Footage of Prince William being heckled by a group of anti-monarchy protestors on Monday as he arrived at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey with Kate Middleton has gone viral after being uploaded to TikTok.
William and Kate attended the annual service, celebrating the relationships between the 54 independent nations of the Commonwealth, alongside King Charles III, Queen Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence.
A group of activists from the anti-monarchy collective Republic turned up at the event, holding placards reading “NOT MY KING” as the royals and Charles pulled up to the abbey.
The service marked Charles’ first in his new position as head of the Commonwealth, a role that he was elected to by a vote at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018. He took over after Queen Elizabeth II died.
As William and Kate exited their car outside the abbey and headed for the Great West Door, Republic’s protestors shouted directly to him: “You’re never going to be our king!”
A member of the group then continued to add: “Down with the monarchy, William!”
A video clip of this exchange has reached over 140,000 views on TikTok after being uploaded by user, princessofwales2022.
The video has received in excess of 5,000 likes and over 200 comments, many of which present a mixed opinion of both the prince and princess.
“Not as popular as they think,” wrote one user. “They know days are numbered they won’t ever be crowned,” posted another, with a further contrasting with: “I can’t wait for P William to become KING & takes over.”
Despite the objections of protestors in London on Monday, both William and Kate top the list of the most popular living royals on either side of the Atlantic.
According to data compiled by strategists Redfield & Wilton in March, Kate is the most popular royal in Britain with a net approval rating of +52. William comes in a close second with +49.
This trend is repeated in the U.S. As of February, Kate is the most popular living royal among Americans with a net approval rating of +32. William follows with a net approval rating of +28.
Monday was not the first time this year that Republic has demonstrated at an event attended by King Charles and Queen Camilla. Last week, a small number of protestors, also belonging to the group, booed the couple as they visited the town of Colchester in Essex.
Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, previously told Newsweek that the group intends on ramping up their push for Britain to abolish the monarchy now that the hugely popular Queen Elizabeth II is dead.
“The royalists who think that the monarchy is now secure are kidding themselves because the person that kept it secure for so long was the queen and I don’t think it’s necessarily sunk in, the difference that it makes to have Charles instead of the queen,” he told Chief Royal Correspondent Jack Royston on Newsweek’s The Royal Report podcast.
“The difference is enormous…we have gone from having this slightly deified figure to just a bloke in a suit who you can say what you like about and who has huge amounts of baggage and a large cupboard full of skeletons and stories that can be raked over … I think that maybe hasn’t sunk in for people who think that the monarchy is safe.”
Smith said that the group intends to protest at King Charles’ Coronation on May 6, which will also take place at Westminster Abbey.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek’s royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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