Prince William wanted to be a club DJ, and he even had a stage name ready: DJ Xara. The Prince of Wales told The Graham Norton Show that the phase 'didn't go very well' and 'wasn't good'.
The 44-year-old heir appeared in the 23 October episode, a special built around his Earthshot Prize, alongside Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham and Robert Irwin. Norton surprised everyone by inviting him onto the sofa after chatting to the Earthshot guests. He also admitted that becoming a policeman once struck him as 'quite cool', which raises a question royal fans rarely get to ask. What does a boy dream of when his career was settled at birth?
Policeman First, Then DJ Xara
Put the two dreams side by side, and they are strikingly ordinary. One was a job about protecting people; the other was about playing records for friends. Neither was ever really on the table, because the role of future king had been waiting since the day he was born.
Most children change their minds a dozen times before they settle on a career. William never had that luxury, which is why the confession lands. He did not describe a grand secret ambition. He described a teenage hobby that, by his own account, never got anywhere, and reports say he never got good enough to play school parties.
From DJ Decks to the Graham Norton Sofa
The laugh is the bridge. A man who jokes about his failed DJ career on prime-time television also lives a pleasingly ordinary family life. Last October, William told television producer Stephen Lambert that his family was 'very much looking forward' to The Celebrity Traitors, and he later joked with actor Ross Kemp, 'I'm going to get the answer', while trying to prise out a spoiler. It is a light picture beside a working life built around causes such as the environment, homelessness and the armed forces.
How a Single Joke Humanised the Heir
The moment the clip hit social media, the internet responded in kind. Under the show's official Instagram video, captioned 'Prince William could have been a DJ', fans quickly zeroed in on his relaxed demeanour. One wrote, 'He looks like Diana when he laughs!' Another said 'He's making the Royal Family a lot more relatable and not so stuffy.' A third reckoned whoever secured the booking 'needs a massive raise'.
Not everyone will take the charm at face value. Some will say that appearing relatable on a chat show sofa isn't a departure from the royal job but part of it, and that a joke about a failed DJ phase lets the public peek behind the curtain without risking the institution's dignity. Others will simply see a father who laughed at himself and told a good story.
Either way, the boy who thought being a policeman was 'quite cool' grew into a man whose calling was never up for debate, and that is what gives the confession its weight. Prince William's alias DJ Xara may never have played a school party, but the confession has the country picturing the future king behind a set of decks. Do you want your royals relatable like this, or would you rather they stayed a little out of reach?
