The royal family endured a particularly difficult 2024, with both King Charles and the Princess of Wales diagnosed with cancer, and forced to take a break from duty to focus on their respective recoveries. And with a scaled-down monarchy in place and amid recent royal investigations, the past year has seen the "biggest royal crisis" since 1936.
Amid the challenges of the past year, Prince William has had to step up as "heir to the throne" - increasing his duties as future King during his father's illness, while taking a temporary step back to look after his wife and children. And with the 42-year-old carrying the weight of the monarchy "on his shoulders", he has described 2024 as "brutal".
"He has lost his mother, he’s effectively lost his brother, his wife’s got cancer, his father’s got cancer, and he’s trying to keep the show on the road," royal expert Robert Hardman reported in a new chapter of his book, Charles III: New King. New Court. "It could hardly be more stressful."
Royal experts have since weighed in on Prince William's transformative past year, revealing how by overcoming 2024's challenges, he has actually become the "rock" of the Mountbatten-Windsors, regarded as a "reincarnation" of Queen Elizabeth II.
"The Prince of Wales is royalty’s new rock," royal biographer Dr. Tessa Dunlop explained in the Independent. "A reincarnation of his late grandmother, the steadfast anchor who changed it up with designer stubble when his wife was out of action, a woman’s man who unambiguously declared 2024 more than brutal, in fact the toughest year of his life.
"The nation fell in love with Diana’s firstborn all over again," Dunlop continued of Prince William's stratospheric rise in popularity. "We had forgotten how tall he is, and how comfortable he is in his own skin."
Well, this is lovely.
