Why Prince William Spent Three Months Scrubbing Toilets in Chile Before Going to College

We normals have to do chores. We have to wash our own dishes and scrub our own toilets. Royals don't have to do their own chores. They have people to do those things for them. And royals certainly don't have to do other people's chores. But sometimes they do.

Prince William (opens in new tab), for example, spent three months in Chile during his gap year working with a UK-based company called Raleigh International (opens in new tab), which coordinates community and environmental projects in South America. During his time with Raleigh, Will did a ton of manual labor and, according to people who knew him during that time, genuinely enjoyed the experience.

In her book Kate: The Future Queen (opens in new tab), royal expert and biographer Katie Nicholl (opens in new tab) describes Will's time with the program:

"William coped very well, and what struck me about him was how normal he was," Hornsey said. "He said he wanted to be treated like everyone else, and he was. When you saw him cleaning the toilets, it wasn't for the cameras, he really did clean the lavatories."

And even though Will didn't do the work for the cameras, that doesn't mean cameras weren't there. Photographic evidence:

And, just for fun, a few other pictures of Will doing manual labor during his gap year time in Chile:

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