It's been a busy few months for royal tell-alls, and although it's not out until January 6, Robert Jobson's The Windsor Legacy is already making headlines. The book, which has been serialized in the Daily Mail this week, takes readers inside the Royal Family's scandals and secrets from the past century, including the recent events that have shaped the monarchy. When writing about the health issues that have impacted Princess Kate and The King in the past year, Jobson, a longtime royal journalist, said Prince William has been impacted in one surprising way.
The King announced he'd been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024, and, as Jobson noted, "A few weeks down the line, it was announced that the Princess of Wales was also suffering from an unnamed cancer." For Prince William, watching both his father and his wife fight for their lives was a sobering prospect.
"Having two leading members of the Royal Family struck down at once seemed a malign twist of fate—and Prince William was shaken to the core," Jobson wrote.
Prince William is seen greeting Archbishop Orani Tempesta at the Christ Redeemer Sanctuary in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on November 5.
Prince William is seen attending Easter Sunday mass with Princess Kate, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
As head of the Church of England, King Charles is a deeply religious man, as was his mother, Queen Elizabeth. The late Queen leaned on her faith throughout her lifetime, but going to church is not something that Prince William is said to feel particularly strongly about—at least not until now, per Jobson.
"As the year progressed, both he and Catherine became more religious," the author wrote. "Never known as a regular worshipper, William now attends church more frequently than in the past, though as privately as possible."
Jobson's comments come after an updated version of royal biographer Robert Hardman's King Charles biography was released last year. In The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy, a "church-going friend of the family" claimed that William was still not religious, but when it came to the Princess of Wales, the insider told Hardman, "I would say that things are more hopeful there."
According to the insider, Princess Kate "is said to have become rather more interested in questions of faith as a result of her condition."
