RICHARD EDEN: What a friend of Prince William has told me about his plans and why it’s left me worried about the future of the Royal Family…Details below

What a friend of Prince William has told me about his plans and why it’s left me worried about the future of the Royal Family. The Princess of Wales on the balcony at Buckingham Palace was a sight to lift the spirits of every royalist. There was, however, something about that balcony scene after Trooping the Colour last Saturday that left me feeling uneasy.

And my sense of disquiet was deepened by a conversation I had later with a friend of Catherine’s husband, Prince William. The sovereign’s birthday parade always used to be a chance to celebrate the extended Royal Family. There was no greater symbol of this than a packed palace balcony for the fly-past, with older royals, such as the Duke of Kent, squeezing in next to minor members of the family including his glamorous granddaughters Lady Amelia and Lady Marina Windsor.

“This is because King Charles chose to stick with the post-pandemic policy of his late mother and allow only ‘working royals’ on the balcony. The Duke of Kent was therefore left looking lonely without his wife or children. His sister, Princess Alexandra, was too frail to join him even though she is still considered a ‘working royal’.

In addition to the King, Queen Camilla, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children, the only others on the balcony last Saturday were Princess Anne and her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

Queen Elizabeth abandoned her tradition of decades because of the ‘Harry and Meghan problem’ as well as the ‘Duke of York dilemma’. She felt that she could not exclude those who had stepped down from royal duties if she allowed other ‘non-working royals’ to join her on the balcony. So we were left with the wide empty spaces there last weekend that would previously have been filled with the smiling faces of younger royals