Living in Penygroes, a village in Gwynedd, Wales, Williams was adopted as a two-year-old and only discovered his royal blood, well, partly anyway when he began on a personal journey to trace his biological parents.
Meeting Elizabeth Rosa, his biological mother, led to the discovery of his biological father, Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Shah, who returned to Malaysia from the UK and served as the state’s 33rd Sultan of Perak from January 1963 to January 1984, when he died of a heart attack, a report by the South Wales Guardian said.
Speaking about his father, Williams, who is married with children of his own, including six granddaughters, said, “It’s like a story from a Disney film and if someone had told you this story in the café or by the bar, you’d tell them to get out.
“Finding out that my dad came from Malaysia was a bit of a shock. When I found my birth mother, I discovered she had kept lots of old photos and information about him.”
The subject of a documentary entitled: Fy Nhad y Swltan (My Father the Sultan), broadcast on January 6 in Wales, Williams said it was tough making contact with members of the Perak royal household, which he speculated likely stemmed from their fear that he would lay claim to his father’s title, palace and fortunes.
“I didn’t make this programme as something against them. I just wanted to find out more about myself.
“I can imagine why they would be sensitive about it, but I’ve seen what I wanted to see: I have seen my father’s tomb, which was very emotional for me.
“The whole experience has been a dream, to be honest, because I would never have thought that I’d get to go over to Malaysia to find out more about my father,” the news portal reported him as saying.
LINK TO STORY: Penygroes man discovers father was Malaysian sultan