Prince William sounded like a “performative pinhead” when he said he wanted to “do things differently” to royal predecessors and needs to “take him down a peg,” according to Tina Brown.

wrote on her Fresh Hell Substack diary that she was unimpressed by William’s remarks at the end of a visit to South Africa for the Earthshot Prize ceremony. The project gives grants for innovative solutions to the climate crisis.

The Prince of Wales told journalists he was “doing it with maybe a smaller R in the royal,” compared to past generations.

Brown said she “fled to London” for “some post-election air,” but added that: “William did not help the mood by giving a swaggery interview at the end of his South Africa trip for the Earthshot Prize.

“He told reporters about his plans to ‘do things differently’ and then listed ‘impact philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people’—in short, everything his father has been doing for the past 50 years.”

Charles is widely thought to have defined the modern role of the Prince of Wales in the 1970s when palace aides toyed with the idea he might get a formal job, for example as governor of Australia.

Instead, the king carved out a role in Britain pursuing impactful projects, such as the Prince’s Trust, which aims to promote employment opportunities for inner city young people, and his work highlighting the environment.

Brown also suggested the timing of William’s remark was bad on the back of a hard-hitting exposé by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 into royal financing, which showed both William and Charles draw a private income from charging rent to public services and charities, including the ones they publicly support.

“In light of all this,” Brown wrote, “William’s comment that his plans for a caring, sharing monarchy also include ‘throw(ing) some empathy in there’ made him sound like a performative pinhead.

“In happier years, it was the irreverent Harry (or Harold as William lugubriously used to call him) who could tease the Prince of Wales and take him down a peg.

“There are too many people around William now who, in Kara Swisher’s inimitable phrase about those who live in a gilded bubble, ‘lick him up and down all day’.”

William told journalists who accompanied him on his trip to South Africa: “I can only describe what I’m trying to do, and that’s trying to do it differently and I’m trying to do it for my generation.

“And to give you more of 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.

“So it’s more about impact philanthropy, collaboration, convening, and helping people,” William said.

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

Williams Brown is Regalrumination.com‘s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X (formerly ) at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s .

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