Prince William made a poignant return to his former air base in Anglesey, North Wales, recently in his new role as Royal Honorary Air Commodore. The royal was stationed at RAF Valley from 2010 to 2013, where he worked as an RAF search and rescue pilot, and was gifted a very cheeky joke gift during his visit – but did you spot it?
Chatting on HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast, The Sun’s royal editor Matt Wilkinson gave insight into the moment that royal fans might have missed during the event, explaining: “He met his old training boss. I don’t know if you noticed that the mug he had said ‘HRH Prince of Wales’… [but] way, way back when he was serving, there were pictures of him with a mug, and it said ‘Big Willy!'”
Matt explained that the pictures were initially blurred out by the photo agency, but were accidentally left unedited when they were released for a second time. He said: “When he was serving, and they did a couple of pictures, when they released them again six months later, they forgot to fuzz it out.
“That was his mug that he used for cups of tea. He’s been upgraded from 2012 when he had a mug that said ‘Big Willy’; he was walking around with the mug that says ‘HRH Prince of Wales.’ I think that was a cheeky little ruse going on with his old colleagues.”
Joking about why he might have had a mug with that particular nickname, he added: “He’s 6 foot 2! And he’s called William!”
During the visit, William joked about the rainy weather, saying: “It wouldn’t feel like home if I wasn’t back here on a day like this.” He also reunited with his former flying instructor, Captain Brian Wills, who said: “It was great, really nice to see him. The last time I saw him was 2009. I get asked a lot how it was training him and what extra privileges he had, but I treated him like anybody else. He did everything exactly as anybody else would have done.”
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Rita Millan, who works in the Thrift Shop on the base, added: “We used to see him all the time passing in his car, and he used to wave,” said Rita. “He said he loved coming back to visit us. I said to him I hope Catherine is on the mend and we’re praying for her and to send her our love. He said he would tell her.”
