--- title: Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenting at Times description: Prince William got surprisingly candid during an appearance on a Vietnamese talk show earlier this week canonical: https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-19T17:17:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:55.613Z og:title: Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenthood at Times og:description: Prince William got surprisingly candid during an appearance on a Vietnamese talk show og:url: https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623527dffdb96804/6988af2c524fc00864dfa4de/prince-william.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Duke of Cambridge Visits Living Memory And Centenary Fields Projects og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenthood at Times twitter:description: Prince William got surprisingly candid during an appearance on a Vietnamese talk show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623527dffdb96804/6988af2c524fc00864dfa4de/prince-william.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenthood at Times by [Michelle Tauber / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Michelle Tauber / People Contributor Nov 19, 2016 5:17 PM UTC  Prince William visits the Kensington Memorial Park on Nov. 10, 2016 in London. Prince William visits the Kensington Memorial Park on Nov. 10, 2016 in London.Tristan Fewings—Getty Images by [Michelle Tauber / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Michelle Tauber / People Contributor Nov 19, 2016 5:17 PM UTC [Prince William](http://people.com/tag/prince-william/) got surprisingly candid during an [appearance on a Vietnamese talk show](http://people.com/royals/prince-william-appears-on-talk-show-in-vietnam/) earlier this week. Speaking on the English-language show _Talk Vietnam_ during his two-day visit to the country to [fight illegal wildlife trade](http://people.com/royals/watch-prince-william-chat-about-rhinos-with-vietnamese-kids-on-hanoi-visit/), the 34-year-old royal dad opened up about his family life. On fatherhood, “there’s wonderful highs and wonderful lows,” he told host Tran Thuy Duong. “It’s been quite a change for me personally. I’m very lucky in the support I have from [Catherine](http://people.com/tag/kate-middleton/), she’s an amazing mother and a fantastic wife. But he also acknowledged, “I’ve struggled at times. The alteration from being a single, independent man to going into marriage and then having children is life-changing. “I adore my children very much, and I’ve learned a lot about myself and about family just from having my own children.” Calling 3-year-old son [Prince George](http://people.com/tag/prince-george/) “a right little rascal,” he said, “he keeps me on my toes but he’s a sweet boy.” As for 18-month-old [Princess Charlotte](http://people.com/tag/princess-charlotte/), he said, “bearing in mind I haven’t had a sister, so having a daughter is a very different dynamic. So I’m learning about having a daughter, having a girl in the family.” Following a question from a 10-year-old girl in the audience about his advice for protecting wildlife and how to make a difference, he said, “I worry about the future more. When you have something or someone in your life to give the future to, I think it focuses the mind more about what you’re giving them. Are you happy that you’ve done all you can to leave it in a good state?’ “I would like \[my kids\] to grow up with more simple aspirations. I think there’s a lot of huge aspirations and people living with an enormous amount of stuff that they don’t necessarily need. “The materialism of the world — I find quite tricky sometimes. “I would like George and Charlotte to grow up being a little bit more simple in their approach and their outlook, and just looking after those around them and treating others as they would like to be treated themselves.” [_This story_](http://people.com/royals/prince-william-admits-ive-struggled-with-parenthood-at-times/) _originally appeared on_ [_People.com_](http://people.com)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/"},"headline":"Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenthood at Times","datePublished":"2016-11-19T17:17:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:55.613Z","description":"'I’ve learned a lot about myself and about family just from having my own children'","url":"https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623527dffdb96804/6988af2c524fc00864dfa4de/prince-william.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Tauber / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt623527dffdb96804/6988af2c524fc00864dfa4de/prince-william.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Duke of Cambridge Visits Living Memory And Centenary Fields Projects","caption":"The Duke of Cambridge Visits Living Memory And Centenary Fields Projects","creditText":"Tristan Fewings—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4577743/prince-william-parenting-struggle/","name":"Prince William Admits He's Struggled with Parenthood at Times"}}]}] ```