Mum, Harry and I belted out Simply The Best in the car to fight back-to-school anxiety
FOR any passing motorist, it would have been quite a sight. There was Princess Diana driving down the motorway, music blaring from the stereo, singing at the top of her voice with her two sons energetically joining in from the back seats.
Moreover, the Royal pop group had an unlikely additional member – their Royal personal protection officer.
The scene, as Princes William and Harry were being driven back to school by their mother, is vividly recreated by the Duke of Cambridge in what is an affectionate reflection about his mother.
The song of choice, rather aptly, was Tina Turner’s Simply the Best and it was deployed by Diana to raise the spirits of her children as they returned to boarding school.
William, 39, admits the happy memories are tinged with sadness as the ‘family moment’ is cut short as the school gates appear into view and he realises he must say goodbye. ‘When I was younger, Harry and I, we were at boarding school,’ says William, who began boarding at Ludgrove school in Berkshire when he was eight.
‘And my mother used to play all sorts of songs to while away the anxiety of going back to school.
And one of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I still, to this day, still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner’s The Best [sic] because sitting in the back seat, singing away, it felt like a real family moment.
‘And my mother, she’d be driving along, singing at the top of her voice. And we’d even get the policeman in the car, he’d be occasionally singing along, as well.
‘You’d be singing and listening to the music right the way out into the gates of school, when they dropped you off.
‘And, and that’s when reality kind of sunk in that you really were going back to school because before that, you’re lost in songs. You’ll want to play it again just to keep that family moment going.
‘And when I listen to it now, it takes me back to those car rides and brings back lots of memories of my mother.’
Last night, Ken Wharfe, a former Royal personal protection officer told The Mail on Sunday that he was the singing policeman mentioned by William. Mr Wharfe, 73, who now sings bass-baritone in the English Chamber Choir, said: ‘They were such happy times. Yes, there were all the issues of the Royal marriage, but the Prince and Princess did their very best at that time to keep their children out of it, so they were largely oblivious and they had great fun with their mother.
‘The Princess loved Tina Turner and would put the CD on full blast in the car, sometimes in the green Jaguar XJS she had, or other cars, the CD always came with us.
‘She played Simply the Best all the time and some Cliff Richard.’
Elsewhere in the Time To Walk podcast, William pays tribute to his mother by referring to the life lessons that she instilled in him. From an early age, she took him
‘She’d drive, singing at the top of her voice’ ‘When I listen to it now, it brings back memories’
and Harry on private visits to homeless shelters.
William has continued the work, taking over from her as Patron of the charity Centrepoint.
‘My mother took me to a homeless shelter to meet people who were down on their luck and who had a very difficult time in life,’ he says.
‘She wanted to make sure that I understood that life happens very much outside of palace walls, and this is what’s going on. This is the real world here. And we sat there, and we listened.’