The Royals with Roya and Kate - William and God. Does his 'quiet faith' matter in modern Britain?

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Prince William has addressed questions about his religion publicly for the first time, revealing to The Sunday Times his Christianity as a “quiet faith". But why has William chosen to speak now? And what does a “quiet faith” mean for a future King who will also be Supreme Governor of the Church of England?That approach was tested this week as William and Catherine attended the installation of the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.Roya Nikkhah and Kate Mansey are joined by The Times religious affairs correspondent Kaya Burgess to examine William’s intervention, how it differs from previous monarchs, and whether it reflects a monarchy evolving for a more secular, multi-faith Britain.Do you think William’s ‘quiet faith’ fits a modern monarchy? Or does a monarch need to be more openly religious? Get in touch: [e-mail] more: Prince William confirms 'quiet faith' and new commitment to ChurchImage: GettyProducer: Robert WallaceExecutive Producer: Priyanka Deladia Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to the Royals, the podcast where we discuss what happens behind the palace walls and why it matters. I'm Kate Manzi. And I'm Royne Carr. Prince William has broken his silence on one of the most sensitive questions surrounding his future as king, his faith. And these are questions around William's religion that have swirled for years. How committed is he to the Church of England? and what sort of defender of the faith might he be one day? In an exclusive for the Sunday Times, William revealed how he wants to draw a line in the sand on the issue,

describing his Christianity as a quiet faith, making it clear how committed he is to the Church of England. And the timing is significant because this week I was at Canterbury Cathedral, where William represented the king at the enthronement of Dame Sarah Malalley. the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. So what does William's quiet faith actually mean? And is it compatible with his future role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England? And does William's faith even matter

in a more secular, multicultural and multi-faith Britain? Well, to have us look at all of these questions, we're delighted to be joined by the Times' as a religious affairs correspondent, Kaya Burgess, welcome back. Thank you. Kaya, before we start digging into the issue of William and his faith, just give us an inkling as to why a member of the royal family's faith even matters,

because faith in the royal family and the church is still very intertwined, are they, even in the modern age? I mean, it's fascinating that, you know, since the time of Henry VIII, it was him who declared himself to be the sort of supreme government of the Church of England, assuming that control away from the Pope, breaking it away from Rome. But even that wasn't really so much a question of faith as a question of him wanting to divorce and remarry. And so since then, the monarch, who's the monarch who's, the head of state clearly, is also the supreme governor of the Church of England. And that kind of interlink has been what has bound kind of church and state together for centuries.

And so with each monarch, and this goes back centuries, people have looked at how devout are they? To what extent are they defending the Church of England? For centuries, it was making sure they were also not being too nice to Catholics. That was a big deal. What are they doing in their personal relationships, their marriages, their divorces? It was a really big deal for a long time to sort of set that tone for the national. National faith. It's that link, isn't it?

That connection that you talk about that makes this week's news so significant. Because, Roya, let's start with your story. I mean, questions about William's faith, how devout he is, does he believe in God? Now, they've been going around for a long time. I mean, we don't see William going to church anywhere near as regularly as, you know, we do his father, the king or his grandmother, the queen. She was always at church. you know, as we know, taking a five pound folded up in our handbag to add to the collection.

But we don't see that of William. Now, tell us a bit about your story and what it revealed about his faith this week. Well, the whole idea of William's sort of faith, his religion has been in doubt, I think, is a fair way to put it for a long time. There have been many sort of questions asked, a lot of speculation, a lot of reporting on the fact that he doesn't really go to church very often, doesn't seemingly appear. to be previously that interested in the church, hasn't really ever explicitly sort of stated of belief in God. And I have long been interested in that and thought, well, he is, you know, we knew that he was going to go to the installation of Sarah Malawi. And I just thought, I wonder, you know, I wonder if I ask the question what I'll get. And I was quite surprised by, I think,

how much thought William had clearly given it, what he clearly wanted out there. Because what, what did come out there? Tell us, tell us what you wrote. It transpires that having given it quite a lot of thought, I think, William has what he describes as a quiet faith. Interesting term, isn't it? A quiet faith. Quiet faith. Wants to support the church. But in the sort of statement that came from an aide, which clearly William had had quite a lot of hand and I think had pretty much overseen, what came through was not necessarily a devout belief in God or in Christianity, but a sort of much broader context of, this is where I am. I am a person of faith. It might not

be tub-thumping, raise question marks about whether that matters. And I'm just going to read a little bit of the statement because I think there's a lot to unpick. So what I was told was the Prince of Wales's commitment to the Church of England is sometimes quieter than people expect. And for that reason, it's not always fully understood. Those who know him well recognize his connection to the church and to the sense of duty that comes with it runs deep and is grounded in something personal and sincere. Then goes on to talk about how he's going to approach faith in his own thoughtful way. and he talks about the fact that he understands the role of the church goes beyond just Christianity. It talks about being modern and relevant and remaining relevant.

Again, it's that buzzword that you always hear with William. I sort of saw these words come back and thought, oh, I looked at it and thought there is no mention of God in there whatsoever, which felt very deliberate. For me, it was like a new manifesto of William saying, by the way, when I'm king, because it talked about the fact that as he looks a head, head to the responsibilities he'll one day assume as supreme governor. And that's a massive role when you're monarch. He wants to reflect his broader belief that institutions must continue to remain relevant and connect to the people they serve. He understands the important of the role he would inherit and he's committed to carrying it forward with sincerity, authenticity and a clear sense of purpose. But what came through from it is it's very much going to be William doing it in

his own way. And that's not going to be the same as his granny. And it's not going to be the same as his father. So having a think back home on a Sunday morning in his jammies, rather than seeing him going to church. So, Kaya, I mean, just help us out with that from a church point of view. What has been the reaction from the clergy? How do you read into that coming at it as a religious affairs expert? It's a fascinating thing, isn't it? When you think about the monarch being head of state and how, you know, they sort of give assent to laws going through parliament, but how involved a role is it? And I have this tricky thing when I write about archbishops of Canterbury. You can't quite call them the head of the Church of England,

because of course that's always the monarch. But it isn't a hugely hands-on role. They have to approve the appointment of bishops and archbishops, but one assumes they generally follow church advice. And so although we knew that the late Queen is, but the second was obviously very devout in her faith and spoke about that openly, and that was therefore probably very helpful to the Church of England

for the public to see her being devoutly Christian, it's not a hugely hands-on role. And obviously with Charles, that's evolved a little bit to be the defender of all faiths. And so with William with clergy that I've spoken to so far, one sent me a great phrase where he said, so he clearly doesn't have an especially deep personal faith, but then many other monarchs haven't either. He also clearly has a deep sense of duty. And their phrase was, God can work on one and we can work with the latter.

I like that. And, you know, in the throughout history, you know, Henry VIII, as I said, broke away from Rome, not really for religious reasons. George I was a Lutheran and wasn't even in the Anglin church. George the fourth was seen as pretty hazy on religion. Edward VIII was happy to abdicate rather than follow church teaching. And so is it seismic that William's only talking about his faith being quite a quiet thing? It would have been seismic if he'd come out and said, you know what, I just don't believe in any of it,

but I guess I'll perform my duties. So the fact that he's committed to the church and has expressed that will be taken, I think, as a positive thing. Well, you talk about monarchs and how monarchs have acted in that role. Now, the timing of this is very interesting, isn't it? Because it's smacked to me a bit of transition planning, this idea that. that William looking down the line and going, I know that I'm going to be King one day and I know that I'm going to be supreme leader of the church

if it's all coming in his way, which one day it will. What do you make, Royer, of the timing of them, of sharing this information, which was brilliant to get? I thought it was fascinating. I agree with you. I think what we've increasingly seen in the last year is much more of William setting out his store of what he wants to do as king. And, you know, we saw that interview he did with Eugene,

where he's talking about changes on my agenda. I'm not afraid of change. I'm not afraid of doing things differently. Is the monarchy fit for purpose? You know, this phrase that kept coming. I want to look under the hood of monarchy. And this, I just thought, is him getting out there the fact that this is where my level of faith is at.

You can't make me believe more than I believe. You can't enforce faith on William, whether he believes or not. No matter how much churchgoers say, he has to be more religious than this, he is saying, this is where I'm at. I'm probably not going to go further than this. This is who I am and this is how I'm going to do it. And I'm being honest about it. There was that word authentic, isn't it?

It was him being kind of true to him. In his own thoughtful way and his own authentic self. And I thought, do you know what? Isn't it better that he's honest now rather than we approach his coronation, which I think is a fascinating thing to dig into too. And people start asking the question, oh, you know, transition now, what's it going to look like? And I think, you know, the reaction has been mixed. But I think a lot of people I've seen, you know, in the clergy, admire his honesty.

And as you say, it's a journey. It's a journey. And there's something they can work with there. There's a really interesting thing that when you look at surveys like the census and various other surveys that look at religious affiliation in the country, the biggest growing group is the no religion group. That's going up and up and up and Christianity is going down and down. And one of the things that the Church of England has said over the years when it's tried to sort of slightly explain that away is that perhaps in previous years and decades when these surveys have been done, People are more likely to identify as what they call culturally Christian or Anglican,

where they kind of tick the Christian box, maybe because they were christened as a child, but they haven't gone to church. They don't necessarily really believe in God. They don't call themselves atheist. Maybe they're agnostic. Maybe they just haven't really thought that hard about it. But they think, oh, Christianity. Yeah, I suppose I'm Christian.

And so there's a degree to which maybe you can start to see William's position as quite a modern one, of sort of thinking of himself as culturally Christian, without necessarily being hugely devout, being a very regular churchgoer. A lot of the decline we're seeing in church attendance probably comes from not necessarily entirely people just abandoning church altogether, but people who used to go every single Sunday religiously, if you're pardon. And now going once a month. Or maybe they're just going at Easter and Christmas. And he's quite modern, I think.

I think how much he thinks his own belief reflects modern Britain is a fascinating question. And we should definitely talk more about that in a moment. The timing thing, I think, was really interesting because what was sort of said to me via him, is he felt the timing of Sarah Malawi's installation this week was where he wanted to draw a line and sand. He knew people would see him going to Canterbury with the Princess of Wales and emerging from Canterbury with the newly installed ceremony. He knew people would be thinking about it again.

You were at Canterbury Cathedral. Tell us a little bit what that was like, the atmosphere, their attendance, the significance of it all. It was great because there were 2,000 guests there. Obviously we have Sakir Starma, the Prime Minister, Kemi Badenok, leader of the opposition, clergy from around the world. Huge, huge turnout.

And what was interesting as well, we had clergy kind of lining the streets in Canterbury. So loads of people with dog collars milling around who didn't have a ticket to the show, if you like. But they were there for, you know, just part of the crowd. And you could see that King William were really getting involved with that as the Princess of Wales got out the car. She had nearly blew off in the wind.

But there were definitely kind of looks towards the Archbishop of Canterbury. There's a real affection there. You can see it. He was very much there representing his father. which is tradition, as Cai will know, that the monarch doesn't typically attend an enthronement of an archbishop. You know, the heir to the throne goes. So that was all part of the course.

I mean, it's interesting to see as well that obviously both institutions have changed their rules in recent decades, the Church of England to allow the appointment of women's bishops. And at the very first opportunity, there is now a female archbishop. Clearly, the royal family changed the rules. I think I'm right, that the firstborn child will be monarch regardless of whether it's poor. Yes, when we haven't arrived. Before Prince George was born, he ended up at that yet.

It's interesting little kind of modernity kind of creeping into both of those institutions. I spoke to a group of women from a Catholic women's ordination group. And I said, why are you here? Because this is a Church of England gig. And they said, well, you know, we're here to support the first female archbishop of Canterbury. And we hope when pray, it won't be another 2,000 years before we get a female leader as well. Leaders from other faith, people from around the world. People singing in Swahili, dancing down the aisle of the cathedral.

We have prayers in Urdu. had a gospel reading in Spanish. It was really kind of multicultural and in some ways a multi-faith event. Even in her sermon, she talked about people from other faiths and people of none.

I spotted that in her sermon when it came from Lambeth Palace under embargo and I looked at it and thought, you know that we'll have gone to William and Catherine before and they'll have read that sermon and gone,

that possibly slightly reflects how I feel too. And there's also a line in there where she says, why not come to church? She said, I encourage people to come to church and just sit there quietly.

Very interesting line that came to me from someone very close to Sarah Malawi at the weekend that went in the piece where they said to me, look, Malawi was delighted that William and Catherine were coming to her installation and would we like future Supreme Governor to be at church every Sunday?

We would love the Supreme Governor to be at church on the day. But we recognise that they're a young couple with young children and so we've got to be practical. And I think there is a, the other phrase that was used to me was again that they are both very much on the same page and the turning of the business. page with Sarah Malalley, we'll get into the previous relationship with Justin Welby or lack

thereof, was that they're both passionate, it was said to me, about the church not being a private members club. And I thought that was interesting and sort of hinted some of the conversations that have gone on. But that relationship between William and Catherine and the new archbishop, I think is key to the future relationship between church and monarchy because there was no relationship or very little relationship between William and Justin. I want to ask you about that. really want to pick your brains on that, Roya, because that was really interesting, Justin Welby and how close he was to certain members of the royal family. Now, we know him to be quite a controversial figure in some ways.

Obviously, he had to resign over the handling of abuse inquiries into the church. But we also know him from being quite a key player in Harry and Megan's wedding. Tell us a bit about what went on there and how that might have pushed William away from the Archbishop of Can to be at that. time. I think, well, I know in the early days of Harry and Megan sort of in the run up to their wedding and as things escalated in terms of tension with the rest of the royal family, they definitely had a strong relationship with Justin Welby worked on that relationship, I think sought counsel from him. And Justin Welby, as you know, is very keen on all things reconciliation. He didn't manage to bring that one about with the rest of the royal family. But I think they felt they weren't

getting the help that they needed from the royal family. And I think they turned to Justin quite a few times to get advice and support. And that was there a lot. You know, that, as I said in the piece, that relationship did cool later. You know, Megan gave the interview to Oprah Winfrey saying Justin had secretly privately married them three days before, putting him in a very awkward position and he had to come out and say, I didn't. That would have been breaking the law. I didn't marry them. So the relationship that was very close at one point then called. But I do know that Justin and his team for those, you know, many years at Lambeth Palace did try very hard to get meetings with William, open dialogue there, start a relationship, try and engage him on the

issue of homelessness, because of course the church has vast swathes of land and housing opportunities, and there was just a wall of silence that came down. And it did frustrate them, it did baffle them. And I think it worried them that they thought he just had no interest at all in the church or God or anything. And I do know that, you know, William is someone who, he does hold a grudge. he does two sides. If someone, you know, picks the other side, he remembers that. And I think that Justin's former closeness to Harry and Megan, even though, you know, that was no longer the case, I think, come, you know, after they left and around the time of the coronation, it just made things hard of William. He didn't really want to warm that relationship up.

Sarah, on the other hand, Malawi, is, it's described as a turning of the page for William. and I think she's delighted about that and I think they see it as an opportunity. I mean, is there a possibility, I suppose, without one to sound too morbid, that Justin Welby ended up resigning a year earlier than planned, but he would have been retiring in 2026 anyway. And I guess William would have known that whoever came into a place,

Wilby, there's a bigger chance that potentially could be the person who ends up crowning him and having a relationship. And so knowing I kind of maybe don't necessarily need a working relationship with Justin Wilby, but I may well do with whoever comes next because we could overlap perhaps. You cynic, kind of. I'm not sure. I'm not sure that's how he works. I think he definitely is, you know, we know he's thinking he might have coronation.

We know that, you know, he thinks that is the person that comeeth the hour. Let's hope it's long time in the future or be the person that prepares him for that role. But I think, to be honest, it really was more about the former relationship with the Sussexes. So it gives you an insight into how William. And her personality as well. She's very open, having been chief nursing officer. She's a villa fan. Anaston Villa fan.

Just like Prince William. My goodness. And the terrace is a villa. coming up is william's quiet faith actually in line with modern britain we'll be right back more widely speaking kaya what is the importance of that relationship between lambeth palace and buckingham palace well it goes back to those close ties and the fact that clearly there is all this overlap in terms of the monarch being head of state and supreme governor but then there are westminster abbey is a church of england abbey but it's known as a royal peculiar it's actually a

the royal family's church, as it were, and so they have to sort of jointly manage these sorts of things. And there are all kinds of events over the years that take place in St. Paul's in Westminster Abbey, whether it's kind of Commonwealth Day services, memorial kind of services. Clearly, they will end up marrying, crowning, burying members of the royal family, christening them. And so it's a hugely kind of close relationship in that sort of sense, not necessarily constant day-to-day contact, but they are both aware of being these kind of these institutions that, regularly have their kind of place in society and their relevance to society kind of questioned. And so I guess they make quite natural kind of partners in that sense and have done for, you know, centuries.

What would be the downside, I suppose, if they separated? In terms of... The church separated, you know, disestablishment. There was speculation for a long time that William would seek to break with the church. I mean, I remember reading that in a book last year. I remember making a call and being told categorically William would not. to break the Church of England and would not sabotage and the conversation had never even come up.

But he said, hasn't he, that he wants change. But I think we're not talking radical change. He's not going to shake things up like that. I mean, we've sort of been here before as well, haven't we, in a different way? Because before King Charles became king and was Prince of Wales, there was a lot of talk, again, around a biography about him, that he would be defender of faith rather than defender of the faith, even in the run up to the coronation.

but he is defender of the faith, the Anglican Communion. Yeah, well, it's a really niche question. I mean, most people know the word disestablishmentarianism. It's like a pub quiz question of one of the longest words in the English language. And as to what it would actually mean, it's a bit like what would Brexit mean, and no one really knows. And I think it's often held up as a sort of threat against the church over its handling of abuse and so on, that, you know, will disestablish you if you don't get your house in order.

But there are people, I remember Justin Welby perhaps was careful about this question. It said he was almost, again, perhaps pardon the pun, sort of agnostic on the question of establishment. And that some people say disestablishing the church of England can perhaps free it a little bit from some of its constitutional duties to focus on the day job of worship and bringing in new Christians. And so it would be a big deal. And what it would mean in practice is a bit mind boggling probably.

So it's been an interesting transition or PR move to set out William Stoll, I suppose, that when he becomes king, when he doesn't go to church every Sunday, people aren't going to be clutching their pearls. And he can say, well, we've always said he's not going to church. But it does change, doesn't it, throughout the lineage of monarchs? So we had Queen Elizabeth II. She was publicly and consistently Christian. She talked about her faith. Yeah.

She talked about God. She thanked the public for their prayers when she became queen. You couldn't take it apart from her sense of duty. And of course, with the anointing, you know, the idea that the monarch is anointed by God to have that role. And then you've had King Charles, still a committed Christian, but obviously somebody who wants to broaden it out

to hug in all the different faiths and all the different... On that point, and people have no faith as well. It was interesting. Talking to people in the church when I was doing that story about William's quiet faith,

I saw it as a sort of, William kind of redefining what that future role is going to look like and sort of setting out his store that it's going to be neither like granny nor like my father. It'll be different, as they kept saying,

in his own thoughtful way. But actually, when I was talking to people in the church about that and the reaction to it, someone very senior said to me, do you know what? In a way, King Charles's sort of broad brush, you know, very enthusiastic approach to interfaith relations and the fact that we see him going into, you know, religious institutions across all different faiths, he said in a way that's a bit trickier for us at the Church of England. It muddles things a bit. It's a little bit harder for us to work with, which I thought was very.

fascinating, that someone in the church would say that and acknowledge that. And they did say, even with William saying he's got a quiet faith and not necessarily saying he's devout, it's easier for us to help understand his position and defend his position and kind of work with as much as we would love him to go to church every Sunday we know he's not going to. And I thought that was really interesting because we, I think, a lot of people broadly see rightly, I think, and I'm not a person of faith, the king's sort of very open-armed embracing of all religions, and faiths as a really good thing. And that was reflected in his coronation.

There were faith leaders from across all religions. And he was very sort of absolutely sort of stringent on doing that. But not necessarily what the church wants from its monarch. And so William being a little bit more kind of narrow saying, I do support the Church of England very strongly. I might not be a devout Christian, but I'm going to work with this thing and I want to support it. In a way, it felt like the church welcomes that almost more. I mean, is there a degree to which, you know, you've got to place William.

as effectively a millennial. And, you know, I spend a lot of time looking at all the different surveys and studies about how attitudes to religious faith change with generations. And I think he's kind of, in terms of being relevant to society, it's really interesting that he's quite reflective of where millennials are when it comes to religion. I think that brings us to the biggest question at the heart of this statement from William,

making it know now what it means, is does his quiet faith actually make him more sort of representative of modern Britain and more relevant to the people that he is one day going to be, you know, head of state, head of nation. My feeling on it is, I don't think he's manufacturing that quiet faith. I don't think he's thinking in PR terms, in terms of I'm going to say I only believe a little bit because I think that makes me more and more. But I think the fact that that is what he said, he's okay with it.

He's saying it now because he does see how that represents. Because it will be seen as less controversial by the general public than it would have been if it had been 50 years ago. Exactly. And the very fact is, there are plenty of church go as you're one yourself, but increasingly, we are in increasingly secular nation. And I think William probably feels, come at the hour, what is going to strike more of a chord, Supreme Governor, who is as interested in what the church can do in terms of social issues. And there's a lot of talk about community engagement between the Royal Foundation and Lambeth Palace or being stridently and devout Christian. And I think he knows the answer to that. There's something very British about the word quiet. It comes up a lot. There's a kind of Britishness about people not really liking probably the idea of someone being on a soapbox or tub thumping about their faith or evangelising. And so quiet faith sits quite nicely as it's there, but it's not going to be in your face or intrusive. It's a savvy kind of PR move.

But the question really is, does Williams faith matter? Can you have somebody who is on a journey of faith isn't quite decided, doesn't go to church as the hereditary supreme leader of the Church of England? England, that will be a kind of a wider question that will play out, I suppose, because while many people don't go to church every week, but may tick Christian on a box when asked in a survey, he has a different role. If he has the same coronation pattern, even broadly speaking, as his father and every monarchs been before him, he's going to be anointed by God in that role which makes him head of state and supreme head of the Church of England. So his faith does matter. And I think It's interesting seeing William address these questions now.

I mean, obviously, long-lived the king. But all the planning that the cogs are turning behind the scenes, I think this is what this really shows you about his planning, what he's thinking, type of king he's going to be, and nipping it in the bud now, any potential criticism that he's going to get further down the line. He's addressing those concerns now. It's quite a clever PR trick.

I think, does his faith matter? It doesn't matter to me as someone, not as a person of faith. I look at it and think I would rather have a future king, future supreme governor, head of nation, head of state who has a sort of broader appeal and isn't just saying I'm just on the side of Christians. And that's not really what the king said. And that's certainly not how Queen Elizabeth, you know, approached her reign. But I think if anyone, if you ask people who knew Queen Elizabeth very well, they would say, if you used to say to them, and we all did, what was really important to her? People would say her Christian faith and the Commonwealth. Those

was sort of two things that people knew she cared passionately about and she would defend to the hill. Well, look, so much to discuss. It's been brilliant talking to you. Thank you, Kaya Burgess, religious affairs correspondent of the Times for joining us today. Thank you. That's it for us this week. And if you did enjoy it, please make sure to subscribe or follow us wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode. Of course, we'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you think William's quiet faith fits with a modern monarchy? Or does the supreme head of the Church of England need to be more openly religious? You can email us your thoughts at the royalsat the times.com.com.

And we may feature your question in a future episode. But until then, thanks so much for joining us here on the Royals and we hope to see you next week.