I witnessed it firsthand: Prince William’s deeply personal new approach to power

After the wild success of the King and Queen’s visit to the United States last month, where witty speeches and warm interactions were the order of the day, and the Princess of Wales’ milestone trip to Italy, where she received a rock-star welcome, it was the turn of her husband, the Prince of Wales.

And increasingly, the future King’s greatest strength appears to be his willingness to let the public see the man behind the title.

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For generations, royal mystique relied on distance. But the current royal family, and William in particular, are embracing the opposite approach.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen him at his most emotionally open more than ever before - whether dad-dancing at Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, coming close to tears while speaking to a bereaved wife and mother or opening up to Eugene Levy at Windsor, he has increasingly been wearing his heart on his sleeve.

You’ll have struggled to move this week without seeing footage or images of the future king revelling in his beloved Aston Villa’s victory in the Europa League final in Istanbul.

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I saw the after-effects of his ebullience up close on Thursday, when he spent time chatting to residents in Nansledan, Newquay, who are benefitting from the work of his Duchy of Cornwall.

Short on sleep and peaking with a hoarse voice after hours of cheering the night before, he nevertheless posed for selfies, stopped for handshakes and even sent a video message to one man’s partner for her birthday.

He was there to highlight housing projects his Duchy is involved in, including Nansledan’s first build-to-let homes and properties earmarked for people experiencing homelessness, with the support of the charity St Petroc’s.

But what stood out to me was how naturally William blended purpose with personality.

Spotting an adorable cocker spaniel puppy, he mentioned how the Wales family dogs Orla and Otto “chew slippers” and “anything left on the floor”. The day after the night before, he also admitted he hadn’t slept much, telling one wellwisher: “You might be able to hear it in my voice.”

On Friday, the heir to the throne went a step further, giving one of his most candid interviews to date on Heart FM, which was broadcast live from St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago some 26 miles off the Cornish coast.

He spoke of his pride in his wife Catherine, saying, “She’s an amazing mum and an amazing wife, and literally our family couldn’t cope without her so she’s been absolutely stunning.”

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He praised her return to overseas visits and her devotion to her causes, but also shared intimate insights into family life. The idea of him having to fight his way past reams of early childhood development studies to get into bed at night was unexpected and very telling about Catherine’s studious nature.

We also heard him confirm that Prince George is boarding at Lambrook - something that has been widely known but not reported by the press here - and paint an evocative picture of the chaos of family life by describing packing the car for the school run and finding sticky fingerprints in the back after snack time.

He was even happy to have fun at his own expense, revealing how his friends and family say he has terrible taste in music. 

Older generations of royals might once have winced at sharing this level of domestic detail publicly. But William seems increasingly comfortable with it.

It was a clever way of drawing attention to some of the issues the Duchy is tackling there — from a new wing at the local hospital which means women can give birth there rather than be transferred to the mainland, often in difficult weather conditions — to housing and homelessness initiatives.

Crucially, it did not feel staged or forced. This was William being his authentic self and it’s how I see him interact with people on engagements all the time. 

As those close to him have often remarked, “What you see is what you get”.

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It was also not about him trying to look engaged with something that is just another duty. Nor was it about him just trying to appear modern. But behind the easy charm there is a future king trying to prove that the monarchy is still relevant.

If you think about the fact that the title of the Duke of Cornwall dates back a cool 689 years, he is certainly taking a mightily different approach to his predecessors. 

For anyone not familiar, the Duchy of Cornwall is a vast £1billion land and property portfolio which provides an income to the heir to the throne.

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Last year it gave William a profit of some £22.8 million to fund his and his family’s activities. We know that he pays “the highest rate” of income tax - estimated to be around £7 million — and that he and Catherine are paying some £300,000 a year to rent their Forest Lodge home at Windsor.

But William is acutely aware of public opinion and conscious that privilege now comes with far greater scrutiny and expectation.

In the wake of the murky financial dealings of his uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, he appears determined to show that he is not just there to reap the rewards of his role, but to give back.

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Indeed, William is spending vast amounts of his time “deep in the weeds” of the Duchy’s workings and this week has announced that he plans to sell off around 20 per cent of it over the next decade.

As the Duchy’s CEO Will Bax put it: “The Duchy should not just exist just to own land. It should first and foremost exist to have a positive impact on the world.”

That amounts to a fairly seismic shift in approach.

Instead of just making an income for whoever it is entrusted to, it will actively spend some £500million in the next 10 years to support communities, tackle homelessness and restore nature.

William has spoken about his desire to make change, and this is a good indicator of how he might approach his future reign too.

For centuries, heirs to the throne inherited the Duchy of Cornwall. William seems determined to reinvent it — and, in time, the monarchy itself.