Prince William

by Penny Junor

  Pat, who is the same age as William, was amazed by how quickly and easily the Prince broke down the barriers between them all. ‘Within thirty seconds he had Iesha in stitches of laughter.’ ‘He was really cool,’ she said. ‘I asked him for his fleece, and he said, “As a souvenir or to keep you warm?” I said, “Both,” and he said, “You can have a picture instead.” And Harry was really cool too and really funny. He said, “Back off, Iesha.” I thought they’d be stuck up but they were really friendly, and the best part was they remembered our names and used them. I kept jumping because I was scared of flies and William kept saying, “Don’t worry, Iesha, they’re only leaves falling.”’

  Once the press had left, the entire party, which included politicians, tucked into a buffet lunch in the open air beside a lake. After filling his plate with food, William chose to sit next to Iesha on the young people’s table. ‘There was never a lull. He was asking us about our lives and about the project and was joking and laughing and making everyone smile.’

  After a private meeting with the President, Ian Khama, a proactive conservationist, the Princes flew (separately, as they usually do for safety reasons) to Maun, where William went to the sports stadium for another bit of synergy in action, while Harry flew on to Lesotho ahead of him. It was a scheme called Coaching for Conservation, backed by Tusk, which cunningly combines football with lessons about wildlife for primary school children. Before leaving for Lesotho, William looked at a potentially ground-breaking project that could solve the age-old problem of farmers having their livestock taken by predators. ‘It’s an initiative we’re supporting’, explains Charlie, ‘to break down the make-up of scent – its DNA – so that it could be mimicked. It’s called the Bio Boundary Project and the idea is to produce virtual fencing, so the predators think they’re on someone else’s territory and back off. Early results are very encouraging and it could have a fantastic impact. William was absolutely fascinated by this and spent a lot of time in the lab with the scientists trying to understand it. On the flight from Maun to Lesotho, he said, “Please keep me in touch with that one, I really want to know how it’s going.”’

  In Botswana, William had been in charge. Lesotho was Harry’s patch, and Sentebale his charity. This was the first time William had seen its work for himself, although he had raised money for it many times, including jointly taking part in a 1,000-mile motorbike adventure in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It was an endurance test over the most inhospitable terrain in the country’s poorest province – mountains, gorges, scrubland, dry river beds and coastline – and some rivers that were not so dry. ‘It’s not just a bimble across the countryside, that’s for sure,’ Harry said before they left. ‘We’re expecting to fall off many a time.’ Of the river crossings, William joked, ‘We’ve got our armbands in our pack. We’re ready to go.’ One of the riders clearly failed to pack his and when he fell into the water up to his waist, Harry leaped in to rescue him, earning himself the ‘spirit of the day’ award. Between the eighty participants, they raised over £300,000 for Sentebale, Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund and UNICEF. Simon Smith, who organised the eight-day trip, and had kept their involvement in it secret for a year, said, ‘They were both fantastic riders and didn’t run from anything. They asked us to treat them as one of the group and that’s what we did. They mucked in with chores and shared a beer and food round the BBQ. They were outstanding companions.’

  Arriving in Lesotho, William could at last see what it had all been for, and, according to Charlie, who was there throughout the visits to both countries, there was a very definite shift between the brothers. ‘It was extremely interesting to see how much regard Harry is held in within Lesotho, from government level to the little children, in the projects on the ground, in very remote mountain villages. They absolutely adore him there, there’s no doubt about it. Harry’s really good with little kids. And it was very interesting to see Harry take the lead because he was effectively then hosting us and showing William his work, and that was part of the idea: for William to show Harry his charity’s work and Harry show William his, and the two CEOs would tag along.’

  Charlie was tagging along for more than just the ride. In the spirit of the Forum’s ethos, he was invited along to see whether Tusk might be able to get involved in Lesotho. ‘I hadn’t been aware of the deforestation in the country,’ he says, ‘or the extreme poverty, so I had a really interesting couple of days there, looking at what Sentebale was doing and how we might potentially work with them. I’m sure that will evolve.

  ‘Sometimes, through the Forum you get a sense that although Harry’s not our patron, he is almost as interested in Tusk as William is and that he is happy to be an ambassador for Tusk if he gets the opportunity and it’s appropriate. It’s not an exclusive patronage. They both wore the logos. I rather nervously asked, “Do you think William would be prepared to wear branded clothing during the tour?” “Yes, no problem, he’s there to promote the charity,” was the reply. “Great, then can we have his size?” At which point Miguel said, “What about Harry? He’s going to be there too.” I hadn’t presumed I could ask both. Harry was so enthusiastic about wearing it, he lived in our fleece, even in Lesotho. It was freezing cold because it was winter there, and at one point Kedge [Martin], who is Sentebale’s CEO, said “Harry, no disrespect to Tusk, but we’re on a Sentebale engagement now, would you mind taking the Tusk fleece off?” “Drat,” said Harry. “Well you’d better get some Sentebale ones.”’

  At the end of the tour, Charlie did an online search for press cuttings that mentioned Tusk and found 391 articles in publications all over the world – and that didn’t count the hundreds of photographs, two of which appeared everywhere: William and Harry laughing with an eight-foot rock python twined around their necks, and William attempting to blow a vuvuzela (the sound of the 2010 World Cup) for a child. In both photographs the Tusk logo was on their fleeces. ‘It was a fantastic demonstration of the power of the Windsor brand,’ says Charlie, ‘a good example of how William and Harry can come together and make a big impact.’

  TWENTY EIGHTEEN

  England’s 0–0 draw against Algeria in Cape Town at the end of the Princes’ week in Africa was, according to Simon Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of England’s 2018 bid, ‘One of the worst games of football any of us have ever seen. England played terribly and at the end of it were booed off – and we didn’t know it at the time, but Wayne Rooney, on his way off, spoke into the lens of one of the TV cameras and insulted the people booing.’ Simon was sitting with William and Harry throughout the match and, as usual, William wanted to go down to speak to the team afterwards. He had sent them a video before the game wishing them luck. ‘The drill we’d arranged was I would phone the team’s administrator to check if it was all right for William to come down,’ said Simon. ‘He said, “Oh, I don’t know, it’s a very bad dressing room down there.” So I said to William, “Do you want to go?” “Only if it’s okay with Fabio [Capello, England’s manager].” “Well, I think they’re having a bit of an inquest at the moment.” “Well then, no, no, no, I don’t want to go; I don’t want to interfere, they’ve got another game to play.” I’m not sure Harry was of the same view. He said, “Come on, we should go down.” I thought people were being a little bit protective of the team and as President of the FA he was perfectly entitled to see them, so I phoned the administrator and said, “They’re coming down, you’ve got five seconds to tell me if it’s not okay.”

  ‘William and Harry went into the dressing room and spent about twenty minutes in there. The players had just come out of the shower. William and Harry already had a rapport with David Beckham and he introduced them to everybody. When they came out I asked William how he thought it had gone and he said, “They were fairly upset with how they played, but we tried to raise their spirits … I used some of my analogies from the military, they’ve got more to go, they’re strong players; I did my best to gee them up.” To which Prince Harry said, “Oh, they�
��ll have really enjoyed being told how to play better by a posh soldier!”’

  The final stop before flying home was Johannesburg, where, as President of the FA, William hosted a reception for FIFA to promote England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup. World Cup Bid had originally asked whether he would be President of the company and head up the entire bid process. William, according to one of his team, went straight to his grandmother for advice. He was well aware of what a highly sensitive subject it was, and that he would be involved in lobbying for the UK on the global stage, which would be new to him (as well as nerve-racking). He wanted to help and to represent the country but how could he do that and survive in such a political and back-biting environment? After much discussion he decided that he should not take any formal role in the process.

  ‘They all felt it was important to keep him a step removed,’ says Simon, ‘and that was how we played everything. He came to the FA Cup Final in 2010 for us, where there were executive committee members, and he did the job as President of the FA, he came to the Algeria game, he hosted the reception with Harry, but as the campaign went on, I think the more he got to know, the more he became involved. He would ask for briefings beforehand, written and verbal, about who he was meeting, how the lie of the land was, how the politics were working, he was very interested in that.

  ‘He didn’t just want to turn up and say, “How do you do?” to so and so. He wanted to know the context of who we were meeting, why, what was important about that person, how we were sitting in the campaign, how was it going, would his meeting this person potentially make a difference? He wanted a proper evaluation of his role and I had to provide regular briefings of how we were doing. In the last six months of the campaign, we had two big flagship occasions. One was the visit by the FIFA inspectors who were coming to England to view our facilities and so on; the other was the final presentation in Zurich in December 2010.

  ‘There was a discussion about whether William would participate in the inspection in August, and I spent a lot of time with Jamie going through the pros and cons. In the end it couldn’t work from a diary perspective and I think we felt it was not using him to his best advantage; he was better used at the event we put on in South Africa. He agreed twice to record video messages for us to use in our materials and films.

  ‘The debate about whether he should appear in the final presentation in Zurich was very, very interesting. We’d had it blocked off in his diary for two years and he said he was happy to come and do whatever lobbying we needed, meet whoever, but it was very clear, he couldn’t ask anybody to vote for us. All he would do was meet, form a good relationship, create a warm feeling, tee it up for the others to go and do the real business. I think he felt as a member of the Royal Family it wouldn’t have been appropriate and I agree with that. He was there to show that the country was united behind the bid. So he was always committed to do that. Everything was sorted: when he would arrive and leave, where he’d stay; everything was recced. The big question was, would he participate in the final presentation to the FIFA executive committee?

  ‘We only had five places so we had to be very careful how we used them. We were always going to use David Beckham but there were lots of other people who could be used too. We were very clear we wanted William to be part of it. As well as selling the message of the bid, we felt what better way to show how wholeheartedly the country was behind it than to have the Prime Minister and the President of the FA, who just happened to be the future King?

  ‘Earlier on, William had always said he didn’t want to speak or be in the final presentation, but he had clearly weighed it up because he came back and said he would appear if we wanted him, but we would need to agree what he said and he would need to be speaking as President of the FA. That was quite a tough decision and for whatever reason he decided to do it. So he came in. We helped him to craft what he would say, Jamie and I, we rehearsed it with him, he inputted and moved things around and he gave his presentation. We choreographed how it would go and he was very, very good. He not only rehearsed privately, one on one, but he came to join the full rehearsal with the rest of the team, he really played his part. So there was the Prime Minister, David Cameron, Prince William, David Beckham and a young man called Eddie Afekafe, a twenty-six-year-old community worker from a troubled background who had used football to rebuild his life; also Andy Anson, the CEO of the bid.

  ‘During the time he was in Zurich, he didn’t go around giving inspirational speeches, but he came and he said to everybody, “How are you, and how are you doing, and how do you think it’s going?” And just by taking that degree of interest and being involved with everybody, talking to David Beckham and the other presenters, he became team captain. He assumed that role naturally. He was the leader.’

  The Household were all intensely proud of the Prince when they watched him in action in Zurich. ‘He knew that would be a very difficult back-stabbing environment, one he’d never experienced before, but having staked his colours to the mast many years before, it was more than duty, it was about showing leadership on behalf of the country but not doing anything that you feel uncomfortable about. He never crossed the line. They had councils of war and the Prime Minister had his sleeves rolled up, and the Downing Street team was there, Boris Johnson [the Mayor of London] was there and the FA and all its legions; they were all in a big room where there was coffee and press officers running around. William came in and somebody pushed a chair out in the middle and he sat down and the whole room went quiet and somebody in the FA said something, and William thought about it in a really considered way and said, “This is the way I think we should do it.” It was one of those straight, “What is the right thing to do?” moments. It was straightforward common sense and everyone metaphorically sighed and thought, “Yes, that is the way to do it.” He wasn’t being pushy; it was just great to see him apply what we know he’s got coming out of every pore, come out in that environment.’

  Simon takes up the story. ‘On the first rehearsal, which was taped, he couldn’t be there so I stood in as Prince William. I do very poor amateur impressions … We showed it to him so he could see the layout and I could see him looking at me as I did this rubbish impression of him. No comment was made, but at the final rehearsal I did an impression of Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President, because he was going to introduce the whole thing and would introduce Prince William. When we got in the car afterwards, I said, “So, today I have been both Prince William and Sepp Blatter.” And he said, “I’ll tell you something. Your Sepp Blatter is a lot better than your Prince William!”’

  Despite emotional and impassioned speeches from William, David Beckham and David Cameron, the hero of the hour was, arguably, Eddie Afekafe, who opened the pitch by saying, ‘Football changed my life. I grew up in one of the roughest parts of Manchester. Most of the guys I grew up with were in gangs – some still are, some are in prison. What they didn’t get, but I got, was an opportunity – and that was through football.’ William, following him, picked up on his story. ‘What Eddie represents is a credit to FIFA, because it’s your game that transformed his life. As exceptional as Eddie is, in 2018 FIFA has the opportunity to create more opportunities for people like Eddie the whole world over. It is England’s national game, a supremely powerful force for binding the country together. It’s our passion. I love football, the English love football. That’s why it would be such an honour to host the England 2018 World Cup.’

  ‘He did his presentation extremely well,’ says Simon. ‘Our entire presentation was very good. It didn’t win in the end but it was good.

  ‘The announcement was going to be made at some big conference centre. William travelled there with us and we’d agreed with him and the Household that if we had won Sepp Blatter was going to present the World Cup to somebody nominated by the delegation, and that should be the President, Prince William. He would then be invited to say a few words.

  ‘As we went down, I came with him, [Bill] Clinton joined us,
and the FIFA executive committee came out of their meeting to go into the announcement as well. Ahead was a bank of press. Our executive committee member, Geoff Thompson, came out, said to Andy Anson, my boss, “We haven’t won, we got knocked out in the first round.”Andy told me, I told Prince William. At this point, we’ve got Bill Clinton right by us, we’re walking to a bank of media and I just slowed him down a moment and said, “We haven’t won.” He said, “How do you know?” I said, “I’ve just been told we got knocked out in the first round,” and he composed himself and said, “Right, please make sure that the whole team retain their dignity.” I replied, “Can I suggest that we get you out of the hall at the first convenient moment?” And then I said, “During the entire time that I’ve served you as President of the FA, I seem to have spent my time smuggling you out of buildings at the earliest possible opportunity. This will be the last time.” And he laughed.

  ‘We went in and he was very dignified. I was impressed because it was a shattering piece of news to have to assimilate in eight or ten seconds before walking past the press, who didn’t know.