In 2021, Prince William was declared the sexiest bald man in the world for the second year in a row, having been described as ‘sexy’ a staggering 17.6 million times on the internet. But it would seem that marrying the Prince and living the fairy tale has lost its appeal to a generation of women.
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Prince William: a pin-up for teenage girls
According to Independent.ie, around his 16th birthday, Prince William gave an interview with The Press Association. He presented himself as a sportsman, enjoying rugby, football, swimming, water polo and tennis. Although he also confessed to a gentler side, admitting he was shy and that he enjoyed letter writing, the history of art and music.
Prince William - Boy To Man - Top Row L To R: Age 1, Age 2, Age 3, Age 4, Age 5, Age 6, Age 7 Middle Row LTtoR: Age 8, Age 9, Age 10, Age 11, Age 12, Age 13, Age 14 Bottom Row Left To Right: Age 15, Age 16, Age 17, Age 18, Age 19, Age 20, And Just Weeks Before His 21st Birthday. pic.twitter.com/fuMQxUGn5u
— Mace (@RoyaleVision) May 15, 2022
However, the young Prince confessed that at the time, he found it hard to handle the infatuation of ‘swooning girls’ for whom he had become a pin-up. According to the publication, Prince William was ‘a hero among some teenagers to rival Leonardo DiCaprio’.
In an article for The Telegraph, author and journalist Sophia Money-Coutts admits that she used to have a crush on the young Prince, as did many of her peers.
She writes:
If you were a posh teenage girl at boarding school when the princes were at Eton, you probably believed you were going to marry one of them.
She recounts how she and her peers would stalk the locations where Princes William and Harry had been, hoping they would return.
‘Enormously grateful that our eyes didn’t meet’
The article’s author describes the time she almost met Prince William at a polo match. Her dad asked the organisers if it would be possible for his daughter to meet the Prince.
She recalls how stressed she was about coming face to face with her crush. She was too worried about finding a way for the Prince to fall in love with her at first sight. Unfortunately for the 14-year-old, the meeting never took place.
Prince William at the charity polo match this afternoon!🐴
— Belle (@RoyallyBelle_) July 9, 2021
He’s looking so good!🔥 pic.twitter.com/bG1ei1mRtk
However, for the grown woman that she is now, she says:
I’m now enormously grateful that our eyes didn’t meet across the polo ponies that day.
The author believes that her generation may well be the last to be as infatuated with young Royals as young girls perhaps aspire to more than ‘marrying a prince’. Indeed, she believes that no one will act the same way when young Prince George reaches that age.
She backs this argument up with the suffering revealed in Prince Harry's memoir and the reaction of a teenager when Money-Coutts confessed her love for Prince William:
She looked at me as if I was a danger to the public.
Sources used:
- The Telegraph: I was convinced I was going to marry Prince William – but I'm glad I didn't
- Independent.ie: Prince William the conqueror at sweet 16
