William, Prince of Wales Net Worth

Background and career

William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

William was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He was educated at Wetherby School, Ludgrove School, and Eton College. He earned a Master of Arts degree in geography at the University of St Andrews, where he met his future wife, Catherine Middleton. They have three children: George, Charlotte, and Louis. After university, William trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst before serving with the Blues and Royals. In 2008, he graduated from the Royal Air Force College Cranwell and joined the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. From July 2015, he served for two years as a full‑time pilot with the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

William performs official duties and engagements on behalf of the monarch. He is patron of multiple charitable and military organisations, including the Tusk Trust, Centrepoint, The Passage, Wales Air Ambulance, and London's Air Ambulance Charity. Through the Royal Foundation, his work focuses on mental health, conservation, homelessness, and emergency workers. In 2020, he launched the Earthshot Prize, an initiative to incentivise environmental solutions.

William was made Duke of Cambridge immediately before his wedding in April 2011. He became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay upon his father's accession to the throne on 8 September 2022. The following day, he was made Prince of Wales.

William was born at 9:03 pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London, during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. He is the first child of Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), and his first wife, Diana, Princess of Wales. He was the first direct heir to the British throne to be born in a hospital. Buckingham Palace announced his name – William Arthur Philip Louis – on 28 June. He was christened in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace by the then archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, on 4 August, which also marked the 82nd birthday of his paternal great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

William was the first child born to a prince and princess of Wales since Prince John was born to Prince George and Princess Mary (later King George V and Queen Mary) in July 1905. When he was nine months old, William accompanied his parents on their 1983 tour of Australia and New Zealand, marking his first trip overseas. It was also the first time that a royal baby had been taken on an overseas tour. Family photographs of William and his parents on the grounds of Government House in Auckland received significant global coverage. They have been credited as a major reason for the Buzzy Bee toy, which William had been playing with, becoming a New Zealand cultural icon.

His younger brother, Prince Harry, was born in September 1984. The brothers were raised at Kensington Palace in London, and at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire.

Known informally as "Wills" within his family, William was nicknamed "Willy" by his brother and "Wombat" by his mother. Diana sought to give her sons broader and more typical life experiences beyond a royal upbringing, taking them to Walt Disney World, McDonald's, AIDS clinics, and shelters for the homeless. According to the biographer, Robert Lacey, William – described as a "rambunctious" and "bratty" child – became "more reflective", with a "noticeably quiet character", after he began boarding school. Diana was reported to have described him as "my little wise old man", and by his early teens she had begun to rely on him as a confidant.

William carried out his first public engagement while accompanying his parents on a visit to Llandaff on Saint David's Day in 1991. He and Harry travelled to Canada on an official visit with their parents in 1991, and again with Charles in 1998. William's parents divorced in 1996. Diana died in a car accident in the early hours of 31 August 1997. William, then aged 15, was staying at Balmoral Castle with his 12-year-old brother, his father, and his grandparents at the time. The following morning, Charles informed William and Harry of their mother's death.

William was reportedly uncertain about whether he should walk behind his mother's coffin during the funeral procession. His paternal grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, told him: "If you don't walk, I think you'll regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?". At the funeral, William and Harry walked alongside their father, grandfather, and maternal uncle Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, behind the funeral cortège from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.

After his mother's death, William stated that he had been "in a state of shock for many years". He and Harry inherited the majority of the £12.9 million left by their mother on their respective 30th birthdays, a figure that had grown to £10 million each by 2014. In 2014, the brothers inherited their mother's wedding dress, along with many of her personal possessions, including dresses, diamond tiaras, jewels, letters, and paintings. They also received the original lyrics and score of "Candle in the Wind" by Bernie Taupin and Elton John, as performed by the latter at Diana's funeral. In 2002, The Times reported that William and Harry would also share £4.9 million from trust funds established by their great-grandmother, the Queen Mother on their respective 21st birthdays, as well as £8 million upon their respective 40th birthdays.

William was educated at private schools. He started at Jane Mynors' nursery school and the pre-preparatory Wetherby School, both in London, before continuing at Ludgrove School near Wokingham, Berkshire. At Ludgrove, he was active in sport before being admitted to Eton College, where he studied geography, biology, and history of art at A-Level, and took part in several sports.

The decision to send William to Eton broke with royal tradition, as his father and grandfather had both attended Gordonstoun. The royal family and the press agreed that William would be allowed to study free from media intrusion in exchange for periodic official updates. In June 1991, he was admitted to the Royal Berkshire Hospital after being accidentally hit on the forehead by a fellow pupil wielding a golf club. He suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and underwent surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital, leaving a permanent scar. The incident received widespread media attention.

After leaving Eton, William took a gap year. He joined British Army training exercises in Belize, worked on English dairy farms, and visited Africa. He also spent 10 weeks in southern Chile with Raleigh International, taking part in community projects and teaching English.

In 2001, William enrolled at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. As at Eton, the media agreed not to invade his privacy, and students were warned not to leak stories to the press. He initially embarked on a degree course in art history but later changed his main subject to geography. He focused his dissertation on the Rodrigues coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and graduated with an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree with upper second-class honours in 2005. While at university, he represented the Scottish national universities water polo team at the Celtic Nations tournament in 2004. He was reportedly known as "Steve" by other students to prevent journalists from identifying him.

At the age of 21, William became a counsellor of State. In July 2005, he undertook his first solo public engagements on an overseas tour of New Zealand, where he took part in World War II commemorations. In 2009, the Queen established a private office for William and Harry, with David Manning as their adviser. Manning accompanied William on his first official tour in January 2010, during which he visited Auckland and Wellington. The visit drew crowds of "many thousands", and the public reception was noted as being similarly positive to that of his mother's 1983 tour. In March 2011, William visited Christchurch shortly after the earthquake, speaking at the memorial service in Hagley Park on behalf of his grandmother. He also travelled to Australia to visit areas affected by flooding in Queensland and Victoria.

Before attending Sandhurst, William did a three-week internship at several institutions, including the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange, and Lloyd's of London. To prepare for his eventual management of the Duchy of Cornwall, he entered St John's College, Cambridge, in 2014 to undertake an executive agriculture management programme run by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership (CPSL), of which his father is patron. In April 2019, Kensington Palace announced that William had completed a three-week internship at MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, during which he monitored extreme Islamist terror cells, identified potential threats abroad, and observed code‑breaking technology.

Having decided on a military career, William was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in January 2006. His admission required the successful completion of a 44‑week course as an Officer Cadet, which led to his commission as a British Army officer. As "Lieutenant Wales" – a name derived from his father's then title, Prince of Wales – he followed his brother into the Blues and Royals in December that year as a second lieutenant, after which he spent five months training for the post at Bovington Camp in Dorset.

Although the Queen approved William serving on the frontline, his position as second‑in‑line to the throne at the time raised doubts about whether he could be deployed to combat. Plans by the Ministry of Defence to send him to Southern Iraq were leaked, and the government ultimately decided against the move, concluding that he would endanger both himself and those around him if targeted. Attempts by his office to have him serve in Afghanistan were similarly blocked on security grounds. William instead trained with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission as a sub-lieutenant in the former and a flying officer in the latter, both broadly equivalent to the army rank of lieutenant. After completing his training, he undertook an attachment with the Royal Air Force at RAF Cranwell.

Upon completing the course, he was presented with his RAF wings by his father, who had received his own wings after training at Cranwell. During this secondment, William flew to Afghanistan in a C-17 Globemaster that repatriated the body of Trooper Robert Pearson. He was then seconded to train with the Royal Navy, completing an accelerated Naval Officer training course at the Britannia Royal Naval College. Whilst serving on HMS Iron Duke in July 2008, William participated in a £40m drug seizure in the Atlantic, north-east of Barbados. He was part of the crew on the Lynx helicopter that helped seize 900 kg of cocaine from a speedboat.

As part of his training across all branches of the military in 2008 and 2009, William spent up to six weeks with the Special Air Service, the Special Boat Service, and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment. In January 2009, he transferred his commission to the RAF and was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. He trained to become a helicopter pilot with the RAF's Search and Rescue Force. In January 2010, he graduated from the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury. Later that month, he transferred to the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley, Anglesey, to train on the Sea King search-and-rescue helicopter, graduating in September 2010. This made him the first member of the British royal family since Henry VII to live in Wales.

William's first rescue mission as co-pilot of an RAF Sea King came in October 2010, responding to an emergency call from Liverpool Coastguard. In November 2011, he took part in a search‑and‑rescue operation involving a sinking cargo ship in the Irish Sea, helping to rescue two sailors. From February to March 2012, he was deployed to the Falkland Islands for a six-week tour with No. 1564 Flight. The Argentine government condemned the deployment, close to the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falklands War, as a "provocative act". In June 2012, he qualified to serve as captain, or pilot in command of a Sea King rather than as a co-pilot. His active service as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot ended in September 2013. Over the course of his service, he conducted 156 search-and-rescue operations, resulting in 149 people being rescued. He later became patron of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.