Prince William makes private visit to Secret Intelligence Service - and we'll never know all the details

The Prince of Wales has made a private visit to MI6, with the details shrouded in secrecy. Heir to the throne William met with the Secret Intelligence Service, which deals with foreign intelligence and protects the UK from risks abroad, on Thursday afternoon. The visit was not publicised in advance and only appeared afterwards in the Court Circular, the daily list of official royal engagements, which is published the next day.

It is not known whether the prince met MI6 boss Sir Richard Moore, codenamed “C”. The entry in the Court Circular read simply “The Prince of Wales this afternoon visited the Secret Intelligence Service” with no location or additional details given. Kensington Palace declined to provide further information on the visit.

William, as the Duke of Cambridge, made a similar visit in 2022, and went to the MI6 headquarters in London with the now-Princess of Wales in 2012. In 2019, he also spent three weeks working with MI5, MI6 and GCHQ to learn how the UK’s security and intelligence agencies work.

“These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe,” he said at the time. “They work in secret, often not even able to tell their family and friends about the work they do or the stresses they face.”

In March, MI6 launched a recruitment drive to hire more spies from black and Asian backgrounds. The first black spy to give a live broadcast interview told BBC Radio 1Xtra that working for MI6 was more exciting than James Bond – the fictional MI6 spy who serves king and country.