Prince William has visited MI6 three times — once in 2012 with Kate Middleton, once alone in 2022, and the recent visit. He also worked with the intelligence service in 2019 along with MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). “These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe,” he said in a statement at the time (per Us Weekly). “They work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face.” Marie Claire called his work “undercover,” and he was allegedly trained on the newest intelligence technology and “shadowed counter-terrorism agents” amid their surveillance routine.
It’s not uncommon for royals to engage with intelligence services. King Charles was appointed the Royal Patron of Intelligence Agencies in 2011, and as the U.K.’s monarch he receives daily briefings and regularly visits the agencies in-person. Queen Elizabeth II showed similar respect to their operations and had close ties to MI6. Per the SIS, Sir David Spedding — who headed the service from 1994 to 1999 — sang her praises, saying he was “struck by the extraordinary range and depth of her international problems and by the clear evidence that she reads our intelligence reports with close attention.”
