Prince William’s openness is a sign he wants to do things differently

The Prince of Wales has said he wants to use his royal role differently and make it relevant for a younger generation.

It’s a sign of his view of modern royalty, and came while speaking to reporters at the end of his trip to South Africa for his Earthshot environmental prize.

Throughout, Prince William has spoken openly at times, not just about his role but also his family.

“I can only describe what I’m trying to do, and that’s I’m trying to do it differently and I’m trying to do it for my generation,” he told us. “And to give you more an understanding around it, I’m doing it with maybe a smaller R in the royal, if you like, that’s maybe a better way of saying it.”

His use of the word “smaller R in royal” is an insight into Prince William’s view of his role in public life.

The pomp and ceremony of royalty doesn’t always sit easily with Prince William, neither does some of the leadership he has seen globally.

“It’s more about impact philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people. And I’m also going to throw empathy in there as well, because I really care about what I do. It helps impacts people’s lives. And I think we could do with some more empathetic leadership around the world.”

I have spent the past week with Prince William on his visit to South Africa.

It’s the longest period of time he’s spent with the media this year and he’s been more open than perhaps many of us had expected.

He was pretty relaxed and spoke freely about his family and his role as Prince of Wales both on and off the record.

The chat was often light hearted – how he was settling into his wardrobe of sustainable clothing, the perils of having a beard when your daughter doesn’t like it and the ‘papa’ bracelet she made for him when he took his children to see Taylor Swift.

But the impact of the past year was also on show.

Seeing and talking to Prince William up close, it’s clear the toll it has taken with both his wife and his father undergoing cancer treatment.

As he put it, it has been “the hardest year of my life”.

Add to that, the burden of being a senior Royal and a future King which has hung heavily over Prince William.

The formality that comes with the job and the need to live some of your life in the public gaze haven’t sat comfortably at times.

He has found a peace by trying to carve out the role of Prince of Wales in his own way.

His aim is to a have a smaller number of projects to work on where he can make a greater impact

But it’s a risk.

His two big projects, the Earthshot Prize and Homewards, his homelessness project, are not free of politics.

They both also leave him open to accusations of hypocrisy – the wealthy prince, with the comfort of privilege, from his palaces and castles telling us how to make the world a better place.

Prince William also began his trip to South Africa amidst reports questioning the transparency of the royal family’s finances and income.

Those close to the prince say he is well aware of this criticism but it would be far worse if he did nothing, and they argue that privilege shouldn’t prevent you trying to improve the lives of others.

Questioned about the future, Prince William said both he and the Princess of Wales would hopefully be doing more public duties together next year and described how they both wanted to bring something different to the organisations they support.

“I sit here right now doing Earthshot and doing all the projects I’m doing, like Homewards as well. And who knows what’s going to come next, but it all centres around those values of trying to help deliver change and make those lives better.”