Prince William (29 page)

COMING OF AGE

In the summer of 2003 William turned twenty-one and Mario Testino, the photographer who had taken such haunting pictures of his mother, was invited to take the official photographs. It was Colleen's idea and the natural choice.

‘I think he was a little bit uncomfortable about that photo shoot but I pushed it a bit because I thought it would be lovely. It was about the similarity, and some of the pictures he caught were very like Diana, particularly the one of her in the black polo neck. It was not such a clever move but that was the power of Diana blinding us all, we weren't thinking straight. But he didn't say no. He could have really kicked off and he didn't. Again, that is him.'

He touched on the photographs in a characteristically self-deprecating way in an accompanying interview with Peter Archer from the Press Association. ‘I chose Mario,' he said, ‘because he's the only person who could make a moose look good!' It was the most revealing interview he had ever given and for someone who doesn't like to talk about himself, it was surprisingly expansive.

But in the midst of it was a heartfelt public defence of his father, who, he said, had been a ‘huge influence' on him, and an appeal for his critics to give him a break.

His father had had a particularly nightmarish year with a series of shocking revelations and accusations directed at him and his Household. They began with the collapse of the notorious Burrell trial. Paul Burrell, the butler whom Diana referred to as her ‘rock', had been accused of stealing several million pounds' worth of items belonging to the Princess of Wales's estate, most of which had
been found squirrelled away at his home. What had not been found, however, was a mahogany box containing a tape Diana had recorded which her sister, Sarah, told police contained ‘sensitive' material. Spurred on by the Spencers, who were Diana's executors, the Crown Prosecution Service prosecuted and the case came to court, only to stop a month later.

The Queen mentioned in passing to the Prince of Wales that Burrell had been to see her privately soon after Diana's death five years earlier, and told her that he was taking a number of papers from Kensington Palace for safekeeping. Burrell had started off in life as the Queen's footman and she had been fond of him, as had Charles and William and Harry, who used to play with his two sons when they were little. This connection was why she had agreed to see him. Charles mentioned it to Sir Michael Peat, his new Private Secretary, the police were alerted and the £1.5 million trial came to a shuddering halt. It was never quite explained why Burrell telling the Queen he had taken a few papers should have undermined a trial for theft of more than three hundred items found in his house and under his floorboards. Nevertheless, he walked away a free if rather broken man.

No fewer than four hundred media organisations approached him, offering vast sums for his story. He was persuaded to go with the
Mirror
. Piers Morgan, announcing the deal, said, ‘He will protect the memory of Princess Diana and will honour his pledge to always protect the Queen. But I think there will be many others in the Royal Family and close to the Royal Family who will be quaking in their boots tonight.' His story ran day after day and opened a very unpalatable can of worms. It seemed that taking home unwanted gifts that had been given to the Prince and/or Princess of Wales was seen as a perk of the job within the Household. More valuable gifts were either sold for charity or exchanged for something more useful. The Prince's valet, Michael Fawcett, handled these sales, and he became known as ‘Fawcett the Fence'.

Worse was to come. A headline in the
Mail on Sunday
read, ‘I WAS RAPED BY CHARLES'S SERVANT'. It was an unreliable
story from an unreliable witness, George Smith, a former valet, and it was common knowledge that his allegations were on the tape in the missing mahogany box. But it prompted the Prince to set up an inquiry into the probity of his Household, which threw up plenty of room for improvement in creating systems but found no fundamental dishonesty.

‘He's been given quite a hard time recently,' said William, ‘and I just wish that people would give him a break. He does so many amazing things. I only wish people would see that more because he's had a very hard time and yet he's stuck it out and he's still very positive.'

William's father and grandmother were jointly organising a birthday party for him at Windsor Castle for three hundred family and friends – one of whom, camouflaged among a group from St Andrews, was Kate. He had chosen the theme ‘Out of Africa' because he ‘thought it would be quite fun to see the family out of black tie and get everyone to dress up.' A curious collection of costumes made their way into the Castle that Saturday night, including furry lions, legionaries, tribal chieftains, Tarzan and a banana. Someone who also made their way in, but not past security at the King Henry VIII Gate, was a thirty-six-year-old self-styled comedy terrorist, Aaron Barschak, dressed as Osama bin Laden. He made his way not only into the grounds, but into the very heart of the party and onto the stage where Prince William was making a speech. For a moment, everyone thought he was part of the entertainment, but when he grabbed the microphone it became clear he was an intruder, and he was very quickly seized by security and taken in handcuffs to the local police station. The following day, the Home Secretary ordered an inquiry.

On a more personal note in the birthday interview, William said, ‘My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring. I'm not an over-dominant person. I don't go around and expect everyone to listen to me the whole time; but I like to be in control of my life because I have so many people around me, I can get pulled in one direction and then the other. If I don't
have any say in it, then I end up just losing complete control and I don't like the idea of that. I could actually lose my identity.

‘A lot of people think I'm hugely stubborn about the whole thing, but you have to be slightly stubborn because everybody wants you for one reason or another. If you don't stick to your guns and stick to your decision, then you lose control.'

He insisted, however, that he did listen to advice. ‘I do listen, of course I listen. I listen to what people have to say to me and I make my own judgements from there. I think it's very important that you make your own decision about what you are. Therefore you're responsible for your actions, so you don't blame other people.'

Asked whether he wanted to be King, he said, ‘All these questions about do you want to be King? It's not a question of wanting to be, it's something I was born into and it's my duty. Wanting is not the right word. But those stories about me not wanting to be King [which had been circulating] are all wrong. It's a very important role and it's one that I don't take lightly. It's all about helping people and dedication and loyalty, which I hope I have – I know I have. Sometimes I do get anxious about it but I don't really worry a lot. I want to get through university and then maybe start thinking seriously about that in the future. I don't really ever talk about it publicly. It's not something you talk about with whoever. I think about it a lot but they are my own personal thoughts. I'll take each step as it comes and deal with it as best I can.'

He also mentioned his love of speed and motorbikes. He had a Yamaha 600 trials bike that he rode on and off road, mostly around Highgrove. ‘My father is concerned about the fact that I'm into motorbikes but he doesn't want to keep me all wrapped up in cotton wool,' he said. ‘So you might as well live if you're going to live. It's just something I'm passionate about. I've always had a passion for motorbikes ever since I was very small. I used to do a lot of go-karting when I was younger and then after that I went on to quad bikes and eventually motorbikes. It does help being anonymous with my motorcycle helmet on because it does enable
me to relax; but I just enjoy everything about motorbikes and the camaraderie that comes with it.'

Cars, on the other hand, he could take or leave – and drove a second-hand Volkswagen Golf. ‘Everyone, I'm sure, hopes some day they'll get a new car but I'm very lucky with the car I've got at the moment. It's fast enough and it's very comfortable. I've got a good stereo in it. I'm sure my father would go absolutely bananas if he saw me driving, blaring music out of the windows.'

Not long afterwards, someone did go bananas when they saw him driving but it wasn't his father; it was the septuagenarian and rather grumpy 8th Earl Bathurst, owner of Cirencester Park where William had been playing polo.

The Earl was driving through the Park on his way home from the same polo match, when his Land Rover was overtaken on the grass verge by a Volkswagen Golf travelling at 40 to 50 mph. Roused to heights of fury by this flagrant breach of the estate's 20 mph speed limit, Bathurst gave chase, flashing his lights, sounding his horn and engaging in off-road manoeuvres to try to get the offender to stop. But it was the Earl himself who was forced to stop – by the security team protecting Prince William, as he sped home.

Although Clarence House issued an apology, the Earl remained unrepentant: ‘There are rules in the polo club about driving on the estate, and people have to stick to them', he told an interviewer. ‘I don't care who it is, royalty or not – speeding is not allowed on my estate. If I was to drive like that in Windsor Park, I'd end up in the Tower.' He did not recognise the Prince, he explained, observing that he ‘thought he was some young yob in a beat-up car'.

For his last two years at St Andrews, William and Kate, now an item, and their two housemates moved out of town. For people with cars, there is no shortage of farmhouses and cottages to rent along the coastline or in the surrounding farmland, and many third- and fourth-year students prefer to be in the countryside. They rented a stone cottage about a mile to the west of the town,
off the A91. It was part of a typical nineteenth-century farm courtyard with a combination of living quarters and storage units and a right of way straight through the middle of it. ‘I got the impression,' says David Corner, ‘that William just did these things and security picked up the problem afterwards, whether it was good or bad.' It lay more than half a mile up a pot-holed farm track off the main Guardbridge road, well hidden by trees. The ‘yob's' beat-up car was essential kit for getting in and out, and although less convenient than Hope Street, for 9 a.m. lectures – and post 9 p.m. nightlife – it was infinitely more private. With open countryside to walk in without fear of being spotted, and open fires to come home to in the dark evenings, it was little short of idyllic and provided the perfect sanctuary for William and Kate to explore their relationship further.

It was not an easy start to the new academic year. Within weeks of William going back up to Scotland, Paul Burrell was making headlines again and effectively calling the Prince of Wales a murderer. In the intervening year he had written his memoirs,
A Royal Duty
, about his time in the Wales Household, which were serialised in the
Daily Mirror
. Piers Morgan was on a roll. Burrell quoted from letters written by the Princess. One suggested Charles was planning a fatal car crash so that he would be free to remarry, which, of course, played nicely into the conspiracy theorists' hands. The letter was undoubtedly in her handwriting but was actually thought to have been written several years before she died. In another more recent one, she had written, ‘I have been battered, bruised and abused mentally by a system for fifteen years now … Thank you, Charles, for putting me through such hell and for giving me the opportunity to learn from the cruel things you have done to me.'

William read these accusations day after day with mounting fury, and by the end of the week he had had enough. He rang Harry, who was then on his gap year in Australia, and they agreed a joint statement that Colleen released on their behalf. Many were shocked by the vehemence of their words.

The statement said, ‘We cannot believe that Paul, who was entrusted with so much, could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal. It is not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul. We ask Paul please to bring these revelations to an end.'

Burrell issued his own statement. He said: ‘I am saddened at the statement issued on behalf of Prince William and Prince Harry. Saddened because I know that this book is nothing more than a tribute to their mother. I am convinced that when the Princes, and everyone else, read this book in its entirety they will think differently. My only intention in writing this book was to defend the Princess and stand in her corner. I have been greatly encouraged by calls of support from some of the Princess's closest friends within the past 48 hours. I would also like to point out that, following the collapse of my trial at the Old Bailey last year, no one from the Royal Family contacted me or said sorry for the unnecessary ordeal myself, my wife and my sons were put through. Neither do I say sorry for writing this book of which I am extremely proud and I am convinced the Princess would be proud of too. I have told the truth where the British public should know the truth.'

Speaking on the BBC's
Real Story
, he said he would never have written the book if the boys had contacted him after the trial. ‘I was saddened but slightly angry because I know those boys. I felt immediately that those boys were being manipulated and massaged by the system, by the palace, by the grey men in suits – whatever you want to call them. By those people who did exactly the same to their mother. The spin machine has gone forward again. Too many people busy spinning and William and Harry sent out as the emotional cannon.'

If he thought that William could have been manipulated by anyone, it had clearly been a very long time since he'd spent any time with him.