While many children dream of becoming royalty, Prince William imagined two very different futures away from the crown, neither of which came with the eye-watering wealth he enjoys today.
The Prince of Wales made a surprise appearance on BBC’s The Graham Norton Show on Oct. 23, where he shared a glimpse into the life he once imagined for himself before his royal future was decided.
“As a, as a child, did you fantasize about, doing other things?” Norton asked the 44-year-old prince. “Did you kind of think, “When I grow up, I might not be King, I’ll do this?”
“I’m rapidly trying to think about what I can say on television,” William joked, before adding, “I did want to be a policeman when I was younger, I did think I would be a good policeman.”
But his next career choice was considerably less conventional.
“And then I went through a phase where I wanted to be a DJ, which didn’t go very well, and I came up with a name, I was called DJ Xara with an X, it wasn’t good…It rapidly became very uncool.”
Mistaken for another Prince
While William’s DJ career never took off, he recalled an amusing encounter in Somerset, where a man apparently confused the heir to the throne with the late singer Prince.
“I went to a place in Somerset and was looking around some of the local communities there, and one lovely gentleman looked up at me from his seat and said, ‘When are you going to sing?’”
Explaining the moment, William reportedly continued, “I’ve had many requests over many years from all ranging parts of society, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, what do you mean?’”
“He goes, ‘When are you going to sing your performance?’ and the lady behind tapped his arm and went, ‘No, no, he’s not that prince.’”
“It turned out he wanted me to sing ‘Purple Rain,’ which I don’t know the lyrics for,” he said.
Although William may never perform the 1984 hit, his royal responsibilities come with financial benefits far beyond anything he might have earned beneath a police hat or behind a DJ booth.
Income fit for a king
Since becoming Prince of Wales following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, William has inherited control of the Duchy of Cornwall, a vast portfolio of land, property and investments that provides income for the heir to the throne.
According to the Integrated Impact Report, published in June 2026, the estate is valued at approximately £1.2 billion (US$1.6 billion), while its annual accounts showed a distributable surplus of £21.6 million (US$28.8 million) for the 2025–2026 financial year.
But William’s multimillion-dollar income isn’t a traditional salary, nor does he personally own the sprawling estate that generates it.
And the source of that wealth changes with the crown.
Before William, the Duchy funded his father, King Charles III, who inherited a different set of financial privileges when he took the throne in September 2022, including income from the Duchy of Lancaster, the Crown Estate and private investments.
Charles’ personal fortune is estimated at about $844 million, according to the Royal Observer, placing both father and son among Britain’s wealthiest royals.
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