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New insights into the British royal family The tragedies behind Prince William's smile
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Getty Images
Prince William was 15 years old when his mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash while fleeing from paparazzi. The three-part documentary "William - the fateful years of an heir to the throne" shows how this traumatic experience influenced his actions.
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- The documentary "William - Fateful years of an heir to the throne" shows how family tragedies and crises shaped the future British king.
- The early death of his mother, Princess Diana, left deep scars on the 43-year-old William.
- Experts explain how loss, media hype and responsibility shaped the current heir to the throne. Princess Kate also comes into focus: many consider her to be William's most important support.
- The three-part documentary can be viewed in the ARD media library from Friday, May 29.
There were times when things were far better for the British royal family than they are today. In spring 2011, for example, when Prince William and commoner Catherine Middleton enchanted audiences with their fairytale wedding and pointed the dusty monarchy a little way into the future.
15 years later, the splendor of those days is long forgotten: With the retirement of his brother, Prince Harry, the death of his beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and the two cancer diagnoses for his father King Charles III and his wife, Prince William has had to endure numerous personal strokes of fate.
Claire Walding and Andreas Fauser show how all this made him the person he is today in "William - The Fateful Years of an Heir to the Throne". The three-part documentary can be seen in the ARD Mediathek from Friday, May 29.
This is the fourth time that the British author and filmmaker has looked behind the façade of the British royal family: in "The Queen - Fateful Years of a Queen", she portrayed the long-term monarch shortly before her platinum throne jubilee in 2022. This was followed by the films "Charles - Fateful Years of a King" (2023) and "Harry - Fateful Years of a Prince" (2024).
This time, too, she is primarily interested in shedding light on William the man, as she emphasizes in a joint statement with co-writer Andreas Fauser: "We put Prince William on the couch, so to speak. Not to diagnose him, but to understand the traces left behind by a life shaped so early by loss, separation and expectation."
William as his mother's closest confidant
Of course, we are talking about his mother's early death: William was just 15 years old when Princess Diana died in a car accident while fleeing from the paparazzi. It was the tragic end to a time that must have been anything but easy for the teenager.
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2026 Justin Tallis-WPA Pool/Getty Images
As the documentary reminds us, the media gleefully exploited the separation of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the 1990s. William, as former BBC royal correspondent Wesley Kerr says in the film, became Diana's confidant at the time: "He knew what was going on in her complicated and troubled life."
This is not the only time in the three 25-minute episodes that the audience feels sorry for the boy. Illuminating William's later actions and appearance from an emotional perspective and explaining their influence on his actions today is by far the film's greatest strength.
It was not least the media hounding of his mother and a similar attempt by his then girlfriend Kate Middleton that reportedly led William to populate his family's official Instagram account with photos taken by Kate and thus keep the press out of the lives of his three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis as far as possible.
"A secret diplomatic weapon"
The facts and anecdotes from the 43-year-old's life, from his birth to the present day, are likely to be familiar even to less informed royal fans. On the other hand, some of the experts interviewed in the three-part series are fascinating.
Journalist and former ARD London correspondent Annette Dittert, for example, describes the British royal family as "a secret diplomatic weapon" of the British government, particularly in view of the current tense relationship with the USA.
Donald Trump, as we know, loves everything that glitters and shines. And so it was not least up to Princess Kate to ensnare the US President at the state banquet in Windsor Castle.
In fact, Kate is the secret protagonist from the second part of the documentary onwards. After all, William is shown above all as a staunch family man.
Or, to put it in the words of journalist and historian Tessa Dunlop: "There is no King William without Queen Kate. She's the lightning rod, she's the gold dust." So it's quite possible that the next documentary about the royal "fateful years" could be dedicated to the future Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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