Wills: ‘This may be most nervous I have ever been’
ADDRESSING a small group of journalists at Kensington Palace before the screening of the new ‘official’ documentary about his late mother, the Duke of Cambridge rubbed his hands together and looked anxious.
Dressed casually in a sports jacket and open-neck shirt, the future King’s first words broke the tension in the room and got a laugh, too. ‘This is possibly the most nervous I’ve ever been,’ he said.
William is a smooth operator. When it comes to dealing with the media, he often uses selfdeprecation as a tool. It’s a device his father uses too.
He went on: ‘It’s one thing doing a documentary like this, it’s another thing standing in front of all you guys, explaining about something very personal. Nonetheless l think it is important that I am here to do that.’
William added: ‘We haven’t spoken so publicly about her before and we felt it was the right time to do it. We won’t be doing this again.’ That, I very much doubt. For decades I have watched William’s relationship with the press – I even conducted his first newspaper ‘interview’.
I was allowed to fire a couple of pre-cleared questions to the young Prince during a ski holiday in Klosters in the mid-1990s.
He was holidaying with his father – by then separated from Diana – and brother Harry. Cousins Beatrice and Eugenie were at the ski resort at the same time with Sarah Ferguson. Even then William was painfully diplomatic.
When I asked who was the better skier between him and his younger brother (fearless daredevil Harry was, by miles) William squinted in the sunshine, gestured towards his cousins and tactfully swerved the question – and the headline that would accompany the answer.
Diana’s death has seriously damaged his relationship with the media, possibly permanently. As a result, William is still conscious not to give too much of himself away.
It may be a wise path. After all, manipulating the press – even in the courageous way she discussed her marriage problems in that legendary BBC Panorama interview – was something that left his mother exposed.