Prince William interview with Katie Couric: 'Kate and I are keen to start a family'

Prince William interview with Katie Couric: 'Kate and I are keen to start a family'

• William told Katie Couric that he 'was very sad his mother is never going to get the chance to meet Kate'
  
• Prince William said the Queen told him to tear up the original wedding guest list and start with his friends
• Prince Harry revealed he was 'just waiting for the right person' and also wanted to have children
  

By Rebecca English, Deborah Arthurs and Victoria Wellman

PUBLISHED: 22:31 EST, 29 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:57 EST, 30 May 2012

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Prince William has given his clearest sign yet that he and his wife were planning to try for a baby imminently.

In an interview to mark his grandmother’s diamond jubilee, the future king said starting a family was a key issue for him and the Duchess of Cambridge, who is 30.

Discussing his military plans, William, who will himself turn 30 next month, said: ‘More importantly, I’d rather like to have children. So that’s the key thing really.

Scroll down to watch extracts from the interview

Future plans: Prince William said that having children was the 'key thing' for himself and Catherine

Wedded bliss: The Duchess of Cambridge meets guests during a garden party at Buckingham Palace today. Prince William said the couple were keen to start a family

‘But I’m just very keen to have a family and both Catherine and I, you know, are looking forward to having a family in the future.’

When asked whether there was anything he would like to announce the prince said coyly: ‘You won’t get anything out of me. Tight lipped.’

William opened up during an interview at Clarence House in London for the U.S. show The Jubilee Queen with Katie Couric, screened on ABC tonight.

The prince also indicated that his first year of married life had been nothing short of blissful.

‘It’s all it’s cracked up to be ... no major arguments or domestics at the moment. It’s all going well,’ he said.

Both William and Kate have spoken in the past of their desire to start a family but what was particularly significant about the latest interview is that his comments were made in the context of his plans for the next two years.

Funny: Katie Couric said that both Princes, and 'Prince William especially', were very funny during their interviews

The prince and the presenter: William and Katie Couric take a stroll in the grounds of his residence at Clarence House

Asked whether he planned to stay in the RAF or become a full-time working royal the prince said: ‘I’m still trying to decide. It’s a really difficult one because I really enjoy my time in the Air Force.

‘But the pressures of my other life are building. And fighting them off or balancing the two of them has proven quite difficult. More importantly, I’d rather like to have children.’

Asked whether he worries that as a future Prince of Wales and king he will be able to measure up to his grandmother’s exemplary conduct, William said: ‘Constantly. Terrifying. No, I take each step at it comes and it’s good when you’ve got good examples to follow. And hopefully I can try and do her some sort of justice,’ he said.

In the ABC interview, William’s brother Harry, 27, revealed he is getting broody too: ‘I’ve longed for kids since I was very, very young. And so I’m just, I’m waiting to find the right person, someone who’s willing to t ake on the job.’

South of the border: Prince Harry was in Brazil as a part of the Diamond Jubilee tour when he met with Katie Couric

He also indicated that with his first solo royal tour under his belt, he felt it would be easier to do the job as part of a couple.

‘I’ve always said that it’d probably be easier as a, as a couple. I don’t have anyone. I wasn’t allowed to bring anybody with me,’ he said.

William paid tribute to his grandmother the Queen, saying: ‘The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is that, age 25 when she became queen and me being 29 and a few months now ... is the fact that at that time she was a woman in man’s world, stepping into what everyone thought was only a man could do.

‘She really carved her way in that sense and produced, you know, an incredible amount of courage to do the job and to step up to the plate and ... and she’s not let herself or anyone down in the process.

Looking for a princess: Prince Harry admitted that he was just waiting for the right girl and that he would love to have children

‘She set an incredible example to me, to others to follow her leadership ... her duty, her sacrifice. I think she’s done amazingly well.’

He admitted, though, that while he has always had a healthy respect for his grandmother he and his brother weren’t always above giving her a bit of cheek.

‘I’m probably a bit of a cheeky grandson like my brother as well. We both tend to take the mickey a bit much.’

The prince revealed that while the Queen is a great believer in letting people make their own mistakes.

He said: ‘She listens. She’s a very good listener. So if you do ever have problems, you can share them with her and she will listen and she will try and help ... but otherwise, she sort of lets you get on with your own life.’

‘You know when you’re in her bad books. I’ve seen the way the corgis get told off when they’re in trouble.’

The Duchess of Cambridge joined the Queen and 8,000 guests at a Buckingham Palace garden party on Tuesday â€" her first appearance at one of the events. She wore an $1,880 Emilia Wickstead dress she had been seen in only 11 days before.

Got the moves: Prince Harry shows Couric the move he picked up from Olympic champion Usain Bolt during his tour of the Caribbean to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee

Prince William also revealed how he'd wished that his mother Princess Diana had been able to see his wedding day. 

The prince said it was the 'one time' since she died that he'd really missed his mother and he'd felt 'sad' knowing she wouldn't be there.

'I sort of prepared myself beforehand so that I was sort of mentally prepared,' he said. 'I didn’t want any wobbly lips or anything going on,' Prince William told Couric in the interview ahead of the celebrations in honour of the Queen's 60-year reign.

'It was the one time since she's died where I've thought to myself it would be fantastic if she was here. And just how sad really, for her more than anything, not being able to see it.

'I think she would have loved the day and I think, hopefully, she’d be very proud of us both for the day. I’m just very sad that she’s never going to get a chance to meet Kate.'

For Harry too it was a poignant moment, as he felt his mother's absence acutely, knowing especially that 'she would have loved Kate.'

'I think she had the best seat in the house probably,' Harry said. 'She would have loved to have been there.'

Harry, who acted as his brother's best man, also confessed he was 'massively nervous' on his brother's wedding day.

Emotional scarring: A new biography about the prince claims that he was so affected by his parents' highly publicised affairs he doubted he could be faithful to one woman

'Everybody was nervous,' he said. 'The whole thing was a bit of a blur to be honest because there was God knows how many millions or billions of eyes focused on us. Luckily, mainly those two.'

The two billion pairs of eyes didn't go unnoticed by William either. Recalling his wedding day he said: 'Honestly it was one of those days where you feel very elated. Also completely terrified, I have to be honest. The prospect of two billion people watching was quite daunting.'

A new biography of the prince has claimed that the future king was so scarred by his parent's failed marriage that he worried whether he could be faithful to one woman.

According to royal biographer Penny Junor, the author of 'Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King', Prince Charles and Princess Diana's highly publicised affairs contributed to Prince William's delayed marriage proposal to now-wife Kate Middleton.

'The problem was William: he had very real worries about whether it was possible to love just one woman. After his hurricane childhood, he was understandably cautious about committing to a relationship,' Junor writes in the book.

Katie Couric, who later confessed she had been 'trepidatious' to bring up the subject of Diana because it was 'so personal and private', also talked to the princes about their relationship with the Queen.

Poignant: Princes Harry and William, pictured with their mother in 1993, said it was 'difficult' not to have their mother with them at the Royal Wedding last year

The stories that the heirs to the throne shared shows that they have a very close bond with her, one that is much more normal than expected.

'I still think she's just my grandmother, really,' Prince William told Couric when asked if he remembers a specific moment when he realised that his grandmother was not like everyone else's.

But continued, admitting: 'When I was younger and my parents used to always slap my hand if I was picking my nose or if I was running around screaming I was told to shut up.

'And I sort of understood that when I was around her I needed to be a little but more low key and little bit more polite.'

Prince Harry said he couldn't imagine, even at 27, taking on the responsibility that the Queen did in 1953 when she was 25 years old.

'This tour itself has been a brief insight as to what she had to deal with at a very young age,' Harry said. 'What she's achieved and what she's done and at the age of 25, confronted with the world's media. You can see it in her face now. You can see it in the way that she parades herself is just so immaculate.'

When it comes to family though, he said his grandmother is 'really very very normal. Very relaxed. She obviously takes a huge interest in what we all do, that's her children as well as her grandchildren. 

'She wants to know which charities we're supporting, how life is going in our jobs and such. So you know, she has a vested interested in what we do.'

And it seems her interests go beyond what her own twenty-something grandsons are up to.

Joking about the Queen's Facebook page, he lamented that she hadn't 'friended' him yet and asked Couric whether she had received any friend requests from his grandmother herself.

'She's managed to get the family to move with the times and I think that's incredibly important. You can't get stuck in an old age situation when everything else around you is changing so you have to go with it,' he said approvingly.

From William's description of his first meeting to discuss the royal wedding, it would appear however, that when it comes to business versus family, Britain's monarch does not waste time in prioritising.

'I was given a list in the first meeting, of 777 names, and not one of them on there I knew,' he recalled. 'And I wasn't too happy about it so I rang her for a bit of moral support, and a bit of back up, and she said "don't be so ridiculous. Get rid of the list and start from your friends."'  

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