William and Harry (4 page)

Diana and Charles became alarmed that the rumbustious William needed more discipline. At home he often misbehaved. Mealtimes were an ordeal and would frequently end up with William throwing his supper across the table and being banished to the nursery by his exasperated parents. When it came to bedtime he would always demand another story, which had to be read by Papa. The Queen was increasingly aware that her grandson, now four, misbehaved and reminded Nanny Barnes that it was her job to instil discipline.

The real test came in July 1986, when William was a page at Andrew and Sarah’s wedding at Westminster Abbey. Diana and Charles were both anxious that he would not sit still and Diana had stitched up the pockets of his starched sailor’s outfit to stop
him from fidgeting. Instead William rolled the order of service into a trumpet and stuck his tongue out at his cousin Laura Fellowes, who was a bridesmaid.

Meanwhile Harry was growing quickly, and on a warm summer’s morning in September 1987, a day after his third birthday, he too enrolled as a Cygnet. William had thrived at the kindergarten and his latest report read, ‘Prince William was very popular with other children, and was known for his kindness, sense of fun and quality of thoughtfulness.’ Harry, as his father remarked, was the quieter of the two, and having grown accustomed to being bossed around by his older brother, was a follower rather than a natural leader like William. When he arrived at Mrs Mynors’ he had not wanted to get out of the car, but after a few days he settled in and busily set about making a pair of binoculars with two loo roll tubes, which he hid behind when photographers tried to take his picture.

‘Harry was always more sensitive than William when they were little,’ recalled Simone Simmons, a close friend of the princess who spent time with William and Harry when they were growing up. ‘William loved being the centre of attention but Harry was quieter. It was not uncommon for him to have a day off from school because he wasn’t feeling well. He used to go down with more coughs and colds than William, but it was nothing serious and most of the time I think he just wanted to be at home with his mummy. He loved having her to himself and not having to compete with William.’ Harry had had to get used to William being the ‘special one’ from the start and from a young age was aware of the pecking order. When they were little William would often be invited to Clarence House to see his great-grandmother
without Harry. ‘I’m off to see Gran Gran,’ he would announce, leaving Harry to play alone in the nursery.

Diana was aware that Harry felt left out and doted on him. With his red hair and close-set eyes the little prince was the spitting image of her sister Sarah when she was a child. Diana called him ‘my little Spencer’ and despite rumours that later surfaced about Harry’s paternity (some suggested following Diana’s affair with James Hewitt that he could be the father), he was a Spencer through and through. He had also inherited his mother’s quick wit. When William announced that he wanted to be a policeman ‘and look after mummy’, Harry astutely observed that for once the hierarchy of royalty worked in his favour: ‘Oh no you can’t, you’ve got to be king!’

Throughout their childhood William was always one rung of the ladder ahead of Harry. On 15 January 1987 he trotted up the steps of Wetherby School under the watchful eye of his new headmistress Frederika Blair-Turner and hundreds of cameras all there to capture his first day. It was bitterly cold and the four-and-a-half-year-old prince was a bundle of nerves as he stepped out of the chauffeur-driven car tightly clasping his mother’s hand. Diana had told him not to wave at the cameras and for once he did as he was told. Dressed in his brand-new school uniform, a grey wool blazer with red piping, black shorts and a grey woollen cap, all from Harrods, the young prince seemed far less confident than when he had enrolled at Mrs Mynors’, and there was good reason. Back at Kensington Palace it had been an unsettling few days with William in tears after being told that Nanny Barnes was leaving. Diana had decided that after five years it was time for Barbara to move on. Her relationship with her boss had
become increasingly fractious, and Diana had observed how strong the bond was between her sons and their nanny. While Diana was travelling the world with her husband, Nanny Barnes had been their surrogate mother. She took them to the Scilly Isles for summer holidays and spoiled them with hamburgers and chips for dinner and chocolate ice cream for dessert. With Barbara, William and Harry were as good as gold, and they adored her. If William woke from a nightmare he would go to ‘Baba’, and Harry still crept into her bed first thing in the morning before thundering downstairs to jump into bed with his mother.

When he was told Barbara was leaving, William had been inconsolable. Diana had explained that she would be looking after William with Olga Powell, Barbara’s assistant, until they found a new nanny. Secretly she had hoped that by coinciding the dismissal with William’s first day at Wetherby it would go unnoticed, but of course the press found out and his nanny’s sudden departure was an even bigger story than William’s first day at school.

The households at Highgrove and Kensington Palace were not altogether surprised by the news. Over the years the nursery at Highgrove, which had its own kitchen and bathroom, had become Barbara’s domain, and the princess had begun to feel excluded. There were tantrums from Diana when she returned home and tried to reassert her authority, only for the boys to listen to their nanny instead of their mother. While she never criticised her boss, Nanny Barnes complained on occasions that Diana was ‘downright rude’ and once remarked to Wendy Berry of William, ‘It’s no good Diana pretending he can have a completely normal life because he can’t.’ There was a great deal of wisdom in this warning.

* * *

It was a Saturday afternoon, and instead of travelling to Highgrove William and Harry were with their mother shopping in WH Smith on Kensington High Street. It was a rare treat and so far no one had noticed the royal trio disguised in caps and scarves. Much to William and Harry’s delight, their mother had opted for a long brown wig and oversized sunglasses, and they giggled as they strolled hand in hand down the busy high street, which was a five-minute walk from Kensington Palace.

Diana revelled in the fun of it all as she guided William and Harry down the aisles of stationery, books and magazines. Harry headed straight for the comics with brightly coloured covers featuring his favourite action heroes while William set about choosing some new stationery. Very soon he would be starting boarding school and he needed everything from a geometry set to a new pencil case. They had been given their pocket money, which they handed over to the lady at the till, but not before they had each been allowed to choose a packet of sweets. Their eyes lit up as they surveyed the rows of shiny packets and tubes in front of them. Harry being Harry wanted a chocolate bar
and
a packet of chewy sweets, but his mother reminded him that he would only have enough money for one.

While none of the royal family generally carried cash, Diana believed it was important that William and Harry understood that the rest of the world survived through hard work and salaries, and she wanted them to understand the value of money from a young age. ‘Diana always gave them pocket money, something Charles never did, not because he was mean but because he never understood why the boys needed money,’ recalled Simone Simmons. ‘They were always accompanied by protection officers,
who paid for them, but when they were out with their friends it embarrassed them and they wanted to pay for things themselves.’

‘Diana and the boys were ecstatically happy,’ recalled Dickie Arbiter, who handled the prince and princess’s media relations. ‘It was important for Diana to take her children shopping and do normal things with them. Their favourite day out would include a visit to Smiths followed by a trip to the Odeon cinema, which was just down the road. If they were really lucky, Diana would take them to McDonald’s as well.’

On this occasion the boys had behaved so well that Diana decided they deserved a cheeseburger and chips, each of them delighting in personally giving their order to the uniformed sales assistant who didn’t have a clue that the well-spoken customers were in fact the Princess of Wales and her two sons. At a round table in a rear corner of the restaurant the boys wolfed down their Happy Meals and played with the cheap plastic toys that had come with the meal. At the next table their protection officers polished off their own hamburgers. For anyone else it would have been the most normal lunch in the world, but for Diana and the boys it was a special treat made all the more exhilarating by the fact that they were incognito. Such happy times were becoming increasingly rare.

At home the situation between Charles and Diana had become unbearable. The boys’ games and laughter dispersed much of the tension, and Charles and Diana tried their hardest to keep their quarrels from William and Harry, but Diana, who craved her husband’s attention, was breaking down in tears almost every day. When she came down to Highgrove Charles would speed off to the nearby Beaufort Polo Club in his pristine white breeches. He had inherited his father’s love of polo and was in turn to
pass the family passion and talent on to the young princes, who would both grow into accomplished players.

Diana found the sport tedious even though she had claimed in a television interview that she adored it. She was not, however, altogether uninterested in polo. She had taken something of a shine to a young red-headed cavalry officer called James Hewitt, who was quite something on the polo pitch. They had met after Diana decided she wanted to learn to ride. She had never been a horsewoman, but after seeing how much pleasure it brought her sons decided to have a go. The handsome Hewitt became her instructor and soon became a regular visitor to Highgrove, where he would help William and Harry improve their trotting and cantering. The staff noticed that when Charles was away the dashing officer became a more regular visitor, and his arrival was always guaranteed to lift Diana’s spirits. It would be another year before the British press exposed their secret friendship.

Prince William charged into the garden slamming the door behind him. He could not bear to hear his parents bicker any longer. ‘I hate you, Papa. I hate you so much. Why do you make Mummy cry all the time?’ he had shouted angrily as Diana broke down again. William had been aware for some time that his parents were not happy. The princess had become increasingly dependent on her elder son, who she regularly confided in, and it was William who would pass his mother tissues through the bedroom door as she sobbed on the other side.

It was a heavy burden for a young boy, and there was a great sense of relief, among the staff at Kensington Palace at least, when William went away to school. Charles and Diana agreed that the boys-only boarding school Ludgrove in Berkshire would be perfect for their elder son. Set in 130 acres of unspoilt countryside, it had an excellent reputation for sport as well as an impressive academic record. William had been worried and apprehensive about leaving home for the first time. It was 10 September 1990, and as the chauffeur-driven Bentley pulled up at the £2,350-a term school Diana blinked back tears. William, who was eight years old, was dressed in his new uniform of corduroy trousers and tweed jacket.
This time it was Diana who clasped her boy’s hand. Her elder son was leaving the nest and things would never be the same again.

Meanwhile in the front passenger seat Charles was also in reflective mood. His school days had been the unhappiest of his life, and he desperately hoped his son would not be subjected to the bullying he had endured at Cheam School in Surrey. He had cleared his diary to be with William after the criticism he had faced in the newspapers for not turning up for his first day of prep school. By now Charles and Diana’s private lives were headline news, and the prince suspected that the source of many of the stories was his wife. When Charles was on a painting holiday in Italy in May 1988 Harry had been rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital to have an emergency hernia operation. The British press had again noted Charles’s absence even though he had made half-hour checks via the telephone. This time he was not going to give his wife any ammunition.

Diana had spent the morning double-checking William’s trunk, which had been carefully packed by his new nanny Ruth Wallace. It contained his favourite wombat toy, which she always placed next to his pillow, and everything else he would need for his first term. At Ludgrove, once William was settled, Diana sped up the M4 back to Apartments 9 and 10 of Kensington Palace while Charles returned to Highgrove. By now the Waleses were living separate lives.

For William, who had matured from a boisterous child into a sensitive boy, school proved to be a relief from the turmoil at home. William and Harry had only just got used to Nanny Ruth, who whisked them upstairs when discussions became heated between their parents, but now she was leaving and would be replaced by Jessie Webbe.

William found comfort in the routine at Ludgrove. The day began shortly after seven o’clock, when he would wash and dress for breakfast. Lessons did not start until 9 a.m., and William liked to fit in a quick game of football before the first class. Lessons continued until 5.20 p.m., when the boys were free to play more sport before supper, and after chapel it was lights out at 8 p.m. The school’s amiable headmaster Gerald Barber had been quietly informed by Diana about the complicated situation at home and had promised to keep a close eye on William. Both he and his wife Janet would become key figures in William and Harry’s lives as their parents’ marriage finally fell apart.

Despite his initial nerves, William had at least one familiar face at his side at all times. His protection officers were Sergeant Reg Spinney, a former marine, and Graham Cracker, known as ‘Crackers’ to the boys and all the staff at Kensington Palace. They lived in private accommodation on the perimeter of the school grounds next to the tennis courts and the art school. Both had been told to keep their distance from William and allow him space and time with his peers. If anything, having the avuncular detectives around made William immediately popular with his dorm-mates, who found the high-tech tracking devices they used to keep an eye on their royal charge fascinating.