Prince William and Kate Middleton have just finished an eight-day tour of the Caribbean, visiting Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas along the way.
A series of PR mishaps during the tour saw it branded 'tone deaf' and prompted Prince William to give a rare statement on their final day.
The 39-year-old said his job is "not telling people what to do", adding: "Who the Commonwealth chooses to lead its family in future isn’t what is on my mind."
Prince William has been praised for his starkly honest comments, which seem to go against the Royal Family's well-known "never complain, never explain" motto.
But this is unlikely to be the last time we see the second-in-line to the throne do things his own way, a royal expert has claimed.
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Royal author, Robert Jobson, told The Mirror he thinks William and Kate will "stamp their personalities" on future tours and "insist on doing it their way" in order to change with the times.
Jobson, who joined the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the Caribbean tour also explained how the royals currently have little to do with organising overseas visits themselves.
He said: "I have been covering royal tours for more than 30 years. In that time the format has rarely changed.
"Even those undertaken by Princess Diana, the woman who is supposed to have changed the monarchy, followed a set pattern of formal dinners, speeches, walkabouts, hospital and school visits, and glad-handing politicians, some had murky pasts.
"The overseas visits are not organised by the royals themselves, although they have some input, but largely at the behest of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, or in the case of Realms, by the host country themselves.
"If they insist – or at least strongly desire - the royal principal riding in a vintage Landrover at a passing out parade once used by the Queen in bygone colonial times, as happened to William and Kate, nine times out of ten it will happen."
He continued: "Personally, having travelled with the couple on their so-called disastrous tour of the Caribbean, I think the criticism has been overblown and based on false premises. Frankly, they did what was asked of them on a stage tour to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
"They smiled, waved, engaged with the locals and yes, glad-handed the politicians, even when some decided to be rude to them.
"The problem was the tour was out of date.
"It may have been fine five years ago but post-pandemic and with a war raging in Ukraine, much of what they were trying to achieve was lost.
"I witnessed excited schoolchildren thrilled to meet them in the Bahamas as the couple tried to find out how they coped with the pandemic after their school was closed for two years.
"I saw crowds cheering excitedly at a football match, in which Kingston born Raheem Sterling played alongside the future king. The pitch was ringed by a wire fence, behind which was hundreds of black youngsters wanted to engage with their football heroes.
"If wiser heads had prevailed snaps of William and Kate engaging with them on the other side of the fence, would have been avoided.
"But Raheem, who flew out especially for the event, did the same – and nothing was said about that."
He added: "What is clear is that royal tours need to change.
"Frankly, at this time of seismic shifts in the world – the royal nonmatter how well intention the tour was – should have been given the chance not to go, citing Ukraine.
"Personally, going forward William and Kate will stamp their personalities on future tours and insist on doing their way.
"Times are changing, and monarchy must change with it.
"Even the sniff of bygone age – a time of inherent racism and old colonialism – is not a comfortable fit in 2022.
"The Foreign Office and royal aides need to bang heads, tear up the old-style tours, and give them a new look credible face-lift."
Robert Jobson is a bestselling royal author. His latest book “William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch” published by Ad Lib is out in May.
