Prince William defended after hammering photo sparks backlash

Prince William has been fiercely defended by royal fans after an out-of-context photo of him hammering a nail sparked a heated debate online.

William was in St. Mary's, Isles of Scilly, last week (22 May), where he saw near-complete construction of 10 new sustainable homes being delivered by the Duchy of Cornwall.

Over the weekend (23 May), the official Instagram account for the Prince and Princess of Wales shared a series of snaps from the visit alongside a caption which read: "Opening homes committed to by @theduchyofcornwall as a step towards easing housing pressures on the Isles of Scilly.

"These sustainable houses, the first built on the island for 20 years, support the future of island life, available to those who have lived on Scilly for more than five years or who currently work there."

It didn't take long for people of the internet to rush to the comments, among other social media platforms, sharing their reactions to the first photo in the dump, which showed William in a safety helmet, bending down to hammer a nail into some wood.

He could be seen holding the hammer with his right hand as he rested his left hand just above the nail in a pinching fashion.

It didn't take long for people to slam the soon-to-be King, especially after seeing a video of him delicately hammering the nail in.

"I’m sorry, this is a basic task that ANYONE can do," slammed one X user.

"You can’t tell me that in 43 years of life, with three kids, that William was never in a situation where he had to hammer something. Did he not build things for his kids? This is just totally embarrassing for him."

A second seethed: "Comically sad. Do you get the feeling he’s barely done a hard day's work in his life? Unless it’s on camera, of course."

Meanwhile, an Instagram user hit out: "All the money in the world and still can’t seem to buy those nail and hammer lessons, eh?"

"Am I the only person noticing he’s just pinching his fingers and not holding the nail?" questioned another, and a final critic urged: "There's time to delete the first photo..."

After seeing the full video, which was shared on The Royal Family Channel on YouTube, as well as other official photos from the day, royal fans were quick to defend William with one writing: "So he’s basically moved his fingers once the nail was embedded so he doesn’t hurt himself."

"He does hold the nail at first to tap it in. Once it’s secure, he moves his fingers away and continues hammering. Anyone who’s actually hammered a nail knows you can’t keep gripping it once it’s halfway in — it simply won’t go into the wall properly," explained a second. "Why make stuff up when there are real things to criticise the monarchy for?"

A third chimed in: "A lot of social media posts just bank on people being completely uncritical. Like, what would the purpose of pretending to nail something be? In practice, what would getting a photo for this look like? He walks up with a hammer in hand, puts his fingers not even close to the nail, like it’s his first day on earth, and then just walks away. And people around him would just awkwardly have to move on, like they didn’t just watch the most inhuman thing they’ve ever seen in their lives.

"Who wouldn’t just give it a go? If you f*ck it up, then you just use the claw side to take the nail out. He could have bent the hell out of the nail, and people just move on like 'that happens sometimes' ‘cause it does."

"Omg," reacted another. "Who on earth made the decision to post THAT photo to the PPOW account instead of one where he’s actually holding the nail, and why?!"

And a final person declared: "It’s a failure of his social media team for posting this. And for an institution that lives and dies by optics, small failures like this can add up."

Tyla has reached out to Kensington Palace for comment.