How Philip tried to console William privately at funeral
THE Duke of Edinburgh comforted his grandson Prince William as he walked alongside him at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, only when he thought the cameras could not see him, a documentary has claimed.
The Duke, who famously told the young Princes William and Harry he would walk alongside them at the extraordinary and traumatic public event in 1997, tried to help them through this “awful, awful moment”, a friend told the programme.
Martin Palmer, who co-founded The Alliance of Religions and Conservation with Prince Philip, relayed how the Duke told him the moment he gently touched William on the back to comfort him had happened only because he thought they were out of shot.
The footage will be aired on an ITV documentary honouring the Duke, after he died at the age of 99 earlier this year. In the programme, royal experts and associates of the Duke speak about their memories of him. It will include colourised footage of the Queen and Duke as happy newlyweds, as well as archive footage of the Duke’s own interviews on television.
In a section detailing how he walked with his grandsons behind their mother’s coffin, his biographer Gyles Brandreth said, contrary to popular opinion, it was not the Duke’s idea.
Prince Harry has previously said “no child should be asked to do that”, while Prince William said: “It wasn’t an easy decision … there is that balance between duty and family and that’s what we had to do.”
In the new programme, Mr Palmer says of the Duke: “He’s come in for criticism for that but it was not his choice, not his idea… You’ve just got to watch that moment and realise here is a grandfather who is trying to help his young, very vulnerable grandson struggle through this awful, awful moment.”
Brandreth added: “It wasn’t his idea but there was a tradition in the Royal family of walking behind the hearse.”