Royal column: behind palace gates with Juliet Rieden
Behind Palace gates with Juliet Rieden
The official announcement came two days after the birth, with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcoming daughter Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor to the world. “Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11.40am in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Both mother and child are healthy and well, and settling in at home,” announced the couple’s press secretary. “Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honour her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales. This is the second child for the couple, who also have a two-year-old son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor,” the statement continued.
Shortly afterwards the couple announced their joy directly to followers on their Archewell website. “On June 4th, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe. Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family,” they said.
True to form, Harry and Meghan broke with royal tradition by not releasing a photo of the eighth in line to the throne and taking their time to savour their new addition privately before they announced the news.
I am advised that the Duke did speak with his family, including his grandmother, in advance of the announcement and a statement from Buckingham Palace said, “The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge … are delighted with the news.”
The beautiful choice of names speaks to Harry’s deep affection for the royal matriarchs in his life. Lilibet was a nickname given to the Queen – then Princess Elizabeth – and used often by her father King George VI, who was quoted saying, “Lilibet is my pride.” So the name carries with it that deep bond between a father and daughter. Diana, of course, keeps Harry’s mother with his family.
In the last 12 months of her life Diana, Princess of Wales, came to Australia. She was only here for three days, but her impact was significant. Despite no longer being a working member of the royal family, Diana was at the height of her star power, spreading her wings to support life-saving initiatives around the world. The People’s Princess was in Sydney to open the new Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and true to form spent time at the bedsides of seriously ill patients in St Vincent’s Hospital.
“I remember I said to her, ‘Don’t people get intimidated, Princess, when you go and talk to them?’” recalls Professor Bob Graham, the former Executive Director of the Institute. “She said to me, ‘If I stand on the edge of the bed or stand next to them, they never relax. But if I sit down and hold their hand, within five minutes they’ve forgotten who I am and they start to talk.’”
Diana famously attended a dinner dance on that visit which raised more than a million dollars for the Institute. She dazzled in a blue Versace gown teamed with an eyecatching aquamarine cocktail ring since worn by her daughter-in-law Meghan on her wedding day. Through her iconic jewellery, Diana’s sons share her with the women they love – William, of course, proposed with Diana’s engagement ring – and even though neither Meghan nor Catherine knew their mother-in-law, she will undoubtedly always be a huge presence in their lives.
On July 1 Diana would have been
60, and while it feels rather odd to be marking the former Princess of Wales’ birthday 24 years after her death, that is exactly what the world will be doing.
Many will be paying homage at the tantalising new exhibition at Kensington Palace, where the star
“It is historically the longest royal wedding dress train ever.”
attraction of Royal Style in the Making is that iconic fairytale wedding dress.
Alas, few Australians are likely to be able to visit in the current COVIDrestricted climate, but I would urge you to take a virtual walk through the exhibition online at the Historic Royal Palaces website: hrp.org.uk. The David and Elizabeth Emanuel creation had a tiny waist, which the designers reveal had to be reduced as the big day approached, and a sumptuous 25-foot sequin-encrusted train. Historically the longest royal wedding dress train ever, it is on display thanks to William and Harry, to whom Diana bequeathed the gown.
The brothers are increasingly protective of their mother’s legacy, as both showed in their separate responses to the release of the explosive findings of the Dyson report. This is the investigation by former British judge Lord Dyson into the nefarious actions of BBC journalist Martin Bashir, who it turns out duped Diana, Princess of Wales, into taking part in his infamous 1995 interview.
It isn’t the first time the interview has been investigated. Questions were raised by the UK’s Mail on Sunday newspaper shortly after Bashir’s interrogation aired. The newspaper then found evidence that fake bank statements had been drawn up and that these documents created an entirely false narrative that fed the princess’ paranoia. Thanks to Bashir’s lies, Diana believed she was under surveillance and members of the royal household were being paid for information about her.
The BBC duly set up an internal investigation in 1996 and, incredibly, we now know that this first report was a thinly veiled cover-up. The fact that the state broadcaster, usually upheld as a paragon of impeccable, reliable journalism, could be involved in such underhand tactics and then lie about it was shocking in itself, but the bigger issue for me is the fallout from that interview.
Diana’s criticisms of life within her marriage and the royal family pretty much severed her ties with the House of Windsor. After this interview, nothing was the same. The Queen urged Prince Charles and Diana to divorce, which they did in August 1996, and believing that she could no longer trust the royal household, Diana chose to shun her police security detail. There is no question that had Diana retained those royal personal protection officers, she would not have been in a car driven by a drunk driver, which resulted in the tragic crash that ended her life.
More than 20 million people watched the interview at the time, and in the decades that followed it has regularly been hauled out of the archives and presented as a seemingly accurate account of what was really going on behind palace gates and especially within the royal marriage. But to my mind everything about that interview is now tainted and in question.
Certainly William and Harry believe their mother’s interview to be a tragic travesty, and they are rightly distressed. Their responses came from opposite sides of the Atlantic and were embargoed for release at exactly the same time – proving, I think, that despite the reported rift between the siblings, their offices are clearly talking to each other, and where their mother is concerned, her boys are very much united.
Both condemned Bashir and the BBC for their deceitful behaviour. Prince William delivered his response in a powerful video and talked not only of the fake documents that duped their mother, but also of “lurid and false claims about the Royal Family [made by Bashir] which played on her fears and fuelled paranoia”.
The Duke of Cambridge did not hold back. “The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” he declared. “It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her. But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived … It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again.”
Prince Harry praised his “resilient,
brave and unquestionably honest” mother and, like his uncle Earl Spencer, connected the interview to her untimely death. “Our mother lost her life because of this, and nothing has changed. By protecting her legacy, we protect everyone, and uphold the dignity with which she lived her life. Let’s remember who she was and what she stood for.”
At the time of going to press, plans are still in place for the Dukes to unveil a statue of their mother in Kensington Gardens for a 60th birthday memorial. Prince Harry’s attendance will depend on the progress of his baby daughter and wife, and potential travel restrictions between the UK and US. But if he does make it, the narrative of their beloved mother Diana becoming the catalyst to reunite these two brothers is much needed.