Prince William and Princess Kate could see their popularity eclipsed by Prince George and his siblings, following a trend that has seen the couple crowned Britain's most popular royals ahead of William's own father, King Charles III.
A new poll conducted for the Mail on Sunday by Ipsos this month has shown that William and Kate are outshining Charles with a matching approval rating of 69 percent. The survey of 2,166 British adults gave Charles a 56 percent approval rating. All have increased since May 2023.
Discussing the results during an appearance on Good Morning Britain on May 6, Newsweek's chief royal correspondent, Jack Royston, and royal commentator Emily Andrews reflected on William and Kate's broadening appeal and that the Wales children could prove to be royal stars waiting in the wings.
"I think it's reality," Royston said of William and Kate outshining Charles. "The monarchy can choose to embrace that reality and try to make an asset out of it and use William and Kate as the kind of royal superstars that they are, or we can all just deny reality and say that the king's not outshining them."
"The monarchy has a number of specific problems that it has to overcome," he continued. "One of them is the decline in support among 18-to-24-year-olds, and the king can try to take that on, but it is difficult in the era when young people think that privilege is corruption and think everything's 'pale, male and stale.'
"It is hard for Charles to be the person to show leadership and to take on that particular challenge. William and Kate are arguably much better placed to address that issue if you're willing to embrace and accept the fact that they do outshine Charles."
Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway posed to Andrews that the Wales couple eclipsing the king's popularity could simply be a repetition of history, with Charles and Princess Diana's popularity overtaking Queen Elizabeth II's in the 1980s and early 1990s.
"I think you hit the nail on the head because we've got George, Charlotte and Louis waiting in the wings," Andrews said, highlighting George as a particular point of interest.
"George is going to be 11 this year, this July, and in seven years' time, they could be at university, and we might start seeing them a bit more in the public arena—although Kate and Wiliam are very good at bringing them to things—and so I think we will see George, Charlotte and Louis probably overtaking their parents in the popularity scale. So, I think it will probably sort itself out."
Kensington Palace declined to comment when approached by Newsweek.
Since George's birth in 2013, William and Kate have prioritized their children's privacy and freedom to grow up outside of the pressures of royal life.
However, the children have made regular appearances at royal showpiece events, such as the Trooping of the Colour parade each June in London and the royal family's Christmas Day celebrations in Norfolk at the monarch's Sandringham residence.
George, Charlotte and Louis have not attended a public event since Christmas Day in 2023, taking time out of the public eye following Princess Kate's announcement in March that she is undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
