News
Prince William gives an interview in the first term of his final year at university - Part 1
22nd November 2004
Interview by Laura Elston for the Press Association
Prince William revealed he would want to fight alongside his men if he joined the Army and declared "the last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled".
He insisted it would be humiliating to be kept back if troops were sent to war - posing potential problems for the safety of the future monarch if he follows a military career.
The 22-year-old royal, who said he has yet to decide for certain on what to do after university, disclosed that he would like to attend Sandhurst like his brother Prince Harry.
During interviews with the Press Association and the BBC, the geography undergraduate said he would not want to "jump into" public duties too soon.
He stressed the importance of being able to control his own life and insisted that the prospect of one day being King did not keep him awake at night, but the “slipping away” of normality would be “very hard”.
Confident, animated and chatty, the final year St Andrews student said few people apart from his family understood what it was like to be in the spotlight, but life was too short to worry about things.
The second in line to the throne shops at Tesco, still has 8,500 words of a 10,000 word dissertation on the coral reefs in Rodrigues to write by next month and once drank vodka shots at 9.30 in the morning as part of St Andrews’ annual Raisin Weekend antics.
Student life has been “brilliant”, no one at the Scottish university notices that he is there anymore and he is on course to achieve a 2:1 in his MA.
Frequently breaking into his broad trademark smile, the Prince told anecdotes about his life in the quiet windswept town on the north-east coast of Fife - how he was proposed to in the street by a young girl and how one old lady, not knowing who he was, stopped to ask if he knew a good place to buy underwear.
William has yet to decide what to do after leaving St Andrews in around six months’ time, but said the Army would be his preferred choice if entering the forces.
“Definitely I would like to go to Sandhurst. Obviously providing the fact of me making my mind up of what I'd want to do,” he said.
“It’s not tough - easy," he joked. “That’s why I put my brother in as a guinea pig first.”
He would be the most senior British royal in recent memory to attend the prestigious Royal Military Academy. Of the challenge of the second in line to the throne being deployed with troops, William said: “That obviously is another problem ... talks will happen before I went anywhere.
“But the last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled or wrapped up in cotton wool because if I was to join the army I'd want to go where my men went and I'd want to do what they did.
“I would not want to be kept back for being precious, or whatever, that's the last thing I'd want.
“It's the most humiliating thing and it would be something I'd find very awkward to live with being told I couldn't go out there when these guys have got to go out there and do a bad job.”
He spoke of troops in Iraq “fighting their hearts out” and his pride at being British as he attended the "very moving" Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph for the first time.
I just thought what with the Iraq war and troops being abroad and particularly the Black Watch going through a very tough time - I thought it was just the right time for me probably to make an entrance and be there for the youth and make a point that the young still haven't forgotten and still very much appreciate what's been done for everyone.”
He added: “The army is obviously a lot more in the spotlight at the moment... The remembrance service really does bring it home when you’re there and there's actually a war going on somewhere at the time and the guys are fighting their hearts out.”
William said the sacrifices made by the war veterans should “never be forgotten”.
He said Sandhurst would be a “great place to learn how to lead and to earn respect”.
Of undertaking more royal engagements, he added: “Depending on which course I take after university it's unlikely that I'll suddenly jump into public duties just like that.
“Naturally I'm a bit wary of them because I don't want to start too early and then be stuck in doing that for the rest of my life.
“There'll be the chance that I'll be doing lots of family days. I don't shy away from doing particular events but I do like to go to the ones that I really feel passionately about.”
Of his father, The Prince of Wales, he said smiling: “He's ever hinting that I should be doing more and more and more - put it that way.
“He's a great person to base all judgments and attitudes towards doing public duties, as is my grandmother. I take a lot of heed from what they say.
“But I’m very much the person who doesn't want to rush into anything without really thinking it through.
”They're doing a brilliant job at the moment so I don't want to step on their toes either.”
Of the new pressures he will face on leaving education, William said: “I am worried about it obviously, but I don't really think about it too much because there's no point worrying about things which are not really present yet.”
He added: "There are obviously areas that I am being pushed into to do, but I can be quite stubborn when I want to. “It's not that I never want to do it, it's just that I'm reluctant at such a young age, I think anyway, to throw myself in to the deep end.”
Parts of the rare interviews were filmed - making it the first ever sit down on-camera talk William has done - showing how his relationship with the media is already having to change as he grows older.
With his hair gelled and tousled up at the front, the Prince, in his camel-coloured corduroy trousers, v-neck navy jumper and blue open-necked shirt, sat with his left ankle resting on his right knee as he spoke about his life.
In Room A101 of the 16th century St Mary's College quadrangle on South Street, he was surrounded by grand portraits of former principals and professors and antique furniture.
Outside the door was a still-surviving thorn tree planted by Mary Queen of Scots in the 1500s - although now propped up with poles. With a penchant for the words “basically” and “obviously”, William sipped from a cup of takeaway tea between his candid but considered answers.
William, who wore a yellow band and brown leather strap on his right wrist, said of his time at university: “There's lots of people saying it's impossible to lead a normal life really but actually up here, and with the media out of it, it's amazing how people just get on with their lives and not bother you and everyone up here.”
He added: “I do all my own shopping. I go out get takeaway, rent videos, go to the cinema, just basically anything I want to really, I can go to.”
He described the agreement with the media that he is left alone while at university as “invaluable” and said he hoped it would continue.
On the subject of being King one day, he denied the prospect kept him awake at night.
“It's not like that. The thing is with me I look on the brighter side of everything.
"There's no point being pessimistic or being worried about too many things because frankly life's too short.
“At the moment it's about having fun in the right places enjoying myself as much as I can. I'm trying to do that.”
He insisted he would not be a reluctant King.
“I don't think I am. I have reservations about everything.
“The fortunate thing is I have had such a normal childhood in certain extents and it would very hard to see that slip away.
“But I always hope that no matter what I'll keep that side going. Keeping your feet firmly on the ground is the most important thing.”
He raised the importance of being able to make his own decisions.
“I really do want to be in control of my own life. If I don't agree with what someone's saying or someone's pushing on me, then I won't do it.
“If I'm wrong and they're right, and people tell me that, then obviously I'll change my mind.
“I'm always open for people saying I'm wrong because most of the time I am. I hate losing control. It's very important to see what you want to do and go for it.”
Being in the spotlight is something William insists he will adapt to.
“You never really grow used to it because it's something that's very alien to most people.
“(There's) very few people you can talk about it to because no one really knows what it's like apart from family mostly.
“I wouldn't really say I've grown used to it because I'm not really the attention-seeking type.
“So being in the centre of the spotlight is kind of awkward but it's something I've got to do and something I can adapt to.
“I've spent 22 years being in the spotlight. You don't really know much different but I value the normality I can get, doing simple things, doing normal things, more than anything, rather than getting things done for me which I'm not a big fan of.”
William agreed that he would approach life after university with excitement and a bit of trepidation.
“I've loved being here and being at university. I am ready now to get out and do different stuff.”
He spoke of his closeness to his brother Harry and how his younger sibling does what he thinks is right.
William also hopes to help Aids charities in Africa - a cause so closely associated with Diana, Princess of Wales.
He referred just once to his mother, as he has done before, in connection with the homeless shelters she took him to see as a child.
“It's been something I've held close to me for a long time,” he said.
To give an insight into his life an university, the Prince agreed to be pictured in St Salvator's Quad making his way, dog-eared A4 pad and black biro in hand, to his first lecture of the day on glaciers and glacial erosion at the none-too taxing time of 10am.
His fellow students - some protected from the brisk sea air by scarfs - milled around the neatly-trimmed lawn and partially ivy-covered arts building affectionately known as Sally's - taking hardly any notice of their royal counterpart.
The community remain protective of their royal resident.
Merely walking around the streets with a professional camera prompts disapproving tuts from locals.
For some of the snapshots, keen polo player William wore his navy blue Polistas fleece.
The firm dubs itself a “polo lifestyle clothing company catering to the most discerning purveyors of quality and value - the polo community" and takes its name from the Argentine word for polo players.
He also paid a visit to the main library and saw his senior lecturer Dr Charles Warren in the geography department to discuss his work, including his dissertation.
“I know if I sit down I should get my head into it. I'll kick on,” William said.
In the evening, he played a spot of pool with three university friends – two boys and a girl - in a modern minimalist bar on South Street decked out in red and chrome bar stools.
William, who was drinking vodka with a mixer, indulged in banter with his mates. His team won both of their two matches.
Potting the black in the final game, Wills, as his friends called him, laughed, raised his fists in the air and shouted: “Yes. What can I say?”