Prince William poses for a selfie with Natalie O'Rourke. Photo / Natalie O'Rourke
Prince William poses for a selfie with Natalie O'Rourke. Photo / Natalie O'Rourke
OPINION:
Prince William is hardly a leather jacket-loving, James Deanesque bad boy, nonchalantly ruffling tweedy feathers with his devil-may-care approach.
Rather, this is a man who appreciates a nice jumper, enjoys an abstemious pint every now and then and probably returns his library books early.
But who knew? A new picture has emerged this week which would suggest that, tantalisingly, the future king has something of an inner rebel.
At first glance, this hardly looks like a newsworthy shot: The 39-year-old, clad in a smart dinner jacket, smiling alongside a woman named Natalie O'Rourke who looks positively delighted to be within hugging distance of the second in line to the throne.
However, what makes this shot so noteworthy is that it's a selfie, taken by O'Rourke, at last week's Who Cares Wins award in London.
William was there to demonstrate one of the key royal skills, namely sustaining a smile for hours on end and managing to look like he wasn't bored senseless while holding a glass of tap water and being gawked at. (No cheeky G & Ts on duty here …)
That and presenting an award, praising emergency workers and acknowledging two paramedics who were stabbed in the line of duty.
Prince William poses for a selfie with Natalie O'Rourke. Photo / Natalie O'Rourke
O'Rourke, who won a prize for her riding centre which works with the disabled and children, told The Sun of her brush with royalty: "Prince William just came over and started talking to us, it was amazing. He was just walking by and I was sitting down.
"I said, 'I'm sitting down, should I stand up?' you know, because it's Prince William. And he said, 'No, don't worry.'"
Later, after discussing her charity, O'Rourke says she "'asked if we could take a photograph, and he said, 'Yeah,'. It was completely crazy, because I thought we daren't go up to him, but he was just a nice, normal, genuine person.'"
All of which is very sweet. It's nice to know that the one-day head of the commonwealth isn't a raging egomaniac and all-round jerk.
No, what makes this all very interesting is the fact that William happily agreed to take this shot in the first place, a simple act that is a rarity for members of the royal family who are generally far-from-enthusiastic, willing selfie participants.
The house of Windsor's history with this most ubiquitous of contemporary cultural practices, the selfie, is short and not-so-sweet.
In short: One does not do such a thing. Over the years, there have been various instances when HRHs have found themselves accidentally in the picture, like it or not.
In 2014, the Queen inadvertently photobombed a shot taken by Hockeyroo Jayde Taylor taken at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
(My personal favourite might be during a market tour in Belfast where Her Majesty looked sorely tempted to deliver a stern dressing down to mischievous 14-year-old Jack Surgenor who managed to get a shot-of-a-lifetime.)
A local youth takes a selfie photograph in front of Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to St George's indoor market on in Belfast Tuesday June 24, 2014. Photo / AP
In 2015, the English women's soccer team covertly got William in the shot.
At times, they have very stiffly taken part when clearly to not do so would be read as rude. For example, during William and Kate's 2014 tour of Australia and New Zealand (notice her very angry protection officers) when a series of decidingly unflattering angles of the HRHs ended up all over social media.
An unnamed Kiwi teenager takes a selfie during William and Kate's visit to Christchurch. Photo / Twitter
While Harry has, on occasion, proved slightly gamer on this front, in 2015, Harry told a teenager who had requested a shot with the royal that "selfies are bad".
In 2017, it was Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex who accidentally let the cat out of the bag when it came to the palace's position on selfies, when during her first official engagement, the former actress was overheard saying, "We're not allowed to do selfies."
(One can't help but wonder what the duchess might make of this William shot from the perspective of her greige sofa in Montecito, and this latest instance of their being one particular standard for the royal rank and file, and another for those whose heads will one day end up on £10 notes.)
Still, this selfie situation is revealing about William, a man about whom we actually really know very little in a personal sense despite being one of the most famous people in the world.
To start with, the fact he puts being a kind human being above being a stickler for the rules is cheering to witness.
A runner stops to take a selfie backdropped by Harry, William and Kate cheering on runners at a Heads Together cheering point along the route of the 2017 London Marathon. Photo / Getty Images
That he bent down and happily posed speaks volumes about him as a very decent human.
This moment is in line with other (albeit very occasional) moments of a similar nature, such as when he posed with royal fan Jennifer Malone during the Cambridges' tour of Ireland last year. Sharing the shot, her mum Donna simply wrote, "A really nice guy."
All of this suggests that, when the time comes and William ascends to the throne, he will do things his own way and not rigidly adhere to protocol above all else.
One of the significant ways that might play out is how he will approach his relationship with Downing St.
While the Queen has long adopted a very passive role on this front and Charles has made himself into something of the bane of the lives of the political establishment courtesy of his propensity to pen them long, nagging letters (dubbed "the black spider memos" because of his shocking handwriting), William may very well forge a much more assertive style.
Earlier this year, the Times reported that, according to insiders, during his reign William will adopt a "more private, robust challenging of advice" with the government and that he was "not happy" when Boris Johnson essentially forced the Queen to prorogue Parliament in October 2019. (The move was later ruled to be unlawful.)
Adding credence here is the fact that William's current and three former private secretaries (Jean-Christophe Gray, Christian Jones, Simon Case and Miguel Head) have all worked or are working at the highest levels of government.
While the monarchy is facing down a rocky stretch, with the prospect of King Charles III hardly winning over new fans to the palace cause, this William selfie is a reminder of the nice guy with big ideas and a vast collection of boring sweaters who is waiting in the wings.
And thank god for that.
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
