept. 2024, abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/kate-middleton-completed-chemotherapy/story?id=113156389. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Lambert, Guy. "William Pays Visit to Severely Ill Children from Gaza." BBC, 29 Nov. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9zq4xn543o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

The Prince of Wales. The Royal Household, www.royal.uk/the-prince-of-wales. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

“Prince William Speaks about ‘Traumatic’ Air Ambulance Callouts.” BBC, 20 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-46279724. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Relph, Daniela. "I'll Change the Monarchy When I'm King, Says Prince William." BBC, 2 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20vyjevxe3o. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Sawer, Patrick, and Hannah Furness. “Princes William and Harry Admit They Never Spoke Properly about Their Mother’s Death.” The Telegraph, 21 Apr. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/21/princes-william-harry-admit-never-spoke-properly-mothers-death/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

Walker, Amy. "Prince William and Trump Meet After Notre-Dame Reopening." BBC, 7 Dec. 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c05ppeym6jro. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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