Time for William to put a royal sock in it!
FEW could not have been moved by the tribute Princes William and Harry paid to their mother in the ITV programme Diana, Our Mother.
The brothers laid bare their feelings on camera, talking in detail of their love for her, the heartbreak of losing her so young, the funeral and the years of sadness that followed.
William said he hoped the film would encapsulate the woman he wanted the public to know. ‘It’s been quite daunting opening up so much, but this process has been quite healing as well,’ he said.
Later in the week, he was in a sombre mood again on the final day of his job as an air ambulance pilot.
Speaking of the horrors he and his colleagues witness, he said there are ‘things that cannot be unseen and experiences our first respondents deal with on a daily basis that they will carry with them for life’.
This will have doubtless resonated with hundreds of thousands of brave rescue servicemen and women. But must we really be privy to William’s innermost thoughts on everything?
William is taking a major step into a new life as a full-time royal. He would be wise to leave the soulbaring behind him.
Touchy-feely emoting is the staple of women’s magazines. It’s not what we expect from the Royal Family, whose dominant characteristics for most of the 20th century were fortitude, resilience and discretion.
While he may be right to try to create a modern style of monarchy, he would be wrong to neglect the many aspects of his grandmother’s reign that by and large followed the premise: never complain, never explain.
The Prince needs to remember how damaging it was to the monarchy when the private lives of his mother and father — and Andrew and Fergie — were aired in excruciating detail in TV interviews and books.
If William wants a lesson in how to behave when confronted with adversity, there is no greater example than that set by his grandmother in 1992.
In the year Charles and Diana separated, Andrew and Fergie split, Princess Anne divorced and Windsor Castle burned down, the Queen did not seek sympathy, she simply observed that it had ‘turned out to be an annus horribilis’. Just two words (in Latin!) to encapsulate all that personal pain and heartbreak.
We don’t want Princes who unburden themselves. We want royals who are strong and silent. That way the mystique of the monarchy endures.