William and Harry (7 page)

William sat nervously in Dr Gailey’s study. His housemates were all working in their bedrooms upstairs but William had been given special leave. It was a cold November’s night and the young prince was just one of 20 million people in the country who had sat down to watch Diana, Princess of Wales give her first sit-down interview. For weeks the newspapers had been filled with speculation about the
Panorama
documentary which would see the recently separated princess talk candidly for the first time to journalist Martin Bashir about her marriage.

Diana had been to see William ahead of the programme being aired to assure him that he had nothing to worry about, but as he sat watching the interview his eyes filled with tears of fury and frustration. He could simply not believe that his mother had invited the television cameras into the home he had grown up in and loved, to betray his father and their family in such a public way.

As Diana welled up and spoke about her bulimia, the breakdown of her marriage, her husband’s infidelity and her own adultery, William was in shock. She had never before spoken about her affair with James Hewitt, the amiable Life Guards officer who had come to teach Diana to ride when the boys were still children at Highgrove. The affair had started in 1986, when William was four and Harry just two. At the time Diana suspected Charles was back with Camilla and claimed to have sought comfort with Hewitt. It was speculated in the press that the timing of their relationship was so close to Harry’s birth that he could in fact be Hewitt’s son. The rumours appalled Diana, and in the end Hewitt was forced to declare, ‘There is really no possibility whatsoever that I am Harry’s father. Harry was twenty months old when I first exchanged pleasantries with his mother, and past his second birthday when the affair started.’ It was eventually Diana who called off the affair, when Hewitt, whose regiment took part in the First Gulf War in 1991, left for Iraq. Ultimately he would breach her trust and the confidence she had placed in him by writing a book about their love affair and selling her love letters. ‘Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him, but I was very let down,’ she said. Her revelations were shocking and sensational. This was Diana’s most public move in her war against the Windsors, and her most damaging yet. ‘There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,’ she said, famously referring to Camilla Parker Bowles.

When William returned to Kensington Palace he refused to speak to his mother. He had always sprung to her defence, but this time she had gone too far. William, who was older now and capable of forming his own opinions, never entirely forgave
Diana. According to Simone Simmons, the
Panorama
interview led to their first major falling-out.

Harry was still being shielded by the Barbers in the safety of Ludgrove, but William, out in the open at Eton and exposed to the press, was painfully embarrassed by his feuding parents. Fed up with their public war, he refused to allow either of them to attend Founder’s Day. This annual event, which is held in July, commemorates the birthday of King George III, who resided at Windsor for much of his reign and took an active interest in the school, and is the highlight of Eton’s social calendar. William, still reeling from his mother’s interview, knew that having his parents there would put him under the spotlight. He had become quite stubborn, and despite his mother’s pleas invited Tiggy and
his close friend William Van Cutsem, who he regularly shot with, to accompany him. Diana was devastated, particularly because William had invited Tiggy over her.

By now Charles had collaborated with Jonathan Dimbleby on his only ever authorised biography,
Private Man
, in which he admitted he had resumed his love affair with Camilla. Their secret was out and the infamous ‘Camillagate’ tapes, which contained explicit conversations between the lovers, had been published in the British press, causing further humiliation and ridicule for the royal family. The reputation of the British monarchy was at its lowest ebb for decades, and it was not just William who could take no more of this farcical and public warring. Polls in national newspapers questioned the need for a monarchy that didn’t pay taxes and a tide of republicanism washed over the country. The Queen finally conceded there was no solution but for the Waleses to divorce; her aides at Buckingham Palace were in agreement, and Charles, by now desperate for an end to his marriage, breathed a sigh of relief. It was to the Queen’s eternal regret that the mystery that had shrouded the royal family and ensured the fascination and respect of her subjects had been blown apart by one woman.

As 1995 drew to a close the Queen wrote to her son and daughter in-law and insisted that they get a divorce. The letters were hand-delivered to Kensington Palace and St James’s Palace, the prince’s London offices. Their decree nisi was rubber-stamped on 28 August 1996 in a dingy room at Somerset House. Diana, the Queen had decided, would be stripped of her HRH title, something William promised he would return to her when he was king. It was unsettling and upsetting for him to watch his
mother suffer such a humiliation. She had already retired from public life at her own instigation, but had wanted to retain her royal status so that she could continue her charity work. She had realised early on that it was a key not only to a life of privilege, but to raising awareness of the causes she passionately believed in. Diana had not been afraid to confront taboo issues like Aids and landmines; she believed everyone who suffered deserved compassion. It was a belief she instilled in William and Harry, who she took to hospices and shelters in London so that they could see for themselves the reality of poverty. William was twelve and Harry nine when Diana took them to visit The Passage, a shelter near Vauxhall Bridge in London. They spent ninety minutes chatting with volunteers and playing cards with the homeless, and went back many times. Those midnight visits had a lasting effect on her sons.

As he turned right out of Manor House and headed for the High Street, William stopped off at Tudor Stores, the local newsagent always overrun with Eton boys. He purchased a small bag of his favourite boiled sweets and slipped them in his pocket before heading over the bridge. It was a Sunday; he had been to chapel and had the rest of the day free. He had announced to his friends that he was ‘off to the WC’ much to their amusement. The sun was shining, and as he walked across the pretty bridge he could see a swan and her cygnets gliding over the River Thames. Ahead of him stood Windsor Castle in all its glory. From this distance William could just make out the scaffolding where work was still being carried out to repair the damage caused by the fire. Followed at a discreet distance by his protection officer, William was
waved through security with a friendly salute from the duty police officer. Through the labyrinth of stone corridors he made his way to the Oak Drawing Room, where his grandmother was waiting for him. Often the Duke of Edinburgh would accompany them at their weekly lunch date and quiz his eldest grandson on what he had learned at school that week, but as tea was served he would retire to his study, leaving the Queen and her grandson alone together. William looked forward to these meetings all week. He shared a close bond with his grandmother, who could see Diana’s sensitivity in the teenage boy. Not only did he physically resemble his mother, with his doe eyes, blond hair and lean athletic frame, he had inherited Diana’s capacity for empathy. The Queen recognised these as qualities that would endear William to his public in years to come, and rather than advising William to keep a stiff upper lip, urged him to express his concerns. Emotionally William had been bounced from pillar to post in the years following his parents’ separation. During these hardest of times, in the privacy of the castle crying was allowed, even encouraged. According to Elizabeth Anson, his grandmother desperately wanted to help William.

Charles had complained that he had never shared a close bond with his mother. When he was growing up they saw little of one another, and in times of need he had turned to his beloved grandmother for advice and support. The Queen was determined to learn from the mistakes of her past. While her grandson regaled her with stories from the classroom, she would tell William about the official engagements she had carried out that week. She considered it vital preparation for his future role as king. Her father King George VI had seen it as his duty to ensure that
she was capable and ready to lead the United Kingdom when she succeeded to the throne on 6 February 1952 at the age of just twenty-five on his death. Her father’s counsel had strengthened and prepared the young Elizabeth, and as reigning monarch she intended to do the same for William. Part of the training had been her introduction to public life at an early age. On her twenty-first birthday she had addressed the Commonwealth from South Africa, displaying a confidence beyond her years. During that historic speech she made a pledge that she still swears by today: ‘I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.’

Both Charles and Diana, however, were reluctant for William to embark on official engagements too soon. Diana had taken him to Cardiff on St David’s Day when he was eight years old, and the crowds had adored him. As he collected armfuls of daffodils William waved happily at the cameras. Now he was a teenager he was uncomfortable in the media glare and hid awkwardly beneath his floppy fringe. His grandmother understood better than anyone else his fears for the future, and she was in a unique position to help guide him. Those long afternoon teas, however, were not solely for tutelage. Aware of the emotional turmoil William was going through, the Queen encouraged him to talk about his worries. During those private and relaxed tête-à-têtes the Queen offered her grandson practical advice which William found invaluable. According to Lady Elizabeth Anson, such meetings were hugely cathartic for William and gave him the strength to return to Eton with his head held high ready for the next week. ‘The Queen spent a huge amount of time
with William, and she often used to bring him out of Eton to spend time with him. They are exceptionally close and the Queen has been a wonderful mentor for William over the years.’

It is to William’s great credit that he never once turned against his family. While he adored his mother, he recognised his position within the royal family – it had been instilled in him since the day he could speak. His sense of duty and his place in history is in his blood, and there was no question that he would ever turn against the system like his mother had.

Diana, who had secured a £17 million divorce settlement, knew that she would never get sole custody of her sons. One was heir to the throne, the other the spare, and their lives would always be dictated by their position. As their mother she had achieved more than she imagined possible in her quest to raise her boys as ‘normal’, but now they were on the brink of adulthood the future of their identities would be shaped by the formidable House of Windsor.

While he was deeply loyal and fiercely protective of his mother, William was beginning to see for himself how difficult Diana could be. Now grown to over six feet in height, he towered over her and was old enough to make his own decisions. At his con firmation in March 1997 he was upset when Diana insisted Tiggy Legge-Bourke could not attend the ceremony. Diana was convinced she was having an affair with Charles and refused to invite her. She had also had an argument with her own mother and banned her from the service, which upset William. Both he and Harry adored their Granny Frances and had spent many summers as children holidaying at her home on the distant Isle of Seil near Oban on the west coast of
Scotland. But to invite her would risk their mother’s wrath and spoil the day. Frances was struck off the guest list, and tragically mother and daughter were never to reconcile their differences before their deaths.

As Harry lay sleeping, his head rested heavily on his mother’s lap. It was a cold afternoon in November 1996 and Diana was with her friend Simone Simmons in the second-floor living room of Kensington Palace. Dressed casually in jeans and a pale blue cashmere sweater, her long legs tucked beneath her, the princess leaned in trying her hardest not to wake her son from his nap. ‘What do you mean an accident? Who is in the car, Simone? You have to tell me,’ she whispered urgently as the little boy stirred in his sleep. ‘I don’t know, Diana. I see four people in a car and a terrible crash. I don’t know who they are.’

It was a Saturday, and according to the princess’s chef Darren McGrady, one of the few staff she had retained following her divorce from the Prince of Wales, a typical weekend at Kensington Palace. Harry was home from Ludgrove while William was still at Eton. Simone had dropped over for tea, as she often did, and the three of them had spent the afternoon watching James Bond movies. Exhausted by their day out, which had comprised one of Diana’s famous shopping trips, the twelve-year-old prince had dozed off as his mother and her friend
chatted. It was dark outside by now, and Diana and Simone had worked their way through two pots of herbal tea. Over the past four years Simone had become one of Diana’s closest friends and years later would give evidence at the inquest into the princess’s untimely death. They had met at the Hale Clinic in London’s Regent’s Park, where Simone worked as a healer, and had immediately got on. They spoke on the phone daily and Simone was always in and out of Kensington Palace. ‘Simone would come over to Kensington Palace most weekends. I was in the kitchens preparing food and they would be upstairs in the sitting room. The boys were often home from school and would sit chatting with them,’ recalled Mr McGrady. Although some of the staff viewed Simone with scepticism, Diana adored her and instructed her to ‘cleanse’ the house after her divorce. She also asked her friend to teach her ‘healing’, which, according to Simone, Diana practised on her children when they were ill.