Prince William has always known he would one day sit on the throne of England as the commonwealth’s future King, but it was Queen Elizabeth, the current monarch, who took the time to train her grandson, and the journey has not been easy.
Although the Duke of Cambridge has proven himself ready to assume his position as King of England, the Queen (and the rest of the Royal Family) once harboured some very serious fears about William’s capabilities, namely, his inability to keep calm under pressure.
WATCH: The moment the Queen saved a young Prince William from the wheels of a carriage
According to a royal expert, Queen Elizabeth II was forced to mentor William at a young age, as fears grew within Buckingham Palace that the Prince was going to crack under the immense pressure.
Fears only grew after Princess Diana – William’s mother – gave a sensational TV interview in 1995 with BBC Panorama, where she questioned Prince Charles’ abilities to be a good King.
Subsequently, Prince William began meeting with his grandma at the tender age of 13, where the pair would have lunch at Windsor Castle and discuss the responsibilities a royal has to the British public.
Royal expert and author Ingrid Seward described the Queen’s intervention in her book, My Husband and I: The Inside Story of 70 Years of the Royal Marriage.
“The one person who could help, who had to help, was the Queen.
“She knew only too well what pressures William was facing. She told her advisors she feared he might crack up like his mother had.”
Ms Seward continued: “He started joining the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh for lunch.
“Afterwards Prince Philip would leave the Queen and her grandson together in the Oak Drawing Room overlooking the quadrangle.”
It looks like the regular meetings paid off because William seems more than ready to succeed his father, the Prince of Wales!
Prince William is married to Kate Middleton and the couple have three children together – heir to the throne Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, four, and Prince Louis, one.
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