William Smith

His Excellency The Right Honourable William Smith KG OBE GCWO
29th Governor-General of Canada
Incumbent
Assumed office October 2, 2017
Monarch	William VI Alexandra
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	David Johnston
Personal details
Born	William Charles Jacob Smith (1979-05-11) May 11, 1979 Fenwick, Connecticut, United States
Citizenship	American British
Spouse	Miranda Kerr (m. 2012)
Children	Harry Smith Alexander Smith
Parents	King William VI of the United Kingdom (father) Jaclyn Smith (mother)
Relatives	Kim Cattrall & Christy Turlington (half mothers) Julia Roberts & Evan Rachel Wood (aunts) Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (half-sister)
Residence	Rideau Hall
Alma mater	Cambridge University (BA)
Occupation	Footballer Public servant Diplomat

Personal information
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2002-2016	Manchester United	412	(70)
International career
2007-2016	England	147	(59)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Charles Jacob Smith (born 11 May 1979) is an American-born English former professional footballer, actor, civil servant, diplomat, and a member of the British royal family. The illegitimate child of the former King William VI of the United Kingdom and actress, Jaclyn Smith, Smith was a longtime striker for Premier League club, Manchester United from 2002 to 2016. Known for his speed and his remarkable goalscoring ability, Smith has been regarded as one of the greatest strikers of his generation, and one of the most decorated players for Manchester United. Meanwhile, through his father's royal lineage, Smith is the older half-brother of the reigning Queen Alexandra and the grandson of the late King Charles III of the United Kingdom respectively. Despite this, due to him having been born illegitimate, he and his descendants were never included in the line of the succession to the British throne.

Born and raised in New York primarily by his mother, the actress, Jaclyn Smith, Smith, upon graduating from New York University at the age of twenty-two, soon began his career at Manchester United. Almost immediately, a stellar performance during his first season with the club soon earned Smith considerable recognition in the football world, which began to consider Smith as a promising young player. Meanwhile, during his time with United, Smith went on to win the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, the EFL Cup four times, and the UEFA Champions League in 2008. Eventually, in April 2016, Smith officially retired from professional football, thereby ending his fourteen-year-long career. Meanwhile, in international football, Smith was part of the England national football team from 2007 to 2016, during which he was captain for six years until his retirement from the team, and one of its most illustrious, having earned a total of 69 caps during his time with the team, while making 147 career appearances in total.

Since his retirement from professional football, Smith has been serving as the incumbent Governor-General of Canada since 2017, a post to which he was appointed by his father, the former King William VI during the latter's final year on the throne. As a result, he became the first-ever former professional footballer to be made a governor-general of any country, and the second member of the British royal family to ever be appointed governor-general of Canada after his paternal ancestor, King George V. Meanwhile, since 2018, Smith has also been serving as the deputy chairman for his father's own football club, Buckingham F.C., which currently competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Moreover, he has also been the ambassador for a number of brands, such as Adidas, Mercedes-Benz, and Nestlé.

Meanwhile, as an actor, Smith's first few roles came in the form of cameo appearances in the 2003 film, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and the 2019 film, Charlie's Angels, where in both films, Smith starred in the role of William Garrett, an FBI agent and son of former Angel Kelly Garrett (from the television series of the same name), played by actress, Jaclyn Smith, his own mother, and whom also appeared in both films in a cameo capacity as her own character. Most recently, he starred opposite actress, Emily Blunt in the 2021 film, Jungle Cruise (film), with his performance receiving mixed reviews from critics, and is set to reprise his role in an upcoming sequel.

In 2012, he married the Australian Victoria's Secret model, Miranda Kerr, with whom he currently has two children.

Early Life

Smith was born on May 11th 1979 as the only child of William, Prince of the Welsh and actress, Jaclyn Smith. Born in the midst of his father's affair with the American actress, whom at the time of her son's birth, was never in fact actually married to her romantic partner at the time, he was named William Charles Jacob Smith, with his given name being derived from his own father, the Prince of the Welsh, while his middle names were otherwise derived from his paternal and maternal grandfathers, King Charles III of the United Kingdom and Jack Smith (born Jacob Kupferschmidt) respectively. Meanwhile, as a result of his father lacking a proper surname of his own, William was thus given his mother's own surname instead, hence his official name.

Since he was born in the midst of a largely secretive romantic affair between his parents, whom on their part, mostly had no intentions of formally marrying one another in the near future, Smith's birth quickly proved quick to stir considerable controversy, especially among the ranks of the British royal family, for it was generally feared that should Smith's birth ever be made public, the Royal Family as a whole would almost immediately face intense scrutiny from the general public. As a result, knowledge of Smith's birth was therefore largely restricted to only a select few, that being the respective families of Smith's parents, while then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whom was sworn into office around that same year was otherwise barred from ever knowing about the birth of the prince's illegitimate son, for it was feared that Thatcher herself might afterwards spread the knowledge of the matter to her colleagues in the government.

Nevertheless, for the first two years of his life, Smith would live largely together with both of his biological parents, whom, in order to avoid unwanted media attention, chose to raise their young son together on the exclusive island of Martha's Vineyard in the northern US state of Massachusetts, where the family of three was guaranteed with much-needed privacy by the locals. Then, in 1981, the marriage of Smith's mother, Jaclyn to the English filmmaker, Tony Richmond, led to both Smith and his mother relocating to England, Richmond's own birthplace, while Smith's own biological father, the Prince of the Welsh would also, by sheer coincidence, relocate as well to England, so as to execute his own duties as the heir to the British throne. However, despite this apparent proximity between themselves, neither Smith nor his mother, Jaclyn were said to have met the prince any further on an active basis, albeit only sporadically so. At the same time, Jaclyn's own then-husband, whom later went on to divorce the actress in 1989, was said to have had no knowledge at all regarding Smith's actual paternity, as the young boy was otherwise framed as being an orphan adopted by Jaclyn as opposed to the former actually being the actress's own biological son, a fact which Jaclyn feared would be too scandalous or controversial for her then-husband to take. Nevertheless, throughout the course of his mother's marriage to the English filmmaker, Smith was subsequently joined by two younger half-brothers, Gaston and Spencer Margaret.

Meanwhile, at the age of seven, Smith, with the indirect assistance of his biological father's, was able to attend a fairly prestigious primary school in England, where he was said to have left a fairly positive mark during his time there. In the midst of this, when he was roughly ten years old, Smith's time at his aforementioned primary school in England was seemingly cut short, when his mother took to divorcing her English husband following a marriage of eight years long. Initially, soon after her divorce from Richmond came into effect, it was said that Jaclyn herself had initially contemplated returning back to the United States, but was ultimately convinced against doing so by none other than Smith's own biological father, Prince of the Welsh, whom instead was able to successfully convince the actress to continue residing in England for the time being, thereby ensuring that their now teenage son would be able to continue his education in the United Kingdom. In the midst of this, a subsequent romantic affair between Smith's father and the British-Canadian actress, Kim Cattrall, consequently led to the birth of Smith's younger half-sister, Victoria Cattrall, whom, unlike Smith, would largely grow up in the United States, as opposed to the latter whose childhood was largely spent in the United Kingdom.

Upon graduating from his secondary school, Smith, thanks to his rather commendable academic record, was then allowed to attend Cambridge University, one of the United Kingdom's most highly-regarded and prestigious universities, from where he later graduated with a bachelor's degree in arts.

Club Career

Manchester United

In 2002, not long after graduating from university, Smith, thanks to his natural proficiency in football, coupled with his father's own current position as King of the British, was then signed to the English football club, Manchester United. Soon, he made his debut for the club in an August 2002 match against West Brom, in which he scored a goal by way of a header in the 12th minute, which was later followed by a goal from fellow teammate, Ole Gunnar Solskjær in the 78th minute, thereby giving United a 2-0 victory over their opponent. Then, in the following match against Chelsea, Smith notably scored twice in the match's last ten minutes, adding on to the previous goals by his teammates, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham, thereby ensuring a 4-2 victory for United.

Personal Life

Relationships

Cameron Diaz

In 2003, while attending the premiere of the action film, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, in which his mother, the actress, Jaclyn Smith, had a cameo role, Smith began his first serious romantic relationship with one of the film's lead stars, that being the actress, Cameron Diaz, whom was seven years Smith's senior. Under the advice of both of his parents, the two largely conducted their relationship in secret, so as to avoid unwanted media scrutiny. In 2007, the couple officially broke off following a five-year-long relationship.

Miranda Kerr

In that same year, not long after his relationship with Diaz ended, Smith soon began a romantic relationship with the rising Australian Victoria's Secret model, Miranda Kerr, whom he first met during a blind date that was reportedly arranged by Smith's supermodel aunt, Catherine, Princess Royal, whom had personally known Kerr for sometime herself through their common work in the modelling industry. Eventually, on July 2012, after an initial year-long delay caused by the death of Smith's paternal grandfather, the late King Charles III, the couple was married in a highly publicised ceremony at Westminster Abbey, which saw the attendance of, among others, Kerr's fellow model friends and members of the British royal family, which Smith is considered a part of, through his father's royal lineage.

In December 2013, the couple welcomed their first child together, Harry Smith, followed by another child just three years later, Alexander Smith, born in March 2016.