Prince William recently adopted a new style that was previously discouraged and sparked controversy with Prince Harry

Lilit

This summer, Prince William is experimenting with a new appearance that has previously caused controversy.

Kate Middleton and Prince William, both 42, appeared in a surprise video on Aug. 11, joining a plethora of celebrities in honoring Team Great Britain as the 2024 Paris Olympics concluded. The appearance, which occurred during the Prince and Princess of Wales’ summer holiday away from royal duties, was a rare sighting of Kate during her cancer treatment.

It also made headlines for another reason: William had a beard for the first time in public since 2008.

Perhaps because of his experience in the Royal Air Force, which forbids facial hair, the Prince of Wales typically keeps his face clean-shaven. He had a startling beard when he joined the royal family for their regular Christmas Day church trip in 2008, but the appearance did not stick.

Prince Harry, on the other hand, has maintained a beard for several years. He originally grew it out on a 2013 charity trip to the South Pole with Walking with the Wounded, but despite shaving afterward, he returned to the facial hair in 2015.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, said that his beard created friction with his older brother ahead of his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle. In his biography Spare, Harry recounted asking their grandmother Queen Elizabeth for permission to keep his scruff for the wedding, a request he described as “not a small ask” considering the British Army’s ban on beards and his impending marriage in an armed services uniform. Prince Harry claimed that his beard served as a “security blanket,” and that his wife-to-be had never seen him without it.

“I didn’t want her coming down the aisle and seeing a total stranger,” he claimed in the book.

Queen Elizabeth permitted it, but Prince Harry said Prince William “bristled” when he found out, asking his younger brother to “shave it off.”

When Harry asked his sibling why he was upset by their grandmother’s decision, William replied, “Because I wasn’t allowed to keep my beard,” according to Spare.

“Ah—there it was,” Prince Harry wrote. “After returning from a deployment with Special Forces, Willy had a big beard, and someone ordered him to be a decent kid and shave it. He despised the thought of my enjoying a benefit he’d been denied.

King Charles and Prince Philip were two additional royal males who were normally clean-shaven but had dabbled with facial hair on occasion.

When the late Duke of Edinburgh’s beard grew out on a 1965 solo trip aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia on a Commonwealth journey, Queen Elizabeth seized the opportunity to pull a joke on her husband.

In his book Queen of the World, Robert Hardman writes, “Knowing that he had grown a beard on his travels, the Queen had arranged for everyone in the royal entourage—self-included—to put on fake whiskers just before the Duke walked in.”

Prince William and Princess Kate made a film for Team GB ahead of the Olympic Games’ closing ceremonies in Paris.

“Congratulations to Team GB!” said all of us watching at home. The Princess of Wales, dressed casually in a white shirt with black stripes, remarked in the video footage.

Prince of Wales also said, “Congratulations on your achievements. You have inspired us.”

Other celebrities featured in the video were Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, and others.

In addition to visits by several European royals during the Olympic Games, Prince William’s aunt, Princess Anne, has represented the British royal family in Paris. This week marks the 74th birthday of King Charles’ sister, who was the first member of the British royal family to compete in horseback riding disciplines at the Olympics in 1976. Since then, she has remained highly involved in international competition, serving on the International Olympic Committee since 1988.

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