Prince William is a 'hands-on, caring dad' and not a 'workaholic like his father'

Prince William, 40, carried out 190 engagements in 2022, less than half of the 497 that his father attended.

However, former BBC royal correspondent, Jennie Bond, has praised the Prince’s modern approach to royal life.

Bond noted that the heir to the throne is priorisitings being a father to his children Prince George (nine), Princess Charlotte (eight), and Prince Louis (five).

At a formative stage in his children’s lives, Prince William is said to be trying hard “to be around at weekends and holidays and whenever he can.”

Speaking to OK! magazine, Jennie said: 'With the late Queen’s ailing health, William probably had to step up to his full time royal job quicker than he might have hoped, but you can see now how committed he is.

“However, I also very much admire the fact that he’s not a workaholic like his father, he knows how important family life is... He seems to be a full on, hands-on, caring dad.”

William has been outspoken in the past about the King’s workaholic nature, revealing to a BBC documentary in 2018 that he would appreciate more ‘family time’ with his father.

Opening up to the Prince, Son and Heir - Charles at 70 doc about spending quality time with his father, William said: “It's something I'm working more heavily on, put it that way.

“I think he does have time for it, but I would like him to have more time with the children.

"Now he's reached his 70th year it's a perfect time to consolidate a little bit because, as most families would do, you are worried about having them around and making sure their health's OK – and he's the fittest man I know but equally I want him to be fit until he's 95.

“So having more time with him at home would be lovely, and being able to play around with the grandchildren.

“Because when he's there, he's brilliant. But we need him there as much as possible.'

Queen Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, told the documentary: “He will get down on his knees and crawl about with them for hours, you know making funny noises and laughing, and my grandchildren adore him, absolutely adore him.

“He reads Harry Potter and he can do all the different voices and I think children really appreciate that.”

Camilla added: “My father once said to me: 'As you get older, you've got to do one thing and that is pace yourself'. And I would love to tell him to pace himself, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen.”

In the documentary, William touched on the balance between nurturing a private family life and upholding commitments to the public facing royal role.

On his father’s attempts to navigate this, William reflected: “He has amazing personal discipline.

“So, he has – and it's frustrated me in the past a lot – he has a routine. The only way to fit all this stuff in is things have to be compartmentalised. The man never stops.

“I mean when we were kids there were bags and bags and bags of work that the office just sent to him. We could barely even get to his desk to say goodnight to him.”

In May, a league table of royal engagements attended was published and King Charles was revealed as the hardest-working royal of the past ten years.

The King carried out 4,854 engagements between 2013 and 2022, based on figures put together each year by famed royal watcher Tim O'Donovan from Datchet in Berkshire.

Prince William racked up 1,704 engagements, while Princess Kate carried out 1,024.

Bottom of the pile was Meghan, who completed 179 engagements before she and Harry stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to America.