Queen Elizabeth Wants Prince William To Give Up His Favorite Hobby

Queen Elizabeth is apparently worried about one of Prince William’s hobbies and is urging him to give it up. The prince likes flying via helicopter with his family, and the queen is reportedly worried that tragedy might strike.

Queen Is ‘Very Worried’

Typically, the heirs to the throne don’t fly with their family in case of accidents, but William has been traveling via helicopter with his wife, Kate Middleton, and three children. The flights are usually short, with the family flying from London to Norfolk, where William and Middleton have a country home. However, this hasn’t stopped the queen from worrying.

According to a palace insider, Queen Elizabeth would “like William to stop flying himself, particularly in bad weather, as helicopters are not the safest form of transport. It keeps the Queen awake at night and she is understandably very worried.”

“She knows William is a capable pilot but does not think it is worth the risk for all five of them to carry on flying together, and can’t imagine what would happen. It would spark a constitutional crisis,” the source continued.

Prince William inspecting a helicopter — (Heathcliff O’Malley – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

William’s Piloting Experience

While it’s understandable that the queen would worry about her family, William is an experienced pilot. He trained in the Royal Air Force, where he flew missions in harsh weather over the Irish Sea and Welsh mountains as a search and rescue pilot. He also served as an air ambulance pilot in East Anglia, the area around his family’s country home. Also, the prince does not usually pilot the family himself. Instead, their helicopter is crewed by a team and a pilot, which means they’re in very capable hands.

William first started bending the rules about heirs flying together in 2014, when he and Middleton took a then-9-month-old Prince George with them to Australia and New Zealand. The queen gave permission for this trip to happen, according to a palace aide. “While there is no official rule on this, and royal heirs have traveled together in the past, it is something the Queen has the final say on,” the aide continued. This rule has been relaxed even further with the arrivals of Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

William is in line to take the throne after his father, Prince Charles. William’s oldest son, George, is next in the line of succession. Buckingham Palace has not confirmed or denied this story, telling People it “doesn’t comment on private conversations.”