On Sunday, Kate Middleton and Prince William shared a video congratulating British athletes for their Olympics accomplishments. Amid Kate’s ongoing cancer treatments, it is always nice to see her smiling, but the couple also debuted a new and exciting companion: William’s facial hair.
In the video, in which Kate and William’s clip was cut between messages from star Olympics correspondent Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, and past U.K. Olympians and sports presenters, both members of the royal couple look like well-tanned parents benefiting from a relaxing family vacation. Kate looked laid-back in a striped sailor shirt, while William’s chin and jawline were peeking out behind what People described as a “bold new beard.” New, because the last time William was seen with hair on the lower half of his face was in 2008, and bold because, like many things you and I may deem normal and inconsequential, facial hair is a source of much tension and controversy in the royal family.
Here’s the deal: Prince William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II was said to have disliked facial hair and apparently required her staff to be clean-shaven at all times. Prince Harry’s robust ginger beard was a big problem for her far before he bowed out of royal duties, and in his 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry claimed William also took issue with it, mostly because William played by their grandmother’s rules. Remember William’s luscious 2008 fuzz? It vanished almost immediately because he joined the Royal Air Force, which required him to be clean-shaven. Harry wrote in Spare that, before his own 2018 wedding, William ordered him to shave off his beard because he was still feeling sore about being forced to remove his own facial hair ten years prior.
Whether or not any of that is true, William is now allowed to let his face carpet ramble freely. Or maybe he just doesn’t care? It’s great for him, his wife, and all the horny Prince William stans lusting after his late-summer stubble. It takes hard work, dedication, and months of training to refine facial hair like that.
