Welcome to Wrexham has a major connection to Prince William — and it’s not solely because Wales is involved.
“Prince William is here in Wrexham today because it is St. David’s Day, which is obviously the Welsh, sort of, national holiday,” Wrexham AFC executive director Humphrey Ker said during the Thursday, May 30, episode of the FX series. “Only we don’t get the day off St. David’s Day, which is a bit of a swiz.”
St. David’s Day is celebrated on March 1, and William, 41, met up with Wrexham AFC cochairman Rob McElhenney at The Turf pub.
“As Prince of Wales, Prince William has gotta come and press the flesh, kiss babies and do all that sort of business that princes do,” Ker continued. “For us, it’s great that Wrexham Football Club and Wrexham as a whole has become a place the royals put on their itinerary when they’re coming to visit Wales.”
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Elsewhere in the scene it was revealed that Ker and William actually grew up together, both attending Ludgrove School and Eton College. The Prince of Wales noted it’s “been a while” since they’d seen each other while shaking hands.
“I went to school with Prince William. I have known him since I was 7, or something like that,” Ker said in his confessional. “We literally shared a bedroom from 7 until 10.”
Rob McElhenney and Prince William. Chris Jackson/Getty Image
William sat with McElhenney and Ker, praising their work with Wrexham AFC.
“Has the journey been as exciting as it looks on the outside?” William asked McElhenney, 47. “It’s great what you guys are doing, it really is.”
The team has “exceeded anything we could have ever imagined,” the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star told the Prince of Wales.
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“You give so many football fans, whose team maybe is not in the glory days that they want to be or used to be, the hope and the optimism that one day you can be back,” William added. He and McElhenney pulled beers from the tap and took shots together while in the bar.
William is hardly the first member of the royal family to take a trip to Wrexham. The Welcome to Wrexham season 2 premiere in September 2023 followed McElhenney and his cochairman Ryan Reynolds as they went to “monarchy boot camp” before meeting King Charles III.
“It was like the military except your pinky is always up,” Reynolds joked at the time.
New episodes of Welcome to Wrexham premiere on FX Thursdays.