Prince William: 2004

Prince William talks to journalists during an interview in St. Mary's Quad at St. Andrews University Nov. 16, 2004.

Britain's Prince William sits on a stone bench Nov. 15, 2004, in front of a notice board in St. Salvator's Quad at St. Andrews University where he is a student in St. Andrews, Scotland. The prince is in the last year of his four-year course at the Scottish university.

In this October 2004 picture released Nov. 20, 2004, by Clarence House, Britain's Prince William, center, carries a surfboard as he walks with two unidentified friends along the shoreline at St Andrews in Scotland.

During a wide-ranging interview, William lingered for some time on his newest hobby: surfing. Here, he is seen carrying a surfboard along the shoreline at St Andrews in Scotland.

Of surfing, Prince William says, "I decided it would be quite fun to give it a go," said William, an avid swimmer and boogie boarder. "It's the sort of natural progression up from boogie boarding, which I found immensely fun but was really bad at, to standing-up surfing -- which I was just as bad at!"

As much as he enjoys his new pastime, catching waves off the coast of Scotland can be a chilly affair. Says the prince, "It was a bit like putting your head in a freezer when you went underwater, but the wet suit I've got is pretty good. I couldn't feel my hands for about half an hour."

Despite a recent public appearance attending a Remembrance Sunday service with his father, William says he won't rush into public duties. "It's not that I never want to do it, it's just that I'm reluctant at such a young age, I think anyway, to throw myself into the deep end."

Prince William plays pool with friends at a bar at St. Andrews University Nov. 15, 2004. William says he would want to fight on the front line if he joined the military, as many royals do. But he said he was not sure whether he would sign up after graduating from university next year.

The prince says being second in line to the throne would present problems if his unit was sent into action, but he would not want to be held back. "The last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled or wrapped up in cotton wool, because if I was to join the army, I'd want to go where my men went, and I'd want to do what they did," he says.

The prince says he has a good relationship with his brother and father. "We're a very close family," William says. "There are disagreements, obviously, as all families do, and when there are, there are big disagreements, but when there's happy times, we have a really good time. It's just difficult getting all three of us in the same house at one time."

During the interview, Prince William supported the behavior of his brother, Prince Harry, and also stuck up for his dad, Prince Charles. Of his younger brother, William says Prince Harry has matured and simply does what he thinks is right. Harry landed in the tabloids recently after scuffling with paparazzi outside a London nightclub.

Prince Williams says the prospect of one day being king does not keep him awake at night, but the "slipping away" of normality would be "very hard."

Prince William, right, talks to Dr. Charles Warren in his office in the geography department of St. Andrews University Nov. 15, 2004. He has yet to decide for certain on what to do after university, but he says he would like to attend Sandhurst like his brother.

Prince William, again with Dr. Warren, offers a different portrait of his grandfather, Prince Phillip, who sometimes has been portrayed as grumpy. Says his grandson, "He makes me laugh. He's very funny, and he's very dear, because he's also someone who will tell me something that maybe I don't want to hear, but he'll still tell me anyway."

Prince William says he feels strongly about following in the footsteps of his late mother, Princess Diana, in public service, especially working with the homeless. "That's one particular area I'm particularly passionate about and my mother, and she... and that sort of area to me a long time ago was a real eye-opener, and I'm really glad she did," he says.

Prince William studies in the main university library at St. Andrews University. He says he wishes the media would focus more on the charitable work done by his father, Prince Charles because, says William, "he does do a hell of a lot of work. I just really hold him in great admiration about the amount of time he gives up to do work here and there."

Prince Charles' office struck an agreement for the press to allow the two princes, William and Harry, to complete their educations without attention from the media, in exchange for intermittent formal, pooled interviews.

Prince William says he's been allowed to live a relatively normal life during his school days, thanks to that formal agreement. So he has shopped, gone to the movies, and apparently had a live-in girlfriend without too much prying.

The throne of England might be in his future, but Prince William says his most immediate concern is a 10,000-word essay, due in December.