On Tuesday, Prince William decided to do something different. He joined a friend on a tandem bike ride for charity. The backstory: Radio deejay Greg James’s father recently had a stroke, and James decided to undertake a thousand-kilometer bike trek to fundraise for Comic Relief. James was also recently part of Prince William’s weird radio interview where William centered himself and his mental health in the same week that Prince Andrew was being arrested for being a predator and degenerate. At some point, Greg James told William about his Comic Relief challenge and jokingly invited William to join him on a tandem bike. William took him up on the offer.
Greg James says cycling tandem on his Comic Relief challenge with Prince William was “unbelievable”. The Radio 1 Breakfast Show DJ is pedalling 1000km for the charity and last night had raised over £1million.
In an exclusive interview from the road, Greg said he’d asked William to join his challenge a fortnight ago but couldn’t believe he turned up.
Greg said: “I was told to turn off down a dirt track, and then down the dirt track in a sort of truckstop was Prince William as a surprise. Two weeks ago we did this radio show together about suicide prevention and we had this really amazing chat with some special guests. I joked afterwards and said, “Oh I’m off to the challenge soon, get your lycra on mate, and join me on the tandem!”
“He kind of laughed, and then I heard nothing else. And then suddenly he turned up and called my bluff – and there I was escorting the future King on a very long bike across the Yorkshire moors. Who is Cathy? Who is Heathcliff? You decide.”
Greg, who will start the next leg of his challenge in York this morning, added: “It was unbelievable. Fairplay to him for doing that, he didn’t need to. He sent his support anyway via letter, but I didn’t think that he’d actually turn up and do a bit of cycling.”
I’m not going to make fun of this – I think it’s cool that Greg James is doing this bike ride to raise money for charity, and it’s fine that William decided to drop by and ride for a bit. I will say this though… on the rare occasions when William does anything like this, it really highlights his profound joblessness. What do you mean he was free in the middle of the day on a Tuesday to travel to Yorkshire for a photo-op on a tandem bike? What do you mean he’s basically only worked one day a week all year, so his schedule was free to do this?
“I didn’t kill the future king” 😂
“Your backside is a unique angle” 🤣
I love their sense of humor 😍 Prince William and Greg James ❤️
🎥 bbc on instagram pic.twitter.com/NgnSxrUono— Emey (@MissEmey91) March 17, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- 17/03/2026. Goole, UK. Prince William surprises Greg James on his Comic Relief Challenge.,Image: 1083851776, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
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- 17/03/2026. Goole, UK. Prince William surprises Greg James on his Comic Relief Challenge.,Image: 1083851792, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
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- 17/03/2026. Goole, UK. Prince William surprises Greg James on his Comic Relief Challenge.,Image: 1083851795, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
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- 17/03/2026. Goole, UK. Prince William surprises Greg James on his Comic Relief Challenge.,Image: 1083851796, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
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- 17/03/2026. Goole, UK. Prince William surprises Greg James on his Comic Relief Challenge.,Image: 1083851799, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: © Kensington Palace. This image is free for use but may only be used for news or editorial reporting purposes. This image must NOT be used for any commercial or other use, save for news or editorial reporting and cannot be altered or amended in any manner or form whatsoever. All rights reserved., Model Release: no, Credit line: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace/Avalon
It’s about the fundraising for a worthy cause not if Scooter shows up. or not. Should he be the Tandem Prince now? He made sure cameras were there but Scooter Tandem is just a “regular guy.”
Is it me, or does he seem happy to be around anyone else but his “loving” wife? One thing though, he is cosplaying his role (man baby) well. Look at him at the back!
He is not beating that Peggy lable.
I was gonna say… !! Sounds like he was coming onto GJ 😄 😂 😄 😂
what about the school run?
Willy’s complete quote to James was, “Your backside is at a unique angle, I’ve never seen that before.” Ummm…. Is this a wink-wink, or did the crisis manager send him out to (a) get in another engagement before he goes on school holidays next week, and (b) rewrite history re those rumors?
It was very good of William to show up for a genuinely good cause and to support someone going through a hard time.
We need to reward the behavior we wish to see more of. It’s psych 101.
Currently he’s the future king. If he’s gonna turn it around – let’s support it when he does decent things.
I don’t see reason to “reward” the man. He needs to apologize to Harry and Meghan and their children. And stop the talk of taking titles away from them.
I’m not British so I have no dog in this fight but hasn’t he already got the “reward”? The money, working once a week – if that, the vacations, the houses, etc. Yes, this was a commendable fundraiser to be a part of but this is what he should be doing all the time. He certainly reaps the benefits 24/7.
Yes, he just had to be born first and then when he moved up he automatically gets a lot more money. And he likes the perks that go with the title. But he is lazy.
If William would just do stuff like this every 2-3 weeks with a couple of low key advocacy projects running in the background, with periodic updates, he could knock it out of the park so easily.
The events imo are meaningless unless he stops the raging against the Sussexes. He needs to apologize to the Sussexes.
The backside comment is so weird yet typical for him
It’s so juvenile.
I agree with Kaiser. How is he just able to drop everything to do this on a weekday? What also struck me is that William and Kate have absolutely no agency. They’re just always desperately looking for ways to get attention and good press and can never live their lives on their terms.
Yep. It’s a good cause and I’d like to think William being there helped. But it was also a clear case of William clouting for attention from this guy’s charity event.
yeah, he heard about this two weeks ago and now he’s there in Yorkshire? Charles as PoW could have never done this because his schedules were blocked off weeks/months in advance.
How convenient that he travel over to use a charity to make himself look good after that hit piece on his brother and sister in law. How convenient.
Greg James is a handsome guy ~ sorry, that’s all I’ve got …..
Greg James is a freaking delight, good on him for taking something heartbreaking and making it about raising money and awareness for others.
I remember Sophie did something similar, but she actually completed the full 450-mile bike ride from Edinburgh to London. She raised money for the Vision Foundation.
William is such an embarrassment of an heir. Good for Sophie, a married in who works far more than the actual dude that is going to get a coronation. I don’t know how any of this can be sustained.
Agree that all William would have to do is appear sober and agreeable at this type of public outing more consistently and he would have the entire nation eating out of his hands because the bar is in hell.
I know it’s not really relevant but Greg James has not “lost his dad”, his dad did have a stroke but is very much still alive
@Flatslab – thanks for updating us, and good to know Greg James’s dad is, hopefully, recovering well from a stroke. Sending very best wishes and lots of positive thoughts to him.
Greg’s Father hasn’t died but he has suffered a significant stroke, there’s no more info than that.
This challenge has been planned for months and has been heavily promoted on BBC Radio 1 and other stations. It’s all being filmed for Comic Relief so the cameras are there whoever is riding with Greg.
I might be mistaken but I don’t think they are telling Greg in advance who is going to be showing up to join him so it may have been in Peg’s schedule for a while.
Here’s a thought, instead of doing a gimmick ride why not simply match funds from your bank account.
Easy to just pop up to Yorkshire when you had a helicopter at your disposal.
I only live 15/20 mins away from Doncaster at it was all over my Facebook feed yesterday.
Surprising to see Will do anything for anyone besides himself. And yes, it was nice of him. I like the idea of matching funds, but Will would never go that far.