(From left) Prince William, Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales attend the coronations of King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort, at Westminster Abbey in central London on May 6, 2023. Picture: Yui Mok / POOL / AFP)
Prince William is reportedly planning a “very different” coronation than his dad’s.
The Prince of Wales, 40, who swore to be King Charles’s “liege man of life and limb” at his crowning on May 6 at London’s Westminster Abbey, is said to be working on the plans after holding talks with close advisers.
A source close to William told ‘The Sunday Times’ he wanted to evolve the ceremony so that it became “modern” and “relevant”, and claimed he wanted to get rid of the “homage of the people” led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Charles’s historic coronation.
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They added: “There is no way he will go down that route or anything like it.
“He is really thinking, how do we make his coronation feel most relevant in the future?
“He is mindful of the fact that in 20 years’ time, or whenever his time comes, how can the coronation be modern but also unifying to the nation and the Commonwealth.
“I think his coronation will look and feel quite different.”
William, who has children Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, with his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, 41, is not thought to have been closely involved in planning Charles’s ceremony.
It’s also been reported he passed on the opportunity to have his own investiture ceremony as Prince of Wales.
Despite the source’s claim William wants to modernise the coronation more than Charles did, he is understood to want his held at Westminster Abbey.
Charles broke tradition at his coronation by having a “slimmed down” service and dropping the 8 000 guests who attended his mother, Queen Elizabeth’s coronation to 2 300, and by including leaders from other religions and Christian denominations.
William told the BBC in 2016: “It occupies a lot of my thinking space as to how on earth you’d develop into something modern in today’s world.
“I think the royal family has to modernise and develop as it goes along, and it has to stay relevant. That’s the challenge for me – how do I make the royal family relevant in the next 20 years?”