LONDON—Prince William has admitted to being so nervous in a rehearsal for his wedding to Kate Middleton this month that his knees were knocking together.
William, who will marry long-time girlfriend Middleton on April 29 at London’s Westminster Abbey, confessed that Britain’s biggest royal wedding for 30 years would be “quite a daunting prospect.”
Speaking after a training exercise at the Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Anglesey, Wales, where he is based as a search and rescue helicopter pilot, the second-in-line to the British throne revealed his nerves.
Asked what elements of the wedding on April 29 he was worried about, the 28-year-old replied: “The whole thing.”
“I was telling everyone I did the rehearsal the other day and my knees started tapping quite nervously,” he continued.
“It’s quite a daunting prospect but very exciting and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it but there’s still a lot of planning to be done in the last four weeks.”
He spoke ahead of a visit on Friday to the base on Anglesey by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip.
William joined C Flight, 22 Squadron in September and has so far participated in 12 search and rescue missions.
The missions have included rescuing someone who fell off a cliff in Anglesey and someone who had a suffered a suspected heart attack.
The prince spoke proudly of his work with the RAF rescue helicopter team which he described as a “big family in the sky”.
“It’s definitely advanced flying and it’s rewarding, so put the two together and it’s a fantastic job,” he said.
“It’s rewarding because every day you come into work you don’t quite know what’s going to happen, it’s quite exciting in that sense, it’s unpredictable.”
He added: “Having witnessed it for the past few months, I’m very proud to be amongst the search and rescue guys and very privileged to be flying with some of the best pilots I think in the world.”
But he added that sometimes the job could get “hairy”, joking “especially with someone like me at the controls”.
William will continue to work as a pilot after the wedding and he and Kate will continue to live near the base.