Everything Prince William Has Said About Navigating the U.K. Media

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Everything Prince William Has Said About Navigating the U.K. Media: ‘I Wouldn’t Believe Everything You Read in the Paper’

Walking the line. Prince William has always had a complicated relationship with the U.K. media after growing up in the limelight — but he very rarely discusses it.

The Prince of Wales knows that being in the public eye comes with his royal duty. But, unlike his brother, Prince Harry, who has claimed on numerous occasions that the U.K. press hounded his family and wife Meghan Markle, William has been much more tight-lipped about his experiences.

“To see this institutional gaslighting … They were happy to lie to protect my brother,” Harry alleged of The Firm and the press in a December 2022 first look at volume 2 of Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. “They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

The former military pilot — who stepped back from his senior royal duties in 2020 — has pointed fingers at his family and the media for allowing Meghan to be berated and attacked from the moment the pair began dating.

Meghan, for her part, claimed in the Netflix teaser that the couple was “fed to the wolves” following their May 2018 nuptials.

William, who is second in line to the British throne, doesn’t appear to share all of his sibling’s same grievances with the U.K. press. He has, however, spoken out in support of his loved ones, including wife Princess Kate, when the media has overstepped in the past.

In January 2007, William made a rare public gesture to protect his then-girlfriend, asking the press to “stop” harassing the fellow University of St. Andrews alum. “The situation is proving unbearable for all those concerned,” the statement read via Kensington Palace.

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When the couple got engaged in fall 2010, William told ITV News that he was “massively” protective of Kate. He noted that he chose to wait to propose in case she wanted to “back out” amid all of the pressure that comes with being a royal.

“The people around home are very supportive [of] us. Those are the people that really matter to us,” the Princess of Wales said at the time when asked about how she dealt with the scrutiny. “You can only be true to yourself. You sort of have to ignore a lot of what’s said. You have to be yourself.” (The couple tied the knot in April 2011 and have since welcomed three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.)

More than a decade later, William slammed BBC for allowing unethical tactics to be used in coercing his late mother, Princess Diana, to give her infamous 1995 Panorama interview. The tell-all unveiled secrets about the royals and featured Diana giving rare comments about her ex-husband King Charles III’s affair with Queen Consort Camilla.

“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said,” the future king of England said in a May 2021 statement. “The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.”

He added: “It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to [my mom’s] fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”

Scroll down to see more of William’s unfiltered comments about the U.K. press and navigating the spotlight:

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October 2005

After Kate was followed by paparazzi all day on her way to an interview, including her bus ride to the location, William reportedly penned a strongly worded letter to U.K. newspapers on his then-girlfriend’s behalf.

“On instructions from William, who had discussed the matter with Kate and her father, a legal letter to newspaper editors was issued requesting that details of Kate’s private life remain private,” royal author Marcia Moody revealed in her book Kate: A Biography. The contents of the letter have never been released.

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January 2007

The press continued to hound Kate so much that the prince issued a rare statement via the Kensington Palace spokesperson to ask the media to stop following his love.

“Prince William is very unhappy at the paparazzi harassment of his girlfriend,” the statement read. “He wants, more than anything, for it to stop. Miss Middleton should, like any other private individual, be able to go about her everyday business without this kind of intrusion. The situation is proving unbearable for all those concerned.”

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November 2010

The Duke of Cambridge addressed his brief 2007 split from Kate during an ITV News interview following the couple’s engagement. “To be honest, I wouldn’t believe everything you read in the paper,” he quipped, before revealing the reason for their breakup. “We were both very young. It was very much trying to find our own way. It soon worked out for the better.”

William later explained that he was “massively” protective of his then-fiancée and his soon-to-be in-laws.

“I really want to make sure they have the best guidance and chance to see what life has been like — or what life is like — in the family. That’s kind of almost why I have been waiting this long [to propose],” he said. “I wanted to give her a chance to see and back out if she needed to before it all got too much. I’m trying to learn from lessons done in the past and I just wanted to give her the best chance to settle in and see what happens on the other side.”

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September 2012

William was appalled when the French magazine Closer published topless photos of his new wife that were taken while they were on vacation. “Their Royal Highnesses have been hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner,” St. James Palace said in a statement at the time.

The palace pointed out that the invasion of privacy was triggering for the prince after the part the paparazzi played in his late mother’s 1997 death. (Diana died in a car crash in France after being followed by photographers.)

“The incident is reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, and all the more upsetting to the Duke and Duchess for being so,” the statement continued. “Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them.”

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May 2017

“I want George to grow up in a real, living environment; I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls — he has to be out there,” William told Vogue of his eldest son. “The media makes it harder, but I will fight for them to have a normal life.”

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May 2017

William and Kate went to court for the 2012 nude photo scandal and sought £1.3 million in damages from Closer for their invasion of privacy.

“In September 2012, my wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy,” William said in a statement relayed by the couple’s lawyer Jean Veil. “We know France and the French and we know that they are, in principle, respectful of private life, including that of their guests.”

The statement continued: “The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.” William claimed that he was seeking damages because the publication of the images were “all the more painful” given the amount of harassment his late mother received from the paparazzi before her death.

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May 2021

BBC launched an investigation in 2020 into the alleged unethical tactics that journalist Martin Bashir used to convince Diana to speak out about the royal family in her 1995 Panorama interview. Bashir was accused of creating fake bank statements in an attempt to show the late princess that someone was leaking information about her family to the press.

The following year, BBC revealed its findings, noting that the reporter and the overall team “fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are [the network’s] hallmark.”

William then released his own statement, slamming BBC for their incompetence. “It is welcome that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson’s findings in full — which are extremely concerning — that BBC employees: lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother; made lurid and false claims about the royal family which played on her fears and fueled paranoia; displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the program; and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation,” he said.

The father of three concluded: “But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived. She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. … These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down, and my family down; they let the public down too.”