Prince William’s witty coronation joke that was easy to miss

Just two days before King Charles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey, Prince William delivered a perfectly dry response when a member of the public asked whether he had anything exciting planned for the weekend.

His answer was hardly what anyone might have expected from a royal heir preparing for one of the biggest weekends in the monarchy’s recent history.

“No, very quiet weekend,” William joked.

The Prince of Wales was speaking during a visit to Soho with Catherine, Princess of Wales, on 4 May 2023. The couple had stopped at the Dog & Duck pub before meeting members of the public gathered outside.

With the coronation only days away, the remark was an understated piece of humour that could easily have been lost amid the enormous attention surrounding the historic occasion.

William joked that nothing was happening

The Prince and Princess of Wales visited Soho on Thursday 4 May as part of preparations for the Coronation Weekend. At the Dog & Duck pub, they spoke with staff and representatives from hospitality and recreation businesses in the area before stepping outside to greet the crowds.

The royal family’s official website confirmed that William and Catherine travelled to Soho via the Elizabeth line and heard about how businesses were preparing for the celebrations. The Dog & Duck, part of the Nicholson’s group, was also marking its 150th anniversary that year.

It was while William was shaking hands and chatting with members of the public that someone asked him whether he had “anything exciting planned this weekend?”

The question gave William an opportunity for a quick joke.

Without appearing to miss a beat, he replied: “No, very quiet weekend.”

He then joked that there was “nothing” happening, prompting laughter from the royal fans around him.

Of course, the reality was very different. Two days later, William would be inside Westminster Abbey for his father’s coronation, taking part in a ceremony that had been announced for 6 May 2023 and was to see Charles crowned alongside Queen Camilla.

The coronation itself took place at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May. After the service, King Charles and Queen Camilla returned to Buckingham Palace before appearing with members of the royal family on the palace balcony.

From a quiet weekend joke to a major royal celebration

The contrast made William’s Soho comment particularly amusing.

At the time, the royal family was preparing for a weekend filled with centuries-old ceremony, public celebrations and major appearances. Westminster Abbey had been the setting for every British coronation since 1066, and Charles was due to become the 40th sovereign crowned there.

William himself had an important role in the ceremony. The official order of service shows that the Prince of Wales presented the Stole Royal to his father and later took part in the Homage.

The following day brought another major event, this time with a very different atmosphere.

On Sunday 7 May, Windsor Castle hosted the Coronation Concert, bringing together performers including Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Take That. The event was attended by a public audience and was designed as a major celebration of the newly crowned King and Queen.

William was one of the night’s key speakers.

William’s joke returned on the concert stage

When William stepped onto the stage at Windsor Castle, he again showed the lighter side of his personality.

He began by thanking those who had helped make the evening special before turning his attention to his father. Then came another joke, this time aimed at Lionel Richie, whose performance had been one of the highlights of the concert.

“But don’t worry, unlike Lionel, I won’t go on all night long,” William said.

The line was a reference to Richie’s famous song “All Night Long” and gave the speech a playful opening before William moved into a much more personal tribute to Charles.

His speech also remembered his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. William said he knew she was “up there, fondly keeping an eye on us” and that she would be a proud mother.

The concert was held before a crowd of around 20,000 people at Windsor Castle, with millions more watching from home.

A heartfelt tribute to his father

After the jokes, William’s speech focused on Charles’s decades of public service.

He highlighted his father’s concern for the natural world, noting that Charles had warned about risks to the planet’s health long before environmental issues became an everyday subject of public discussion.

William also pointed to the Prince’s Trust, which he said had supported more than one million young people, many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds, in pursuing their ambitions.

He then praised Charles for his approach to people of different faiths, backgrounds and communities, saying his father had always understood that they deserved to be celebrated and supported.

“Pa, we are all so proud of you,” William concluded.

The words provided the emotional centre of the evening and marked a striking change of tone from the understated joke William had made in Soho just three days earlier.

William’s wider message was about service. He also expressed his gratitude to the millions of people serving in the armed forces, classrooms, hospital wards and local communities, and pledged himself to serve the King, country and Commonwealth.

The moment that came before the pomp

Looking back at the coronation weekend, William’s “very quiet weekend” response stands out because of how deliberately ordinary it sounded.

On 4 May, he was standing outside a Soho pub, speaking casually with members of the public. Within 48 hours, he would be participating in one of the most significant ceremonial events of his father’s reign.

The official coronation programme confirmed that Charles’s service was held at Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6 May 2023, while the following day’s concert at Windsor Castle brought the celebrations into a more relaxed, entertainment-focused setting.

And by the time William stood on stage at Windsor Castle to tell his father, “Pa, we are all so proud of you,” the supposedly “very quiet weekend” had become anything but quiet.