This week, across the globe, billions of 18-year-olds have cooked their own breakfast. Billions of them have cleaned the loo. And billions have helped to hang out the washing.

Yet only one has been featured on the national news for doing these basic tasks.

Prince William has been regaled, applauded and marvelled at for the way he has mucked in and done the chores while on a Raleigh International adventure in Chile.

The world's media flew into a frenzy when he picked up a rag to clean the lavatory floor.

They went crazy when he lit the oven and got even more excited when he made some porridge.

All I can say is, so what?

He is an able-bodied human being. He is not a creature from the planet Zorg who doesn't know a saucepan from a scrubbing brush.

Surely the fact that he's able to carry out these basic chores should not arouse such wonderment.

It set me thinking - would the press behave the same way if someone like me were to spend a few weeks living what I imagine to be a typical royal life?

I can see the Sunday supplements now - the rags-to-riches photographs, the lengthy articles.

They would probably read like this:

"It is truly amazing the way Helen has adapted to life in her private suite in St James's Palace. The space and lavish furnishings do not seem to faze her at all and she has effortlessly made the adjustment from the threadbare Ikea sofa in her tiny front room to the ornate Louis XIV chaise longue in the huge salon.

"Likewise, Helen copes exceedingly well with chauffeur-driven shopping trips to Harrods in the Bentley - a journey far removed from her usual foray up Fulford Road to Aldi in her rusty old Metro.

"And she didn't get at all stressed when asked to ditch her frayed, stained anorak and be measured for a £3,500 Chanel coat - paid for with a portion of her weekly allowance, the size of which, she admits, 'takes some getting used to.'

"Ever versatile, Helen quickly mastered the art of not doing anything for herself and makes light work of asking the servants to whip round with the Dyson or rustle up the odd venison baguette.

"Always open to a challenge, Helen saw no problem in jetting off to the South of France for a three-week, all-expenses paid break on a big-league celebrity's luxury yacht.

"So she hadn't seen the accommodation beforehand, but, as she had said dozens of times on package tours to Benidorm: 'That's all part of the fun. You've got to take the rough with the smooth.'

"Game for a laugh throughout her royal adventure, on a visit to Windsor Castle, Helen showed the sense of humour that so entertained regulars at the local fun pub, when she attempted to shoot pool with a polo mallet."

Doesn't this sound ludicrous?

Well, yes, but it's really no different to the vast reams of newsprint given over to the young prince and his efforts with a floorcloth.

I can't wait until William starts university - maybe then we will be treated to a three-hour in-depth TV documentary on how he makes his own bed.