William’s had a rotten 18 months. Many have remarked he’s appeared unusually sombre – and not just when standing next to Prince Andrew. Now royal author A.N. WILSON reveals: What’s eating William

How galling it would have been for the heir to the throne to see commentators in the Press suggest Harry’s four-day trip to Britain was a roaring success, a reminder of the cheeky chappy royal we have missed, and that his attempts at reconciliation should be welcomed.

An article by Diana’s biographer, Tina Brown – who has the ear of many in the know – must have particularly wounded William.
‘At last, Prince Harry has got it right, which is bad news for the Prince of Wales,’ Brown wrote on her Fresh Hell Substack. ‘As Harry’s buoyant photo ops duelled with Prince William and Kate’s engagements for press coverage this week, you had to ask: Who would you rather hang with? The Tigger-like Duke of Sussex or sober, appropriate William and infinitely perfect Kate.’

Brown went on to claim that King Charles is ‘underwhelmed’ by William’s failure to pull his weight.

She pointed out that in the last year, William completed only 107 days of engagements. Even while suffering from cancer and receiving gruelling treatment, the King undertook 175 days of engagements in the same period. The late Prince Philip – God, how we miss him! – undertook over 250 engagements in the year when he was 95. Princess Anne, a chip off the old block, hardly allows a week to pass in which she is not working tirelessly, often – like the late Duchess of Kent – unobserved, for such good causes as Save the Children.

In the past seven months, the Waleses have had five confirmed family vacations, a fact seized on gleefully by Ms Brown, a former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, to suggest William was workshy.