Prince William was in Istanbul to see Aston Villa win their first title in 30 years

Given how Prince William apparently has a huge temper and he’s constantly throwing “great bellowing tantrums,” I often wonder how William’s staff approaches him about changing some part of his image or behavior. Clearly, “the heir is an air-punching football hooligan” look is a bad one for the monarchy and just a bad look in general. So one does get the sense that someone was tasked with telling William, “maybe if you go to another football match, you should try not to appear on camera throwing your fists around and braying like a donkey.”

All of which to say, William’s favorite team, Aston Villa, won a title on Wednesday and William didn’t make a horse’s ass out of himself. It was a keen miracle! William stayed mostly calm – with brief interludes of pensive watching and a few bursts of joy – while watching the Europa League final between the Villains and Freiburg. Aston Villa took the trophy, 0-3, ending a 30-year title drought for the club.

William flew all the way to Istanbul to watch his favorite team win this trophy. Which wouldn’t be so notable, except he’s refused to actually travel to watch football matches when it’s his job. The Lionesses were in the Women’s World Cup final in 2023, and William’s big excuses for not flying to Australia for the final were: “I’m on vacation” and “I’m too much of an environmentalist to fly to football matches, even if it’s my job.” Turns out, he’s more than willing to fly thousands of miles to watch football when it’s not work and it’s not about women’s football. And why isn’t anyone calling him out on his environmental hypocrisy???? Where are all of the “Eco-warrior Peg flies to Istanbul, wastes eleventy billion gallons of petrol” headlines?

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty Images.