Prince William's BAFTAs Entrance Draws Attention Online

Prince William walking into the auditorium at the BAFTA Awards, seemingly without turning the heads of attendees, has gone viral on Twitter.

The Prince of Wales regularly attends the gala—Britain's answer to the Oscars—in his capacity as BAFTA president.

In past years his arrival has been met by a standing ovation, however, on Sunday at the Royal Festival Hall, in London, he appeared to earn a more muted response.

One post on X, formerly Twitter, which has been viewed more than 37,000 times read: "It [must] suck to be Prince William sometimes. His little brother is celebrated wherever he goes, even amongst [U.S.] sports players, [U.S.] billionaires, & is the celebrity amongst celerities [sic]. Prince William walks into a rm full of celebrities & no 1 reacts."

One reason for the subdued reaction may simply be that his arrival was more informal as he strolled to his seat along the front row while some guests were still taking theirs or otherwise mingling.

By comparison, in 2018, William and Kate Middleton descended down the central staircase after guests were already seated.

At the time, the audience stood in respectful silence as the couple arrived before then applauding when they reached their seats.

This Sunday, William was also seen warmly greeting Cate Blanchett, who works as a member of his Earthshot Prize Awards council, and former football star David Beckham.

The prince attended without Kate, who often accompanies him but is currently recovering after abdominal surgery at The London Clinic in January.

He told BAFTA organizers: "I am sorry Catherine's not here, she does love the BAFTAs."

The royal family has also been rocked by King Charles III's recent cancer diagnosis, which was spotted during a procedure on an enlarged prostate. The palace confirmed it was not prostate cancer, but declined to reveal what kind it was.

William recently acknowledged during a dinner in support of the London Air Ambulance charity that: "It's fair to say the past few weeks have had a rather 'medical' focus."

Kate and Charles' recent health problems also appear to have left him with less time to keep up with the films nominated for BAFTAs.

He said during one conversation at the event that he had "other things on my mind" and when meeting BAFTA Rising Star winner Mia McKenna-Bruce, star of How to Have Sex, he acknowledged: "I haven't yet watched your film."

"I've got a lot of films to catch up on," he added. "Normally I get quite ahead of the award ceremony and I get to see quite a few of them. I haven't managed to get that many through, so now I've got a good old, I've got a list today."

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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