Prince William

by Penny Junor

  ‘Back then,’ he said, ‘there was a very different attitude to women. Being a young lady at twenty-five – stepping in to do a job which many men thought they could probably do better – it must have been very daunting. And I think there was extra pressure for her to perform. You see the pictures of her and she looks so incredibly natural in the role. She’s calm, she’s poised, she’s elegant, she’s graceful and she’s all the things she needs to be at twenty-five. And you think how loads of twenty-five-year-olds – myself, my brother and lots of people included – didn’t have anything like that. And we didn’t have that extra pressure put on us at that age. It’s amazing that she didn’t crack. She just carried on and kept going. And that’s the thing about her. You present a challenge in front of her and she’ll climb it. And I think that to be doing that for sixty years – it’s incredible.

  ‘There’s a serenity about her. But I think if you are of an age, you have a pretty old-fashioned faith, you do your best every day and say your prayers every night – well, if you’re criticised for it, you’re not going to get much better whatever you do. What’s the point of worrying?

  ‘For her, it must be a relief to know that she has furrowed her own path and that she’s done that successfully and that the decisions she’s made have turned out to be correct. You make it up a lot as you go along. So to be proven right, when it’s your decision-making, gives you a lot of confidence. You realise that the role you’re doing – you’re doing it well; that you’re making a difference. That’s what’s key. It’s about making a difference for the country.’

  My guess is that one day William’s grandchild might say much the same about him.

  William’s maternal grandparents. The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh were guests at Johnnie Althorpe’s wedding to Frances Roche at Westminster Abbey in 1954.

  Princess Elizabeth on the day of her engagement to Prince Philip in 1947. Five years later she became Queen – and Johnnie Althorp was one of her equerries.

  The young Prince Charles with his parents and sister Princess Anne. A corgi was never far from the Queen’s side.

  Charles with his grandfather, King George VI, whose death brought an end to anything approaching normal family life.

  Three generations: Charles, his beloved great-uncle and ‘Honorary Grandfather’, Earl Mountbatten, and Prince Philip, Mountbatten’s nephew.

  A young Lady Diana Spencer with her guinea pig, Peanuts.

  And even younger, in her pram in the garden at Park House.

  Charles, Diana and her two sisters Jane and Sarah at their brother, Charles Spencer’s, twenty-first party in 1982, the year William was born.

  Diana’s father, the 8th Earl Spencer with the stepmother, Raine, who swept into their lives.

  Charles and Diana with Harvey, after their engagement, when it all started to go wrong.

  Diana delighted the crowds with her informality.

  Charles and Diana’s wedding, declared the Archbishop of Canterbury, was ‘the stuff of which fairytales are made’.

  The first ever kiss on the balcony and the crowds went wild.

  Diana’s dress was the best-kept secret of the wedding. The train was 25 feet long.

  Despite the smiles, there were already problems in the relationship.

  Not even two weeks in the Mediterranean sunshine on board the Royal yacht Britannia could lift Diana’s spirits.

  Prince William’s first public appearance leaving the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington less than 24 hours after his birth.

  The first of many photo calls. At home in the comfort of Kensington Palace.

  Stealing the show in Wellington, aged nine months, on his first tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1983.

  Prince Harry making his first appearance in September 1984. For a brief period before his birth Charles and Diana were closer than ever but it soon fell apart.

  William’s playful antics at Prince Andrew’s wedding did not amuse the Queen.

  The family putting on a show of unity amongst the wild flowers at Highgrove.

  All dressed up for church at Windsor on Easter Day with his cousins, already trained to wave to the waiting crowds.

  William, aged four and a half, arriving for his first day at Wetherby School.

  Another photo call for two small boys to endure. On holiday in Majorca with the Spanish Royal Family.

  Taken out of school for his first public engagement aged nine. His father thought he was too young.

  Both boys have always had a warm and tactile relationship with their father and all three of them love their holidays in Scotland.

  Diana strikes a lonely figure in front of the Taj Mahal in February 1992, and knew exactly what message it sent the world.

  The boys’ first skiing holiday in 1991.

  Diana ensured they did normal childish things – and she enjoyed the thrill of the rides at Thorpe Park just as much as they did.

  Diana adored her boys but Olga Powell, the nanny, was a more constant figure in their early lives.

  Another was Tiggy Legge-Bourke of whom Diana reportedly became jealous.

  Ludgrove was a small family-run school where William was protected from the lurid headlines about his parents’ marriage problems.

  Eton was almost ten times bigger, and had no such mechanism. William often used to walk over the bridge to Windsor Castle to have tea with Granny and Grandpa.

  William’s confirmation in March 1997. The first time the Wales family had been together in four years – and it was to be the last. ‘Granny Frances’ wasn’t invited.

  No one coerced the boys into walking behind their mother’s cortege. The decision, brave as it was, was entirely theirs.

  The outpouring of national grief for Diana was unprecedented.

  There were said to be a million bouquets outside Kensington Palace, 1.5 metres deep in places.

  The trip to Canada in 1998 with his father and brother, when William was mobbed by screaming teenagers. Mark Bolland, nicknamed Blackadder, in the blue shirt behind.

  One of the set of 18th birthday photos that lost Sandy Henney her job.

  His arm in a sling after an injury on the rugby pitch, sixteen year old William is godfather at the christening of Prince Konstantine Alexios of Greece.

  Arriving at the Guards Polo Club for the Eton Boys’ Tea Party with James Meade. He is still one of a small band of loyal and trusted friends.

  Another of the infamous 18th birthday pictures. Only the most popular and successful boys are elected to Pop.

  Announcing his gap year plans and his place at St Andrews University. Despite the difference in style, father and son are very close.

  Brothers, friends, confidants. They have seen each other through difficult times.

  William arrived in Chile quiet and shy. It was the first time he had been entirely out of his comfort zone. By the end of eleven weeks he was swinging from the rafters.

  A steadying hand for the Queen Mother on her 99th birthday, while his father looks on approvingly. William loved talking to his great-grandmother about the past. Charles was completely devoted to her and devastated when she died in April 2002 at the age of 101. It was then William’s turn to be the comforter.

  Walking behind the Queen Mother’s coffin must have brought back painful memories.

  The dress. Kate Middleton at a charity fashion show at the students’ union in St Andrews in March 2002. William, sitting at the end of the catwalk, had a good view.

  William and Kate had plenty of interests and activities in common. Skiing was just one of them.

  The photo call that made the tabloids think he might not go into the Army after all but was destined to become a farmer.

  They share a love of the countryside and one day William will inherit the Duchy of Cornwall – about 130,000 acres, mostly in the West Country and much of it farmland.

  He took his studies seriously and came away with a respectable 2.1 in Geography.

  He quickly became a member o
f the University water polo team.

  A very proud grandmother in St Andrews on graduation day, June 2005.

  The annual skiing trip was always one of the high spots of the year - once the dreaded photocall was over.

  Kate was much less nervous than William about graduation day. She got a 2.1 in History of Art.

  Charles and Camilla leaving St George’s Chapel, Windsor in April 2005. Man and wife thirty years after they first fell in love.

  What mattered to William was that his father was finally happy.

  Sovereign’s Parade with a difference. William’s Passing Out ceremony from Sandhurst in December 2006.

  The family together for Harry’s Passing Out parade at Sandhurst in April 2006. Granny and Grandpa have been central figures for both Princes – each one dispensing their own brand of guidance, humour and affection.

  Training with mountain rescue in Snowdonia. He was tempted by the service but helicopters won the day.

  Laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day 2008. Like the rest of the family, he cares passionately about the welfare of members of the Armed Forces and their families.

  With his fellow graduates at RAF Cranwell in April 2008, having been presented with his wings by his father, the Air Chief Marshal.

  Flying was very much in the blood.

  Showing his grandmother how he spends the day when she visited RAF Valley in April 2011. They had been in weekly contact over his wedding plans.

  Carole and Michael Middleton at their home in Bucklebury on the day of the engagement, November 16, 2011. William adores them and their home is an oasis of normality in his very abnormal world.

  ‘Is that you, Ian?’

  By giving Kate his mother’s sapphire and diamond engagement ring, William said he hoped to include her in all the fun and excitement.

  Always happy to have a go when it’s for a good cause…training with five-to-eleven year olds in Newcastle; and taking part in a thousand-mile off-road motorbike ride in South Africa.

  William specifically asked to go to New Zealand and Australia after a series of disasters in 2011 just a month before his wedding. The Queen wrote to congratulate him.

  William and Kate’s wedding day. ‘What we want,’ said William, ‘is a day that is as enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible.’

  He learned from the Queen to take the best of tradition and do it beautifully.

  The task was to create a day that was intimate for them and their families but which would give the British people a suitably royal and memorable celebration.

  There was no disguising the happiness of everyone there that day – nor the intimacy in the midst of such formality.

  ‘A quiet family wedding.’

  William’s greatest fear of the day was that he would stall their going away car, his father’s forty year old Aston Martin – suitably modified by Prince Harry.

  The bond between the brothers is as strong as ever and Harry has the sister he said he always wanted. Derby Day at Epsom in June 2011.

  William has grown into the job and accepts the duties and responsibilities that come with who he is, and Kate had a long hard look at the life before choosing to join him in it. The Order of the Garter Service and meeting the Obamas on their state visit to Britain.

  Canada Day in Ottawa at the start of their first overseas tour. It was a triumph and despite an exhausting schedule they appeared to be genuinely enjoying themselves.

  And the welcome could not have been more enthusiastic.

  Kate looked as though she had been born to walk on the red carpet.

  The most striking element of the tour was the body language between the two of them – the smiles, the laughter, the hugs, the reassuring hand. They clearly take huge delight in each other’s company.

  In eleven days they saw much of what Canada has to offer. One day they were canoeing with a tribal elder in the remote North West Territories.

  The next they were in Calgary for the famous Stampede Parade.

  After Canada came Los Angeles and a very different sort of red carpet. Arriving to promote British talent at a star-studded BAFTA gala dinner.

  Barbara Streisand and her husband chat to William. Stars paid up to $16,000 for a table.

  Teasing each other over their mince pie making skills at a Centrepoint hostel in Camberwell in December 2011. Both are keen cooks – and both are competitive.

  Church on Christmas Day at Sandringham and Kate’s introduction to the first of many such royal traditions.

  Visiting a community centre in Birmingham after the August riots in 2011, where they met the families of three men knocked down and killed by a car.

  The future of the British monarchy and the look that says this fairytale is the real thing.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  A book like this is only as good as the people one speaks to and I would like to thank all those who were so generous with their time and trusting enough to talk to me about Prince William and share their memories and experiences. Some are named in the book, some are not but each one of them played a vital part in helping me build what I hope is an accurate and fair portrait of the Prince. I did not speak to him directly about his life – he hates talking about himself – but he did allow several of those who are close to him to talk to me, including members of his Household, and for that I am immensely grateful. They are a very impressive and likeable group of people, utterly dedicated both to the Princes they work for and to the institution of monarchy – and there’s not a trace of pomposity amongst them. Their guidance and their input have been invaluable.

  I am also grateful to those people who painstakingly checked the manuscript to ensure that I had faithfully reported what they told me. I hope, between us, we have weeded out all the errors. If not, my apologies.

  Top of the list of the others I must thank is Fenella Bates at Hodder & Stoughton, who thought of the idea and asked me to write the book. She has been a complete delight to work with, as have her colleagues Rowena Webb, Kerry Hood, Ciara Foley, Jason Bartholomew, Susan Spratt and Camilla Dowse who put together some wonderful photographs.

  I also owe special thanks to Martin Seager, consultant clinical psychologist and adult psychotherapist, for his insights. He has been a wise and invaluable sounding board.

  As is Jane Turnbull, who has always been so much more than an agent. I would be lost without her. Ditto my husband James, who yet again took over all things domestic while I wrote – and annoyingly does them better than me.

  Thank you all.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Most of the books I have drawn from have been my own, written over the last thirty years:

  Diana, Princess of Wales (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1982)

  Charles (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987)

  Charles and Diana, Portrait of a Marriage (Headline, 1991)

  Charles, Victim or Villain? (HarperCollins, 1998)

  The Firm:The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor (HarperCollins, 2005)

  Other books consulted:

  Bradford, Sarah, Diana (Viking Adult, 2006)

  Brandryth, Giles, Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage (Century, 2004)

  Dimbleby, Jonathan, The Prince of Wales: A Biography (Little Brown, 1994)

  Geldof, Bob, Is That It? (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986)

  Goldsmith, Lady Annabel, Annabel: An Unconventional Life (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004)

  Hardman, Robert, Our Queen (Random House, 2011)

  Jephson, P.D., Shadows of a Princess (HarperCollins, 2000)

  Jobson, Robert, William & Kate (John Blake, 2010)

  Junor, John, Listening for a Midnight Tram (Chapmans, 1990)

  Morton, Andrew, Diana – Her True Story/In Her Own Words (Michael O’Mara Books, 1997)

  Nicholl, Katie, William and Harry (Preface, 2010)

  Prochaska, Frank, Royal Bounty:The Making of a Welfare Monarchy (YUP, 1995)

  Seward, Ingrid, William & Harry (Headline, 2003)

  Shawcross, W
illiam, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (Macmillan, 2009)

  Wales, HRH the Prince of and Charles Clover, Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate (Chapmans, 1993)

  I am very grateful to their authors and publishers. While every effort has been made to acknowledge the copyright holders of extracts used in this book, full acknowledgement will gladly be made in future editions.

  PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  © Camera Press London: 1 (bottom), 2 (top right)/photo Louis Jaques, 2 (middle)/photo The Times, 2 (bottom)/photo Arthur Edwards, 3 (top left)/photo Spen/AL, 3 (bottom right)/photo Mike Anthony, 6 (bottom right)/photo Jim Bennet, 7 (middle right), 8 (bottom right) & 9 (top)/photos Glenn Harvey, 15 (top left)/photo Richard Stonehouse, 20 (top & bottom left), 26 (bottom left), 26 (bottom right) & 31 (top right)/photos Mark Stewart. © Getty Images: 1 (top)/photo Terry Disney/Central Press, 6 (top)/photo Bob Thomas, 6 (bottom left)/photo Terry Fincher, 7(middle left), 8(top left), 11 (bottom left & right), 12 (bottom left), 13 (bottom right) & 19 (top)/photos Tim Graham, 11 (top)/photo Jayne Fincher, 19 (middle)/photo Anwar Hussein Collection, 22 (middle left)/photo Paul Ellis, 23 (top right)/photo Stefan Rousseau, 24 (bottom)/photo Mark Taylor, 26 (top)/ photo George Pimentel, 29 (top)/photo Geoff Robins. © Ian Jones: 14, 16 (top), 18 (top right & middle), 19 (bottom), 21 (top & bottom right), 22 (bottom right), 23 (top left), 24 (top right), 26 (middle right), 28 (top), 29 (left), 30 (bottom), 31 (top left & bottom left). © Mirrorpix: 4 (top)/photo Daily Record, 5 (top), 8 (bottom left), 9 (bottom), 13 (bottom left)/photo Jeremy Williams, 23 (bottom left)/photo Ian Vogler, 25 (bottom)/photo Phil Harris. © NI Syndication: 17 (right)/photo The Sun. © Press Association Images: 3 (top right), 5 (middle & bottom), 7 (top)/photo David Caulkin, 7 (bottom), 12 (bottom right), 15 (top right & bottom right), 18 (top left) & 30 (top right)/photos Julian Parker, 18 (bottom)/photo Mark Cuthbert, 21 (bottom left), 23 (middle right), 25 (top)/photo Oli Scarff,27 (bottom)/photo Jonathan Short,28 (bottom left)/photo Chris Jackson,28 (bottom right)/photo Toby Melville, 29 (middle right & bottom right)/photos The Canadian Press/ Fred Chartrand, 30 (middle right)/photo Arthur Edwards, 30 (top left & middle left)/ photos The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette, 32/photo Andrew Milligan. © Rex Features: 3 (bottom left)/photo Keith Butcher, 4 (bottom)/photo Mike Charity, 8 (top right)/photo Brendan Beirne, 10/photo David Hartley, 11 (middle)/photo Cassidy and Leigh, 12 (top), 13 (top), 15 (bottom left)/photo Carl De Souza, 16 (middle), 16 (bottom)/photo Evening Standard/Jeremy Selwyn, 17 (left)/photo Daily Mail/Malcolm Clarke, 19 (middle left), 20 (bottom right), 22 (top)/photo Associated Newspapers/Mark Large, 22 (bottom left) & 24 (middle)/photos Tim Rooke, 24 (top left), 27 (top), 31 (middle left & bottom right).