Prince William’s Leadership Style Is Being Criticized by the Most Loyal Royalists

It has not been a happy year for the royal family with crisis after crisis hitting the palace. King Charles III and Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnoses were not only shocking, but they disrupted the flow of the monarch’s relatively new reign. Royalists turned toward the Prince of Wales in this turbulent time, but many critics are finding his leadership style to be lacking.

It’s understandable that William probably finds his position “a lonely place at times,” per royal expert Richard Palmer who told the BBC that “there can’t be too many people whose wife and father have been diagnosed with cancer so close together.” The fact that he’s turned his focus on his family is admirable, but there are still questions about how he wants to lead now and into the future. He prefers to do less patronages and instead, entrench himself into a few key passion projects.

More from SheKnows

Republic, the anti-monarchy group, is probably the loudest of his critics, calling his unhoused project “crass and hypocritical… given the excessive wealth we gift him.” Palmer even admitted, “It’s a tall order and it’s not entirely clear how he’s going to achieve it.” The BBC is calling on him to “find his own voice” even though his father is still king. There are so many unknown factors to Charles’ health that they believe it’s time for him to step up and support his dad more than royal fans have seen so far.

“The next few years will see him thinking through what kind of monarch he wants to be and what kind of monarch the country will need to have in the mid-21st Century,” explained historian Sir Anthony Seldon. “He has been defining his own agenda, much of it overlapping with his father’s interests and passions.” However, William needs to be prepared in case his father’s health condition worsens (we hope not!), but that leadership role could come sooner than he ever imagined.

“It’s been stressful,” an insider told Us Weekly in April. “William feels a profound sense of duty to uphold the monarchy’s stability and inspire confidence in the public that everything will be OK. It’s an immense responsibility.” William is likely taking measured steps behind palace walls, but that might not be soon enough for his critics who want to see him at the forefront of leadership while King Charles is ill.

Before you go, click to see all the biggest royal scandals in the past 50 years.

Best of SheKnows

Sign up for SheKnows’ Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.