Halloween might be over for the rest of us, but it seems that it’s always spooky season for the Royal Family. King Charles and his clan are constantly carrying centuries of history around with them, so maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Royals are literally haunted by the ghosts of their pasts as well. The curious thing is, however, the family is apparently so used to their spectral housemates that they think nothing of it.
Earlier this year, The King of UFOs released, a documentary film detailing King Charles’ unexpected interest in all things extraterrestrial. It makes for fascinating viewing for anyone interested in the weirder activities of the Royals as it reveals several quirky incidents from the family’s past. The doc even alleges that Charles took a flight in a UFO in 1975. Honestly, considering this is the same guy who told his son to swim with a Scottish mythical creature to get his wife pregnant, that doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
The same film, now streaming on Prime Video, also touches on the Royals’ long association with the occult. While the current king is fascinated with it, it seems future king Prince William is less enamored with the supernatural. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a believer.
“They just accept it”: Prince William ain’t afraid of no ghosts after growing up around them his whole life
Moving into a new home with your family and finding out it’s said to be haunted might sound like the plot of a Stephen King novel, but for Prince William it was just par for the course. When William, Kate Middleton and their children moved into Anmer Hall, their vast residence in Norfolk, he was told that a Catholic priest had deemed it to be plagued by evil spirits. The prince’s response? “No old house is complete without a ghost, is it?”
As per paranormal historian Richard Felix, William simply isn’t fazed by the presence of the paranormal as he’s been surrounded by it his entire life. “All of their properties have ghosts in them and they know it and have witnessed it,” Felix told Tatler, regarding the Royals’ residences. “The late Queen saw her namesake Queen Elizabeth in the library at Windsor Castle. The King has seen the same ghost and his grandfather George VI saw Queen Elizabeth eight times in the library before the start of the second World War.”
Spotting ghosts in libraries wasn’t Queen Elizabeth II‘s only experience with the spirit world either. In 1953, psychic Lillian Bailey was whisked off from her home and blindfolded. When she was unmasked, she found she had been taken to Buckingham Palace to perform a seance for the young queen so she could contact her late father. Allegedly, it went so well that the Queen made use of Bailey’s services several more times.
Even William’s mother, Princess Diana, despite not being born into the Royal Family, was a keen spiritualist — she was known to call her “personal psychic” up to three times every week. For Prince William and his family, then, ghosts are just a normal part of life… and the afterlife.
