Prince William shares how they dealt with Kate Middleton's cancer with their children: "We chose to communicate"

BarcelonaAccustomed to an emeritus king who gives no explanations, not even for the events related to his work professional Given that we didn't even know what a prince's voice was until he was proclaimed king, it's understandable that the demeanor of the UK royal family strikes us as completely exotic. They've always seemed that way, but it becomes even more apparent when, as this week, the heir to the throne gives interviews during international trips to discuss matters that go far beyond the legal duties his country has constitutionally entrusted to him, addressing much more intimate and personal issues. Comparisons are truly odious. Really hateful...

Prince William, 43, heir to the British throne, took advantage of a trip to Brazil for the Earthshot Prize to open up to presenter Luciano Huck, speaking about one of the most significant challenges he has faced in recent years: his wife's cancer. Using the prize, which he founded five years ago with The Royal Foundation and which aims to inspire and amplify innovative solutions against the destruction of planet Earth, as a pretext, William ended up discussing in an interview what he described as "two very difficult years" for him and his family. A period in which, in addition to Kate Middleton's illness, King Charles III, now 77, was also diagnosed with cancer.

When they received his wife's diagnosis, he says they gave themselves some time to react and try to do things in an orderly fashion. After that time, he says they decided to talk a lot at home. "We decided to communicate much more with our children [...] Now... that has its good and bad sides. Sometimes you feel like you're sharing too much with the children, something you probably shouldn't be doing," explained Lady Di's son, who says that reaching this conclusion was easy when they surrendered to the evidence that "the eldest" had a diagnosis. In fact, he states that after informing them of the diagnosis, the option of continuing to communicate much more with all three children remains a priority for them. He says that talking to the children makes them feel calmer and also avoids the "anxiety" that can arise from the unknowns of gaps in communication, which he considers a bad solution, since from his point of view, "when there are no answers, more questions arise."

"There's no manual"

These confessions led him to speak about fatherhood in more general terms. From his perspective, being a father "is always a balancing act, every father knows that." He says that being a father is about measuring "how many things you say, what you say, when you say it..." because "there's no manual for being a father." His recipe is "to rely on a bit of instinct." Guillem, father of three children aged 12 (Jordi), 10 (Carlota), and 7 (Lluís), has spoken openly about family management and raising children before, something unthinkable for the previous generation of European monarchs. In fact, for most of them, reproduction didn't involve any emotional responsibility, nor did marriage, which was a mere formality related to their duties, but had no connection to their hearts.

Unlike his father, who couldn't marry for love until he was 57, he was able to do so from the beginning. This, which many monarchists might criticize because it implies choosing to marry a commoner, has given William a fulfilling family life that he can speak about publicly in a credible way. In other words, it creates a very different effect than many kings have when they appear with their official families. It's useful for this purpose to recall that... very acted video in which Juan Carlos I appears with his wife and children and, when he tells them that he is going to work, Infanta Elena asks him:Where"A question asked in the middle of a acting family dynamics that can be symptomatic of many things... One of them: the distance with their children, who don't understand anything about their parents because they don't see them at all.

Guillem's family life is both private and public, since whatever he does with it will have to be paid for by the British people and endured as the modern subjects they are. Perhaps because he is aware of this, he doesn't shy away from discussing it in the interviews he gives. When he appeared in The Reluctant TravelerOn Apple TV, the prince offered a glimpse into how he manages to raise his children with such a unique upbringing. "Everyone has their own mechanisms for dealing with these kinds of things, and children are constantly learning and adapting. [...] We try to make sure we give them the security and protection they need," he explained about the efforts he and his wife make, adding that her cancer is now in remission "because everything is progressing."

In fact, he explained that a common strategy for them to try and make sure everything goes well is to communicate as much as possible. "We're a very open family, so we talk about the things that bother us and the things that worry us," he said before acknowledging that this isn't a magic solution either, since "you never really know the ripple effect that talking all the time can have."

A more human future king

But beyond any theories he might make about his parenting, it's also interesting to see how the communication strategy employed by Kensington Palace to humanize and modernize their future king by talking about his family also involves addressing practical matters. In the Apple TV interview, he said he regularly drives a taxi, although he acknowledged that his wife does it even more than he does, something no one doubts because these patterns are reproduced in all levels of society, including the monarchy. However, progress must be acknowledged because his father probably never took him to school beyond the first day of term in case the press was present, and although his mother might have done so, it's believable that at that time she wasn't allowed to until after her divorce because it wasn't what was expected of her.

William's humanization has also extended to revealing that he's raising his children without mobile phones. He describes this topic as "somewhat tense," explaining that it was discussed at home because he and Middleton believe that "internet access" poses "a problem": "I think children can access too many things they don't need to see." What William hasn't stated with such certainty is whether he was referring to adult films or the news stories that have historically featured the Windsors. But ultimately, it makes no difference, as both would be equally harmful to any of his children.