From a Run in Central Park to a Rat Running Past Him, Prince William Got a Taste of the True NYC Experience

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 20 September 2023

Well, if this isn’t one of the most New York City stories you’ve read today: Marie Claire reported yesterday that Prince William—who arrived in NYC on Monday, via commercial flight no less, for a brief two-day visit—started his Tuesday with a 7 a.m. run around Central Park. (He went largely unnoticed, or New Yorkers just didn’t care.)

“I decided to join the hordes of New Yorkers doing their morning routine in Central Park,” William said yesterday. “It was beautiful getting some fresh air, and it’s been wonderful getting back.” (The Prince and Princess of Wales—then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge—visited the Big Apple back in 2014, where they met Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and LeBron James at a Brooklyn Nets game, visited the National 9/11 Memorial, and attended a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Prince William and Kate Middleton in New York City

And The Daily Mail reports that, even in his short 48-hour visit, William was able to check not just one quintessential NYC experience off his bucket list (Central Park), but a second that maybe he would have preferred not to—while visiting a FDNY firehouse yesterday, “a rat ran across the front of the fire station while he was inside,” the outlet reports. “Even a royal visit couldn’t escape New York life.”

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Reports indicate that the future king was unfazed.

Prince William at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in NYC

And it didn’t deter him from sharing with well-wishers how much he enjoyed the city, and even told a British woman while on a walkabout that he’d love to return with his family: “He said he wanted to come back with Kate and the children,” she said.

Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis together

William was in town solo this time, here for the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, where the finalists for this year’s Earthshot Prize Awards were announced. The ceremony will take place on November 7 in Singapore.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.