Prince William rarely “works” weekends. Weekends are his brief reprieve from the brutality of the incessant grind of school runs and one work event a week. William was forced to work one weekend in April, when he was sent to the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral. I thought William would have begged off for another six months because of that. But no – he flew to Monaco this weekend to appear at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum. Peggington gave a big global statesman speech about the ocean! What a big boy, what a future statesman! That’s how it’s being covered.
Prince William made a high-profile solo appearance in Monaco on June 8, underscoring his growing role as a global statesman. On the eve of World Oceans Day, Prince William took his environmental mission global — delivering a high-profile speech in Monaco alongside world leaders and fellow royals to address the urgent threat to marine life.
Appearing at the Blue Economy and Finance Forum on June 8, the Prince of Wales, 42, joined the Heads of State and Government session, speaking in front of French President Emmanuel Macron, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles, and Prince Albert of Monaco, whose Gimaldi Forum venue was hosting the event.
In his speech, William called for urgent action, saying, “We come together today united by our deep connection to the ocean and our concern for its safety. For many of us, it is a place where some of our happiest memories are made… where we have explored the wonders of the natural world… and we have all relied on its great abundance for our food and livelihoods.
“And yet, all too often, it can feel distant and disconnected from our everyday lives, allowing us to forget just how vital it is,” he added. “The truth is that healthy oceans are essential to all life on earth.”
The event marked a key moment in the lead-up to the 2025 UN Ocean Conference and underlined William’s rising diplomatic profile on the international stage.
He sounds like a middle-schooler giving a report on “the ocean.” The ocean is big and blue, it’s very important, people don’t know how important the ocean is, we don’t just swim in the ocean, fish live in there! If you need to be bashed over the head with Kensington Palace’s talking points about Big Boy Willy Gives a Big Boy Speech, please enjoy this piece from the Times: “Prince William wants world to know he’s earned his statesman role.”
Before the Prince of Wales took to the stage in Monaco, his closest advisers had billed his impassioned address as “a landmark speech”. Taking to the stage before President Macron, William’s message was a chance for him to reinforce his message of “urgent optimism”, a recurring theme in his work as he seeks to avoid pessimistic hand-wringing in the climate change debate.
For his aides, the address was “punchy”. Not merely a chance to save the planet but an important step towards reinforcing Prince William as a global statesman. And for global statesman, read king-in-waiting. He certainly looks the part.
It is one of a handful of high-profile events in the past six months in which William has played a significant role on the world stage. In many ways, the project is nothing new. It is a decades-long mission to promote the prince as a sign of the future of the monarchy.
A source who has known William for decades said that a common problem among senior members of the royal family, and one with which William is familiar, was that they were “often the only person in the room who is there by virtue of their birth rather than having earned the right to be there”. With this in mind, the source added, William had worked to ensure that he can hold his own.
This is embarrassing for all involved – William reading a glorified seventh-grader’s book report after flying to an environmental conference in Monaco, then sending his courtiers out to brief the press that his big-boy speech is fit for a king-in-waiting and a diplomatic heavy. Please. I guess the Times didn’t feel like pointing out that the big-boy environmentalist flew to Monaco either. Guess they only reserve that kind of reporting for Prince Harry.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
