We heard last week that Prince Edward was being sent to Vatican City to represent the British crown at Pope Bob’s papal inauguration this weekend. People wondered why Prince William, the “heir,” was once again refusing to represent his father overseas at an important event. Turns out, it was just what we knew it would be: William attended the FA Cup final on Saturday, and he made a big deal of presenting the trophy to the winners, Crystal Palace, who beat Man City.
If it feels like William has done more football-watching this year than ever before, well… it feels that way because “going to football matches” counts as work for him, because he says so! No, he’s now the royal patron of the Football Association, as of last year. He used to be president of FA, but he was pushed/thrown out of that role last year. The face-saving excuse was that William is simply too busy being a future-king to give the FA presidency all of the time it needs. Personally, I believe that many footballers are superstitious and William has proven to be bad luck over and over again, and so there was some kind of revolt to get Willy to step back.
Meanwhile, you know how YouGov commissioned an emotional-support poll to convince the public that the left-behind royals are super-popular? And you know how William staggered out of bed on Friday and threw on a wrinkled Order of the Bath robe for a special Westminster Abbey service? Well, people were so excited to see Mr. Popularity and his father (the king!) that literally twos of people waited outside of the Abbey. A journalist took a video of all of the rows of crowd barriers which were holding back absolutely no one.
The Prince of Wales arriving at Westminster Abbey for the 300th anniversary of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath. #PrinceWillliam #RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/HeTP7YnYU2
— Alexander Seale (@AlexSeale) May 16, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Getty.