“I need to be in quite a calm state, and I am not at the moment. I will save it.” William was talking about how he hadn’t yet seen the award-winning movie Hamnet, but the significance of his words was not lost on former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, Ms Bond explained: “His remark at the BAFTAS that he is not ‘in a calm state’ was deliberate and telling.”
Ms Bond continued: “He wasn’t being quizzed or ambushed by the media, he was simply chatting to VIP guests at the ceremony and – pointedly – offered us a glimpse of his inner turmoil.
“This was not an off-the-cuff remark. William is only too aware of the cameras and microphones. He knew that the world was waiting for his reaction to the scandal that had engulfed the family.”
Bestselling royal author Robert Jobson echoed Ms Bond, pointing out how different William’s approach was from that of the late Queen Elizabeth. He said: “The late Queen was the supreme practitioner. Feelings stayed behind closed doors. Always. William belongs to a different world. He understands that authenticity now reads as strength.
“There’s something genuinely disarming about a future king admitting frustration in real time. It humanises him without diminishing him. People don’t demand perfection anymore. They demand honesty.”
The ‘never complain, never explain’ approach is one that the Royal Family have followed for many years and has steered them through numerous scandals.
So much so that she even earned the nickname, ‘The Imperial Ostrich’, owing to her fondness for ‘sticking her head in the sand’ to avoid difficult conversations and scandals within her family.
As author William Shawcross put it: “[The Queen Mother] wouldn’t acknowledge, let alone confront, disagreeableness within the family.”