Do you ever wonder if King Charles looks through photos of his heir’s events and chuckles to himself? Say what you will about Charles, but he was probably the most consequential Prince of Wales in Britain’s history. He loved meeting with farmers and talking to plants and sheep in equal measure. He was authentically interested in agriculture, farming, livestock, all of it. He didn’t have to do skits to get attention either. Well, Prince William visited a farm in Herefordshire on Thursday, and he looked as awkward as possible. The biggest problem is that William’s events are so rare, he always looks uncomfortable as he tries to remember what poses he’s supposed to hit for his in-house photographer.
Prince William hopped in to help with farm chores at his latest engagement, joking that he was in the “lumberjack” zone.
The Prince of Wales, 43, joined in with pruning apple trees, building a fence and feeding the sheep on a farm in Herefordshire, western England, on Jan. 15. He made the stop as patron of We Are Farming Minds, which works to support farmers’ mental health. While pruning apple trees in the orchard during the rainy engagement, William quipped about the difficulties.
“It’s going to be a tricky one up there!” he said as he extended the tree pruner, the Hereford Times reported. Farmer John Bowler agreed, “It always gets harder the higher up you get.”
An interlocking branch made the job harder, and Prince William said it was a “lumberjack moment” when it finally came down.
The heir to the throne also got to feed sheep, and the Hereford Times reported that he was “mobbed by the flock” when he entered their pen.
Prince William had another mission in mind as well: to highlight the isolation and mental health challenges that farmers face. Farmers face loneliness and external stresses due to economic pressures.
He was helping out on the farm owned by Bowler, who has been running a 190-acre family farm after unexpectedly taking over from his late father in 2012 at just 19. Bowler and his wife, Laura, have been supported by the locally-based charity, We Are Farming Minds, and William joined them for a chat, along with the charity’s founder, Sam Stables, to discuss the importance of supporting farmers with their mental health. The Herefordshire-based charity provides fully funded counseling, a 24/7 support line, training, social events, information, advice and broader support designed to raise awareness of the importance of mental health.
If I inherited a 190-acre farm when I was 19 years old, I would need a lot more than mental health support! What about actual, physical support? Financial support? Seasonal staff to help with the livestock and orchards? As for Crisis King’s lumberjack moment… I wonder how all of these farmers feel about William showing up for 40 minutes, posing for lumberjack photos and then leaving. Stolen lumberjack valor!
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- The Prince of Wales, patron of We Are Farming Minds, during a visit to a family farm in Herefordshire to highlight the importance of mental health support across the farming community. Where: United Kingdom When: 15 Jan 2026 Credit: Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales, patron of We Are Farming Minds, during a visit to a family farm in Herefordshire to highlight the importance of mental health support across the farming community. Where: United Kingdom When: 15 Jan 2026 Credit: Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales, patron of We Are Farming Minds, during a visit to a family farm in Herefordshire to highlight the importance of mental health support across the farming community. Where: United Kingdom When: 15 Jan 2026 Credit: Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales, patron of We Are Farming Minds, during a visit to a family farm in Herefordshire to highlight the importance of mental health support across the farming community. Where: United Kingdom When: 15 Jan 2026 Credit: Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- The Prince of Wales, patron of We Are Farming Minds, during a visit to a family farm in Herefordshire to highlight the importance of mental health support across the farming community. Where: United Kingdom When: 15 Jan 2026 Credit: Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I hope he doesn’t seize one of the farms to get more property. He’s so awkward looking. Scooter and keen are on display because Harry’s coming
Whenever I see a photo of William, his awkwardness is inescapable. 😦
Is the lumberjack in the room with us? I just see tree pruning.
lol so true, I that there would be a photo of him with an axe and a felled tree
Right?! It’s like a 1″ thick branch. What a sad, pathetic, little man-baby.
This has to be such sport for the royal rota reading this (and isn’t the new editor of People a Brit?) lol…”sheep are flocking to him” = the British people are like sheep to accept such nonsense from royalty. “It gets harder the higher up you get” = either that farmer was a genius in his choice of words, or it was a deliberate taking the piss. Marvelous!
You are right, I’ll have to read more into prose now and hope to find some more “invisible burns”.
Being from British Columbia and having growin up in a small interior town, that’s not anything close to working in forestry. Yeah, that looks like our British neighbour who used “do things right” in the garden, mowed his lawn “correctly” and had no understanding of why us kids played road hockey year round. Also, what’s in Peg’s pockets. Plus, a good quality pair of hand pruners would’ve done the job and made Peg’s look less dumb.
You can sure tell when Prince Harry is coming to the country… rare to see him or his wife out unless it’s Sussex related especially in January.
My first thought too. Last fall when Harry came to London and WanK had a spurt of work, they were mocked for not having been seen for weeks before. So now they’re easing into it, quick, arrange a farm visit and summon the Roses so the Scotland trip doesn’t look like it came out of nowhere.
It must be exhausting being this fearful of Harry entering a London courthouse.
When ever I see William in his rural gentleman outfits on this “look, how hands-on I am” occasions, I notice him really not knowing how to grab a tool and get to work. No wonder he feels lumberjack-ish when he succeded to cut a tiny branch.
Agreed, they usually treat the whole of January like it’s a recovery period for walking to church at Sandringham on Christmas. It’s ridiculous.
I think William lives a sad life. I’d feel sorry for him if he wasn’t such a terrible person.
Yes, I felt a small pang for him, but quickly squelched it.
@Amy
I think he lives a pompous, entitled life with very little regards for others.
According to the article, “farmers face loneliness and external stresses due to economic pressures.” Yet, with the amount of money he gets from the Duchy, he shows up for photo ops and a chat to discuss their mental health to highlight their plight for an hour and leave. 🤷🏽♀️
I have no sympathy for arrogant William. I feel sorry for the serfs working those farms he visits which are on his Duchy of Cornwall estate. As their landlord, he could do more to alleviate their economic stress than pop in for photo ops and a quick ‘mental health’ chat.
YES!!!
Tree pruning does not a lumberjack make! If only there was a gaming convention on one of these farms or better yet a nice pub.
That crisis manager has a tall hill to climb. William’s lack of charisma and work ethic make everything he does look awkward and inauthentic.
William won’t change. He’s not capable of it and doesn’t want to anyway. So this crisis manager with her bulletproof sunshine will be casting shadows against mirrors to make it believable that William is charming and hard working. that’s all she can do, if he’ll even play ball with that little of an image management.
I’m picturing William singing The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python and I can’t stop giggling!
Someone ought to explain to him what a real lumberjack does.
No time for that. He’s too busy NOT thinking about Harry.
Not if he wears suspenders and a bra….and I seem to recall a photo wear it looks like he’s wearing at least one of those. I’ll leave it up to you to determine which one.
I have seen pictures of Charles hedge laying, when he was POW he didn’t just to that for 40 minutes, it is hard work.
Is this one of those situations where “lumberjack” has a different definition in the UK than the USA? Because he meets zero criteria of lumberjacks in my mind. He’s tree-trimming or hedge trimming (and not even euphemistically this time lmao), like I’ve done on the weekends. What the heck?
I think Kaiser is being sarcastic – Wank likes to present as this manly man of action, but he’s so awkward and un-physical (and unattractive) its like the Monty Python lumberjack song.
That’s the first thing I thought of when I read the lumberjack quote. And the lyrics about wearing women’s clothing and hanging out in bars are something when you think about the rumors about Scooter King.
So I know People likes to cover the royals and I get it when they’re doing some sort of a cover story about the Wales and their keeness or the challenges they’ve overcome blah blah blah. But it just struck me how weird it is that People just covers a random agriculture visit. Why are they even covering this visit? It has next to no interest or entertainment value for an American audience. But I guess this is just a people online story for clicks and not something that gets put in the print edition. But still, lol.
I think it’s the scarcity value, like sighting an endangered species. If you don’t catch William pruning a tree now, it could be weeks before there’s another opportunity.
Eurydice, you remind me of a fellow “Williams (Serena and Venus, esp. Serena) defender back in the good ol’ days! We were like the now Sussex Squad having to defend these two brilliant women from the tennis estab. and their ilk. No social media back then, Just forums and comment sections. We all have seen how that ended with the tennis estab. bought to its knees as Serena proved all of her supporters right and became the GREATEST!
Ever since People got that British editor running things it’s been the Royal Variety Hour over there.
A certain audience that is in America, an American audience. Hmm, I wonder whoever that could possibly be???
He looks a mess.
I bet financial support would go a long way towards helping the mental health issues.
It’s frustrating to me that Wlliam does these events and makes them about “mental health” without actually doing anything to support their mental health. It’s like he’s figured out if he’s discussing “mental health” then the press wont criticize him.
and he sounds ridiculous talking about being a lumberjack as he prunes a small apple tree.
🎯. Harry visited firefighters/watch this week, but Archewell was actually one of their earlier donors.
The heir to the throne also got to feed sheep, and the Hereford Times reported that he was “mobbed by the flock” when he entered their pen.
Maybe William could be flocked by people if he brought snacks to public events. His charisma certainly isn’t going to draw crowds.
Does Peg even realize how awkward and ridiculous he looks? He looks so out of place and clueless. Does he ever feel embarrassed?
You can see him feel embarrassed whenever he has to wear the Royal Order of the Garter or Royal Order of the Thistle get-ups in public. You would think by now he would know that letting yourself show the humiliation when wearing something so silly only makes you look worse, you have to be confident to pull it off.
It’s glaringly obvious how much more he enjoys engagements when he’s attending solo; he’s relaxed and presents as actually happy to be there.
This must be thirsty work as today’s Times court circular notes that after this morning visit he had a meeting with local farmers at the Three Horseshoes Public House, Little Cowarne, Herefordshire. Did Will actually pay for drinks for the farmers or put it on expenses so the tax payer picks up the bill?
Good catch about the pub. That’s two engagements for the books, and one of them even involves drinking! If he claims this as an official engagement, which I’m sure he will, it seems likely he’d expense the drinks instead of paying himself.
Court circular for 15 January has Will doing two events whereas his wife did just one ,ahem, giving a reception for the Rugby players. Duke of Gloucester, age 81 , did one engagement and Edward and wife did 3 and Anne did 2. Only Will ‘s second event involved drinking at a pub. Jan Moir in an article today trashes low ranking royals like Zara Tindall for doing very little public good whilst cashing in on their royal connections just like Harry!!! Where’s the condemnation for Will cruising through a life of luxury and patronising hard working farmers and not even buying them a round of drinks himself!!
I thought that was a hockey stick he was holding in that first photo, lol. I hope someone showed him how to use those clippers properly!
This coverage from People seems very in keeping with the articles from last year starring “hunky” solo William. He’s doing outdoors stuff! He has a beard! Look at his fun hat! Even the sheep can’t get enough of him! It’s giving midlife crisis.
IKR? People Magazine has become insufferable these last few years. They’ve become KKKate’s unofficial (maybe official?) PR rag. Straight outta KP.
Great, now I’ve got the Monty Python Lumberjack song in my head.
I cut down trees, I skip and jump
I like to press wild flowers
I put on women’s clothing
And hang around in bars
He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps
He likes to press wild flowers
He puts on women’s clothing
And hangs around, in bars
I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay (he’s a lumberjack, and he’s okay)
I sleep all night and I work all day (he sleeps all night, and he works all day)
‘Lumberjack moment’ 🙄. First off, use of that term would get you laughed out of the woods in Oregon. Second, ‘loggers’ cut down trees, they don’t trim them. That’s what arborists do. Third, gah, what a doofus. What was this trip supposed to do or highlight or was he learning again or what?
Oh, right, mental health. Huh.
One more thought: PPE!! Wear gloves & goggles when you’re doing that! You want to get a stick in the eye?! A hard hat wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Exactly! And he does have gloves….in his pocket. Doofus.
And the late Queen (though I don’t remember her pruning) was a countrywoman and knew about livestock and farming. Scooter is so very Windsor in some ways and, yet, not in others. He’s not at all Spencer either.