While it was undeniably a strong move aesthetically, the 42-year-old getting high marks (except from 9-year-old daughter Princess Charlotte) for his rugged new look, beards are known to symbolize maturity, status and formidability.
All of which is expected of the future king whether he's ready or not.
While the Prince of Wales has known grief—and the royal family is no stranger to scandal, tragedy, schisms and other palace-rattling events—the last 12 months have been a lot for the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II, whose mostly hale 70 years on the throne set what quickly proved to be an inimitable precedent.
With both King Charles III, 76, and his daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, 42, undergoing cancer treatment in 2024, never in recent memory has the literal health of the institution seemed so in peril. (Even the most robust royal in the land, 74-year-old Princess Anne, was briefly hospitalized with a head injury that her doctors deemed consistent with an impact from a horse.)
"Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult,” William told reporters during his visit to Cape Town, South Africa, to award the fourth annual Earthshot Prize in November. "I'm so proud of my wife, I'm proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done. But from a personal family point of view...it's been brutal."
And uncertainty still reigns heading into 2025, as William and Kate feel the ever-present pressure to step up as co-faces of the Firm, while she continues to refrain from over-exerting herself just a few months removed from completing chemotherapy.
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"The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family," the Princess of Wales said in a video posted on social media in September that included the rarest of montages of her driving, snuggling with her husband, rambling through the woods with Prince George, 11, Charlotte and Prince Louis, 6—moments the public does not normally see.
"Life as you know it can change in an instant and we've had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown," she continued. "The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you."
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While sharing they were ailing at all was a nod to the more modern demand for transparency that the late queen faced in her later years but rarely acknowledged, neither Charles nor Kate has divulged what type of cancer each was treated for. (The palace noted the monarch didn't have prostate cancer, an early assumption after he was treated for an enlarged prostate in January.)
It's possible Kate would have preferred to not say anything until after she finished chemo, but conspiracy theories ranging from the benign to the bizarre—and then news of a possible records breach at the hospital where she had abdominal surgery in January—hastened her breaking her silence in March.
"The monarchy would be taking too much of a risk if it went all the way out and revealed everything," royal correspondent Sharon Carpenter told E! News after Charles shared his cancer diagnosis in February, "because there's something to be said about this infallible nature, this keeping calm and carrying on, there's a lot of respect around that."
But the newer way is here to stay, she observed.
"Showing that they're human, that they go through the same things that we go through—a lot of people have softened toward King Charles," Carpenter continued. "This more human side of the royal family is going to continue to win people over."
The public is also seeing "a much more relaxed side" of William and Kate, she added, "and moments of emotion. The royals seem a lot more relatable in this day and age."
Which is certainly in keeping with the overriding message of 2024.
In a letter to the attendees of her annual carol service at Westminster Abbey this month, Kate called Christmas "a time for celebration and joy," but also an "opportunity to slow down and reflect on the deeper things that connect us all."
"It is when we stop and take ourselves away from the pressures of daily life, that we find the space to live our lives with an open heart, with love, kindness and forgiveness—so much of what the Christmas spirit is all about," she continued. "Love is the light that can shine bright, even in our darkest times."
While cracking open a window into how hard the year had been for their family, William also called Kate "amazing" and pushed back against the observation that he looked unusually relaxed at the Earthshot Prize ceremony.
"I couldn't be less relaxed this year," he told Sky News last month. "So it's very interesting you're all seeing that. But it's more a case of just crack on and you've got to keep going."
Which William did, amid an unusual onslaught of challenges—most of which we haven't even mentioned yet. Before (almost) everyone descends on Sandringham for Christmas, refresh yourself on all the royal headlines that emerged from Britain and beyond in 2024: