Prince William agreed to appear on The Graham Norton Show because he is being pulled into a public battle for attention with Prince Harry, following his estranged brother’s surprise return to the UK, according to a PR expert.
The Prince of Wales’s unprecedented chat-show appearance has been interpreted as a response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s series of high-profile media engagements, which began with their controversial interview with Oprah Winfrey more than five years ago.
PR adviser Mark Borkowski told the Daily Mail that William appears to be breaking with decades of royal tradition in an apparent response to Harry and Meghan’s dominance of headlines since their dramatic return to Britain two months ago.
Borkowski said William’s appearance on the BBC One programme, officially intended to promote the Earthshot Prize, revealed “just how angry he is about his brother”.
“When the late Queen was alive, she maintained the Royal mystique by staying above all this kind of stuff, just releasing the odd cleverly worded statement here and there,” Borkowski said. He argued that approach had now changed, adding: “It looks petulant, it looks like sibling rivalry, Cain and Abel.”
The PR specialist, who has spent decades advising major brands and high-profile figures, said William risked making “a mistake” by engaging on the same terms as his brother.
“It’s playing Harry at his own game and the Royals should be above that—it’s a misstep,” he said.
“As soon as you start talking about a PR war, you know you’ve lost. As simple as that.”
Prince William during filming for The Graham Norton Show. PR guru Mark Borkowski said the prince’s appearance on the chat show, ostensibly to discuss the Earthshot Prize, showed “just how angry he is about his brother”.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during a visit to Nottingham earlier this month. Mr Borkowski told the Daily Mail that William is abandoning decades of royal tradition in an apparent response to the couple’s dominance of news coverage.
“Sometimes in a war, the greatest impact comes from ignoring something. Just stay above it all,” Borkowski said.
“I think that has always been the strength of the Royal family: say nothing, don’t complain, and simply carry on doing what you need to do.”
Borkowski also claimed that Harry appeared “desperate” to be welcomed back into the royal fold after returning to Britain. However, he said the Duke’s media strategy was also misguided and suggested that better advice could have led the public to view Harry and Meghan “in a totally different way”.
He said: “Harry’s just not very bright and it shows that he and Meghan haven’t got much wisdom at the core of their comms.”
“Their whole strategy of coming back to the UK has been ‘noise, noise, noise’. But they’re still playing the same song.”
He added: “And the way for the royals, William or whoever, to counter that is just to rise above it.”
Examples of what Borkowski described as this “noise” include the reported decision to move the couple’s children to a different school during their first week, complaints that a foreign photographer had been stalking them and an explosive interview with GQ.
During his appearance, William also sought to present a more relatable image, discussing his enthusiasm for Celebrity Traitors, his abandoned ambition to become a DJ and his support for Aston Villa.
William appeared on The Graham Norton Show alongside fellow guests Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham, Robert Irwin and Jorja Smith. A poll of Daily Mail readers backed his decision to take part, with 71 per cent agreeing that it made the royals “more relatable”.
Harry and Meghan during their widely discussed 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. The appearance was one example of the Sussexes’ pursuit of high-profile media coverage.
William’s appearance on the show, flanked by actors Cate Blanchett and Hannah Waddingham and conservationist Robert Irwin, came just two days after that bombshell GQ interview with Harry.
The Duke of Sussex had used that platform to reopen old wounds with his family, apparently blaming William for their rift, declaring that ‘some people don’t want it to work out.’
When Harry and Meghan carried out their controversial pseudo-royal walkabout in Nottingham last week, it received global coverage with the BBC news website alone reporting the visit with a live blog of the kind normally reserved for major news.
Other royal engagements on the same day – many of which had been planned for weeks – received a fraction of the coverage the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unofficial appearance received.
Those overshadowed events included Prince William welcoming Crown Prince Hussein and Princess Rajwa of Jordan at Windsor, the King hosting a party of scientists and business leaders at St James’s Palace and Princess Anne visiting a tech centre in Exeter before attending a naval dinner in Portsmouth.
Daily Mail readers backed Prince William’s decision to appear on Norton, with 71 per cent of them agreeing with the statement that it made the royals ‘more relatable’ in our online poll.
In his first ever appearance on a chat show, William largely discussed his work on the Earthshot Prize, which he set up in 2020, but he also gave glimpses into his private life.
As he took to Graham’s sofa he spoke about BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors, saying: ‘I love it, the family love it. Charlotte and Louis are obsessed with it. It’s really good telly.’
He humorously added: ‘I saw Ross Kemp the day after the first episode and I couldn’t help but try – in the most appropriate way – to touch him to see what reaction I got from him. Turns out he was really jumpy!’
William spoke about what he would be if he were not set to be king, and said that he would have been a police officer or a DJ.
Kensington Palace was contacted for comment.
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