Prince William drops out of BAFTA Awards after Prince Philip's death

Prince William withdrew from the entire 2021 BAFTA Awards weekend after Buckingham Palace announced that his grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, had died on Friday, April 9, 2021, at age 99. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts confirmed the withdrawal in a statement: "In light of The Duke of Edinburgh's passing, The Duke of Cambridge will no longer be part of BAFTA programming this weekend." The statement added, according to Marie Claire UK's reporting, "Our thoughts are with the Royal Family, to whom we offer our deepest sympathy at this time."

The withdrawal covered two separate virtual appearances William had been scheduled to make as BAFTA president. HELLO! reported he was set to "host a discussion with three-time BAFTA award-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan, as well as makeup and hair designer Sharon Martin" during Saturday's craft-focused opening night, then deliver a video speech on Sunday evening intended, per HELLO!, "to celebrate the resilience of the film industry over the past year." The Hollywood Reporter's coverage matched this description of both engagements, noting William was appearing virtually rather than in person because of pandemic restrictions still in place in April 2021.

None of the three outlets reviewed here reported William issuing his own personal statement on the withdrawal, and none described the palace's process for deciding he would step back from the ceremony rather than proceed with a pre-recorded segment already in the can. HELLO! reported that William's absence was the first time he had missed BAFTA's ceremony since becoming the organization's president in 2010, but none of the sources detail whether any substitute presenter was arranged for his segments before the shows aired.

What changed: a decade-long role paused mid-ceremony

William has served as BAFTA's president since 2010, a role with deep family history: Prince Philip himself was BAFTA's first president, holding the position from 1959 to 1965, according to the Marie Claire UK report, and continued supporting the organization afterward. That lineage is why BAFTA's decision extended beyond a single missed appearance. Rather than have William proceed with the pre-recorded Beavan and Martin conversation or deliver his Sunday video address, the organization removed him from the weekend's programming entirely, covering both the Saturday craft-focused opening night and Sunday's main film awards broadcast.

HELLO! reported that Prince Philip "passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle," attributing that detail to the royal family's own announcement, which came out just a day before the ceremony's Saturday opening night. The compressed timeline — a death on Friday morning and a two-night broadcast beginning the next evening — left BAFTA to make its call about William's involvement within roughly 24 hours.

The framing: BAFTA's tribute to its own founding president

BAFTA did not simply excuse William from the schedule; it used the Saturday broadcast to acknowledge Philip's place in the organization's history. Marie Claire UK reported that host Clara Amfo told viewers during the Saturday show that BAFTA was "extremely saddened by the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on Friday," and that Amfo "noted that Prince Philip was BAFTA's first president over 60 years ago and acknowledged the royal family's ongoing support of the organization."

In light of The Duke of Edinburgh's passing, The Duke of Cambridge will no longer be part of BAFTA programming this weekend.

That single sentence, issued as BAFTA's official statement and carried by all three outlets reviewed, was the only on-the-record explanation the organization gave. None of the sources quote William, Kensington Palace, or Buckingham Palace directly addressing the BAFTA withdrawal specifically — the sourcing traces the decision to BAFTA's own statement, not to a palace announcement about the ceremony.

What it signals

The episode shows how a national institution BAFTA had built around a royal figurehead handled that figurehead's family tragedy in real time, during a live broadcast weekend that could not be rescheduled. BAFTA's choice to pull William from both nights rather than let a single pre-recorded segment air unedited suggests the organization judged even an already-taped, lighthearted craft conversation to be the wrong tone to broadcast hours after a death in the family whose patriarch had been BAFTA's own first president six decades earlier. Coming a decade into William's presidency, the withdrawal also marked, per HELLO!'s reporting, the first time continuity in that specific role had broken since his 2010 appointment — a marker of how unusual the interruption was against an otherwise unbroken decade of appearances.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by The Hollywood Reporter, Marie Claire UK, and HELLO! magazine. It restores a story originally published on this site in April 2021; figures are as reported at the time.