Prince William (54 page)

The current Household's vision is a long way into the future. Right now, both Princes are serving officers with careers of
indeterminate length ahead of them, and both fit in royal duties, foreign tours, charitable appearances and their private lives around their jobs. William's profile is higher than his brother's at the moment because of the feel-good wedding and because Kate is glamorous and wears fabulous clothes and has finally filled the gap left by Diana. They are a golden couple who, as their tour of North America proved, have the world at their feet. They are global superstars; they are what every A-list celebrity dreams of. Their fame gives them power that opens wallets and doors, their presence brings a sprinkling of fairy dust to every gathering. But there are dangers. Fame is seductive – and destructive – as Diana discovered. It is also notoriously fickle and this couple needs to be opening wallets and doors and sprinkling fairy dust long after the A-listers have been passed over for younger models or have sunk into wrinkled retirement.

William genuinely has no interest in celebrity. His knows, rightly, that the spotlight is on him because of who he happens to be, which was an accident of birth. But he knows he can use it to the nation's advantage. He has many of the best qualities of both parents in him, but the person he most seems to model himself on is his grandmother.

‘She cares not for celebrity, that's for sure,' he told Robert Hardman. ‘That's not what monarchy's about. It's about setting examples. It's about doing one's duty as she would say. It's about using your position for the good. It's about serving the country and that really is the crux of it.'

William spoke to Robert for his biography of the Queen because she specifically asked him to; he hates talking about himself, but his observations were very illuminating. Particularly one about her succession at the age of twenty-five.

‘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 8
^th
Earl Spencer with the stepmother, Raine, who swept into their lives.