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A former royal aide has revealed what the Princess of Wales really thinks about her husband’s facial hair – hinting that she’s a fan of the brawny beard.
Prince William , 42, first debuted his rugged stubble in August last year when he appeared in a clip alongside Kate congratulating Team GB on their successes in the Paris Olympics .
This certainly left fans hot under the collar, with many describing his new look as ‘hot’ and pleading the future King to keep the stubble.
Although it was met with a mainly positive reaction, many wondered what Kate thought of his unshaven appearance.
One of William’s closest confidants, Jason Knauf, who used to work as an advisor for the Waleses, has now taken royal fans one step closer to the answer, during an interview with Australian TV programme, 60 Minutes.
‘If she didn’t like it, it wouldn’t be there. I can tell you that,’ he said when asked by a journalist whether she was a fan of his beard.
When asked whether he personally liked William’s beard, he said: ‘ I love it, I think it’s great, but I’ve talked to him about it or tried to talk to him about and he’s like ‘It’s here, I have a beard, no further conversation’.’
However, it didn’t go down so well with other members of the royal family.
The father-of-three previously said that his daughter Princess Charlotte , nine, ‘burst into tears’ when she saw him with facial hair for the first time in the summer of 2024.
The young royal was so upset that William decided to shave it off, however he then decided to try and win her round.
The Prince of Wales said at the time: ‘The beard! Well Charlotte didn’t like it the first time.
‘I got floods of tears the first time I grew a beard, so I had to shave it off. And then I grew it back. I thought, hang on a second and I convinced her it was going to be okay.’
The beard marked a departure from typical royal protocol, which usually sees members of the family clean shaven.
The 60 Minutes Documentary, Where There’s A Will, speaks to journalists and royal aides about the future King of England, and explores what sort of leader he will likely be.
Mr Knauf initially worked as joint head of communications for both Harry and Meghan and William and Kate.
He subsequently made serious allegations about Meghan’s alleged bullying of junior staff before quitting. The Duchess has always denied the allegations.
The royal aide became a special adviser to William and Kate and then chief executive of the Royal Foundation, the charitable arm of their official operations.
During his time working for the couple, Mr Knauf helped start William’s high-profile Earthshot environmental awards and the couple’s Heads Together mental health initiative, as well as undertaking 36 foreign trips with them.
In the documentary, Mr Knauf also gave an insight into William’s persona behind closed doors, adding that the Prince is quite the joker.
‘What you see of [Kate and William] is what you get behind the scenes,’ he said.
Mr Knauf, who left the foundation in 2021 to move abroad, said that working for the Waleses was an ‘honour of a lifetime’.
And when asked whether it was hard to leave the role behind, Mr Knauf said: ‘It was very sad but also quite fun.
‘The Prince and Princess threw a really nice party for me and [William] roasted me and gave me a very good comedy roast farewell roast speech recounting all the mistakes I made for about 15 minutes.
‘He can do a good stand-up routine, that’s for sure.’
Mr Knauf worked for William and Kate from 2015 and 2021 and remained close to the family afterwards.
In 2024, both Kate and Charles were diagnosed with undisclosed forms of cancer – with Prince William later reflecting on how the year was ‘brutal’ for the family.
At the same time, wild conspiracy theories took over social media about Kate’s whereabouts as she took time out from the public eye.
Speaking in the documentary, Mr Knauf told how William was the ‘lowest’ he’d ever seen during a phone call with the prince at the time.
He said: ‘Within a couple of weeks if you’re Prince William, you find out that both your wife and your father have cancer. I couldn’t believe it. It was awful, absolutely awful. It’s the lowest I’ve ever seen him.
‘But the problem was that all this crazy conspiracy theory stuff kicked off in the background online.
‘Was she really ill? But they didn’t want to say yet that she had cancer because they hadn’t told the children and they were still working through how to tell the children.’
Elsewhere in the documentary, which was released on Sunday, the royal aide revealed how there was nearly a mishap with the announcement of the birth of Princess Charlotte in 2015.
He said that Kate and William informed him of their daughter’s arrival very early on – even before some members of the family were made aware.
But news of her birth almost leaked two hours before the palace were ready to announce it, after Mr Knauf realised he must have ‘dropped’ the press release somewhere on the street.
The release contained valuable details including the time of birth and how much Charlotte weighed.
But miraculously, none of the media managed to get hold of it and the announcement went ahead as planned.
Mr Knauf recalled: ‘We weren’t going to announce it for another couple hours and I had this piece of paper to go write this press release.
‘I’m still out there with hundreds of journalists trying to have a game face, and then I couldn’t find the piece of paper, and I think I had dropped it somewhere on the street.’
He added: ‘We managed to get through, but not announce it. But somewhere on that street the entire time was a piece of paper that said there had been a little princess born, what time and how much she weighed.
‘It was one of those things, like, heart in mouth until we got to the announcement and I got through it. I never found it and neither did any of the media though. So that’s all that really mattered.’
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