How Charles And Diana's Divorce Affected William | My Mother Diana | Timeline

Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton marks the beginning of a new and independent stage of his life William is the new face of the monarchy for the 21st century on the surface William appears to be a product of the old order grooms to be king by the House of Windsor but William is the son of Diana the woman who transcended celebrity and transformed the monarchy the influence of his mother is going to be special she opened his eyes to the other side of life it's easy to forget the William's formative years took place in the crossfire of the War of the Wales's Prince William and Prince Harry the children of a broken home not just any old broken home possibly the most acrimonious and bitter separation and divorce in royal history Dianna's life was steeped in controversy the House of Windsor tried to disown her but the media were obsessed with her [Music] how has the life and tragedy of Diana influenced William and will William be the king his mother wanted him to be [Music] like his parents 30 years ago William agreed to a television interview on the day his engagement was announced William's mother was this massive iconic figure the most famous figure of our age is that worrying is that is that intimidating does that does that do you think about that a lot both of you you particularly Kate obviously well obviously it'd be I would love to have met her and and and she had obviously issues it she's an inspirational woman too to look up to you and you know very inspirational so yeah I do can you find the words to sum up how you feel today both of you just delighted and happy and I suppose in that Oh in love [Music] the story of William and his mother Diana begins 30 years ago [Music] she seemed like a perfect bride for Prince Charles she was young attractive she had the right background and we were told the right background in 1981 meant a member of the aristocracy give us a hint himself wouldn't have to wait too long that was a girl who really wanted to become Princess of Wales and nobody you know she was going to upset anybody on the way [Applause] the perfect marriage was watched by billions of people around the world it was the last great royal wedding to galvanize the British public [Music] she emerged from this wonderful glass coach she was on the arm of her elderly father who had suffered a stroke and he did his damnedest to be up to take her down the aisle and everyone was with him every inch of that he walked her up the aisle and she had this amazing dress she was wearing that's endless train and creases and lots of a little pretty little bridesmaids running around at her feet yeah is the stuff of which fairytales are made it did seem like a fairy tale suddenly the world seemed electrified by Donna no other well remember the royal family mattered that year oh I think for the next 17 years it was just fair within three months she became pregnant with Prince William [Music] it was a boy it secured the line Charles had done his duty Donna provided him with a son at the age of only 20 diana had responsibility for bringing up a future king her first real encounter with the media was in Australia on her first ever royal tour and I remember meeting her then for the first time and she was very nervous she was very jittery when Diana was unsure of what to do on the walkabout Charles sent her off on her own but Diana had not expected the level of interest in her it would have been far easier to had two wives to have covered both sides of the street the tour of Australia and New Zealand was a real rite of passage in a real ordeal and she was helped to overcome that ordeal with the fact that Prince William was with them on the Royal tour at the age of nine months Prince William was launched onto the world stage Jamie loves his koala bear he's got day after day the only questions she was ever asked was how is William and she loved to respond to that she emerged a very confident young woman they were halcyon days that period between williams birth in 1982 and Harris arrival in September 84 they seemed a happy young family we know that Charles was helping out in the nursery he was cutting short his engagements to be back in time for bath time dan was determined he should be involved in the early stages of Williams life quite unlike his own upbringing another part of Williams upbringing involved having to appear in front of the cameras [Music] but there was a problem within the family that would make the cameras a much more intrusive part of his life [Music] Dinah's weight loss of course did get a lot of mention I mean she she became stick thing there was concern but it was it was explained away by the palace at the time and we accepted what they said that it was simply the stress of new motherhood coping with a baby coping with life in in the royal goldfish bowl in September 1984 there was another addition to the Wales's but it was not the daughter that Charles wanted when Harry was born Prince Charles is quite dismissive of both her and the baby and she as she said to me something inside me died and the shutters came down rumors about the state of the world is mesh really began from about 1985 onwards and certainly by 1986 our I remember that already newspapers worth of counting the days when not when Charles and Diana were apart but when they were actually together the royal couple gave their marriage very little opportunity to flower and to flourished they were together effectively as a couple for only three or four years although her marriage was disintegrating diana imposed her influence on William's upbringing unlike the four-year-old Prince Charles Prince William was not going to be educated at home by a governess I've recalled the first day vividly and Donna said to William who was you know dressed immaculately school uniform you've got to be you know brave now because when we arrive there they're going to be probably 120 photographers you know so and that's what you're gonna probably get now for the rest of your life and of course he turn around I said I don't like tog refers we arrived at the school Donna did her professional piece of that smile was with him completely ignored it just climbed the steps we quickly go into this reception room where all these mums and their new kids they're because Williams Stood Still and you could see it that the parents dressed in their finery were desperately edging their son forwards to be the first to sell out a William but there were very few days in Williams early schooling that dad didn't go with him I mean William was you know as a young boy seemed to me peaceful much more reserved was I suppose in a way slightly sly character never quite knew that what you were gonna get with William say from his brother who was much more overt if you know Perry would say to his brother you know oh it's alright for you you know you'll be king one day I won't be so there I can do what I want so at a very young age Prince William knew that he was somebody special they filled the Royal duty in a way is is slightly more in brand it has to be I mean it has to be trained in a way Diana had done her duty by providing an errand to spare but now there was something that was going to break the golden rule of Duty first when William was six the marital problems between his parents came to a head the journalists although they suspected pretty much 90% knew that Charles would return to Camilla parker-bowles - nobody could write it and so the public were completely left in the dark at the beginning of 1989 diana decided to confront charles to his mistress on one evening Donna went with the Prince of Wales to the 40th birthday of Kim Yuna's a sister she said to me you know the Prince doesn't want me to come but I'm going she said because I know Kimmel is gonna be there almost immediately I heard diners shouting my name outside and I said gay what's going on you know she said oh well she said I'm I can't find the printers can I can't see commit her either and I need one find them we descended to some stairs to it to a basement and there was the Prince of Wales sat with Camilla I mean just talking and Diana was incredibly bold and I you know I haven't seen her do this before Diana said something like look I know this has been going on for some time you know and why do you do it and to do very sort of stonyface people you know Camilla was the one that that said well it's all right for you you've you've got you know two lovely boys and so forth as if that excused what was happening and it was quite bizarre he's incredibly uncomfortable for me and I left this had sealed in dyers of ideas and that any chance of a reconciliation now is finished [Music] at the age of 8 William began his life as a portrait lug grove school unaware that his mother was planning to break a royal taboo that would drastically changed the future Kings life like generations of future kings before him William's life is taking on a familiar pattern his loyalty to the House of Windsor unquestioning but William spent his formative years caught in the crossfire his parents public feud the War of the Wales's Prince William and Prince Harry their children have a broken home but not just any old broken possibly the most acrimonious and bitter separation and divorce in royal history I would take the war the wellses from Diana's 30th birthday so July the 1st 1991 Prince Charles leaked a story that he had been prepared to give his wife a party just to show that everything was fine with the marriage but he wanted to throw a 30th birthday party for her and she turned it down she didn't want it whilst waiting on the Royal Yacht Britannia to join his parents tour of Canada William was about to become an unwitting pawn in the royal feud and unlike the nine-year-old Prince some of the media began to take sides Diana just ignored all the dignitaries that were lined up to meet them and rushed up the gangplank to meet the children embrace them as a famous picture of them her arms out embracing them what nobody really saw was that a few seconds later after Charles had shaken all the hands of all the dignitaries he went up and embraced the children exactly the same way with the same degree of love and warmth but nobody took that photograph what was also unseen was the effect their parents marital difficulties were having on William and Harry as the children were growing up they could sense this what was going on the stony silence as the shouting matches the fact that diana would retreat to the bathroom in tears and on one occasion I remember William pushed some tissues and under the bathroom door to saying please don't cry mommy she felt so desperate so alone so constrained by the system some of the people who knew her very well would genuinely felt that she was on the edge and on the edge of taking her own life it was clear they were major problems but the assumption always was in those days was that this is the Prince of Wales he's the heir to the throne they can't separate on the verge of self-destruction as a last resort diana decided that if the royal family could not help her she would turn to the public at home in kensington palace diana secretly recorded the intimate details of her family life the tapes were smuggled out fahren intermediary and passed onto a freelance journalist Andrew Morton [Music] I first heard about the name Camilla parker-bowles in a workingman's cafe in Ruislip in North London and I met the intermediary there a chap called James cultist and he played me the first tape and I put the headphones on and all around me these guys are eating bacon and eggs and I was listening to these tapes and it was astonishing I felt I'd gone through a looking glass into a different world two weeks before Williams 10th birthday Diana my true story was serialized in a national Sunday newspaper Diana had become a whistleblower and had gone public with her account of life within the House of Windsor seismic it really was at the time for the first time someone had got people Friends of a member of the royal family talking on the record about the most intimate aspect of this person's life namely Diana's marriage it exposed it for what it was the sham that had become the unhappiness the misery that she was suffering the Morton book actually confirmed and identified to the world from the very person herself look I've got a problem here in a way the book was her release valve the night of the first Sunday Times serialization died Nicole James said that she said the best night's sleep she's had in years Diana had gone to bed unaware that she'd opened Pandora's box following the serialization of the Morton book the press interest in Diana's scaled new heights the gloves came off people were obsessed I mean the the interest was was phenomenal to crowds of journalists that turned up to cover every event involving Diana four days later during the visit to a hospice in Southport the pressure on her was visible for all to see [Music] life could never be the same for Diana or his son William on holidays for example William would say to them oh we're not gonna get any photographers turnout higher because you need a holiday because if he was saying look you need help here you know and I hope they don't turn up for your sake so when the press did turn up it wasn't a hatred of them it was more concerned for her that he had a problem you noticed in a lot of the photographs and the footage that he's whenever he's near his mother he's checking to see that she's okay which i think is a really nice sign from the little boy The Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate this decision has been reached to nicob Lee and they will both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children Diana told me the day together sat down and explained the circumstances of why you know we as your mother and father and no longer going to live together because there has been a breakdown in our relationship which sadly happens in life so yes they were told about him but but given the environment in which they live in there was too much going on really for them to go and sit down in front of the television was I think and groan and moan about him [Music] [Applause] [Music] she once said to me that she wanted William to see a life that was not just 4x4 Range Rovers holidays abroad and country house estates she wanted you to witness the full panoply of what is modern Britain today so she took them to amusement parks she took em for hamburgers [Music] it was very clear to me that Diana wanted them to be in the brackets normal [Music] you know dyes they come up when we're gonna go into McDonald's or we're going to find something from Marks and Spencers in Kensington High Street so this this whole idea of trying to do things with him that other people did was was very much of Diana's insistence I mean I remember you know the Prince of Wales hearing that William Bentham of dollars and had been to Marks and Spencers and universi you know why do you need to go there my record you know both William Harry enjoying these these breakouts from from from a royal palace [Music] [Applause] [Music] as well as making life fun for william diana was keen to show william another side of life far far away from the royal palaces I remember her taking William very early in the morning away from the glare of the cameras to the passage day Center to have our clothing to hand out food and so forth and I remember you know William there handing out a tea and a coffee or something and and this one guy came up having spent the night on the street and I said give me that you know you know I'm not interested in you and he knew exactly who he was and this was quite a opening quite under waiting for William and and Diane I remember in the car XM you see William you see this is what happens not everybody likes us this was part of Diana's education wanted him to see what other people did William and Harry between the separation and divorce were moving from one parent to another and there was concerned that they were being too indulged as many separated parents do they try and win the favors of of the other but significantly both William and Harry were moving more into their father's orbit it was great fun for Prince William he was introduced to some of his father's and country pursuits that was quite interesting to him you know it's very very exciting for him so he he studied I think initially he was very much his mother's son and his mummys boy if you like I mean you know who'd spending a lot of time with her but then it was a moment of change and that I think upset darling this tug of war to win the hearts and minds of William and Harry was conducted in private but what would affect Williams upbringing much more profoundly was the war his parents began to win the hearts and minds of the public [Music] [Applause] well surprise he scored go washi say yeah I just make a nuisance myself Keynesians bill - yes Paul that's not very different relative to say in 1994 when William was 12 Charles retaliated against Diana for the Morton book and became the first Prince of Wales to go public about his mistress did you try to be faithful to your wife is absolutely and you were yes until it became irretrievably broken down Prince Charles took away the fig leaf when he went on television was interviewed by Jonathan Dimbleby and confessed his adultery with Camilla parker-bowles it was the first time he'd made a tacit admission about his relationship with Camilla that we will went to see a preview of the documentary and I remember just racing out of that preview trying to make sure we've got the transcript absolutely spot-on because you know this was the most amazing event the future king admitting that he had an adulterous affair with a married woman the program at relaunch hostilities with Diana on a scale previously thought to be inconceivable when William was sent to Eton at 13 an informal deal was struck with a press to leave him alone but while the cameras were kept away from William his mother was secretly inviting the bbc's panorama team into Kensington Palace lledon will be and if you gave diner the signal for her took on television herself in a kind of repast panorama whatta surprised I know why she did it it was all part of her retaliating one year eighteen months on from Charles's Dimbleby interview which she found very upsetting my impression was she had manipulated how she looked in it that she from everything from the way she dressed to the way she made up to her facial expressions after the the Martin Bashir interview Dianna regretted one thing and that was talking about James Hewitt and her affair with him I think the reason Diana felt that she'd done the wrong thing by speaking about James Hewitt in her famous television interview was the impact on the boys she told the boys that she was seeing James in order to teach the boys how to ride then the penny dropped she had been using William and Harry as kind of like cover for her affair because she was telling them at the time oh he's teaching me how to ride principal him knew that was a lie and when he met her Eton where he was then a boarder he wouldn't speak to her for a few days because he was just so upset that the deception [Music] dinah always felt that in the court of public opinion she would triumph that was her modus operandi she felt that by giving the television interview she could speak over the heads of the royal family and connect with the people she also admitted in the interview that she there were three of us in this marriage she said but more importantly and than that I think because we all sort of ready knew that I think more importantly was the her rapier thrust at Charles in which basically effectively said he didn't want the job and he wasn't suitable for the job it wouldn't suit Charles to be the king and so she was declaring Oh William should be the next king I mean it was a huge moment not only in television but also for Prince William which a lot of people then followed and actually supported that view now that was an awful lot of pressure being placed upon the shoulders of a young boy as well as questioning his father's right to rule his king the panorama interview set in train a series of events that will culminate in tragedy his mother no question panorama led directly to the divorce within a month the Queen had written to both of them Charles and I and said this has got to end you must be divorced Donna's greatest fear was losing access and control of her children and because in law the Queen can actually take custody the heirs to the throne that is to say William and Harry finalized Diana Princess of Wales because she now is feeling desperate during the divorce Diana turned to friends who could offer a sympathetic ear once it was finalized the biggest relief was that she was going to be allowed to just have the children because she would give everything in the world to have those boys she she loved them to the ends of the earth diana was still allowed to see the children but she was no longer part of the royal family which would bring to the surface the issue of divided loyalties for William even to a boy of 1995 he was 13 he will have seen that his mother was criticizing his father and he loved both his parents and it must have been very confusing for him he can't really tell the impact it would have had upon William that breakup of his parents marriage but he's behavior at school changed I remember I was working as a newspaper reporter and I had a tip that he'd been involved in a fight at school now at the time I thought this was a great story you know for the tabloid newspaper I was working for William in fight at school ticked off by the headmaster but actually what I found out subsequent to that was that the boy that he got involved in a fight with had been ridicule him with him about his parents breakup and so it must have impacted on him although the occasional story serviced about William at Eton he was still far away from the media spotlight the only time the press came to visit was when his mother called on his 14th birthday it was a gentle reminder that his mother was still the biggest celebrity in the world even after the divorce she was am like a magnet to the media she would always go with a press pack of at least 30 people she was a big story she sold the photographs around the world in huge colossal numbers I mean she was an industry a one-woman industry if you like and there were a lot of photographers who who got rich just photographing Princess Diana [Music] it was a like a drug you to get more and more pictures of this woman you know she she looked a million dollars and you just couldn't stop yourself you know there was still major interest in her more interest in her than any member of the royal family it was almost as if she had her own court and she was a star in that court to cope with his press obsession diana recruited an experienced PR consultant as a media advisor the princess was followed by the media everywhere that she went they waited outside Kensington Palace and they would hop on scooters and follow cars it was difficult it was obsessional obvious like a new rule it was new 24 hours a day but it wasn't life-threatening she was very cute about it very knowledgeable about it she knew the malls she knew all the cars that followed her she knew all the scooters that followed him and she kind of handled it very well and she always looked immaculate and knew you know that she was going to be photographed I always saw it as a bit of a gray period in her life Diana's alone in a pretty hostile world Diana we have to remember had discarded her police bodyguard taking considerable risk in my view at times for Diana the rules of engagement with a press had changed [Music] could I ask you to respect my children's space as a parent I want to protect children thank you when William was on holiday with his mother he could see that in the land of the celebrity there were no rules [Music] his mother's life was trouble it was always trouble with a capital T but with with popper with with Prince Charles he could get away from all that and there was a degree of freedom he relished Dinah couldn't do things with the boys that Charles could do Donna didn't have royal homes dotted around the country she didn't have wide-open spaces for them to run around and knowing they wouldn't be photographed and the boys look forward to that hugely [Music] in contrast to their mother photo shoots with their father were rare controlled and agreed with the press [Music] but back at Eaton who is impossible for William to ignore the strange world of his celebrity mother when he was 14 stories began to surface in the newspapers about relationships his mother was alleged to be having although the school went to great lengths to ensure he didn't see the daily newspapers when there might be something offensive to him in them it was hard to blot out everything and also his friend saw things his if the parents of his friends saw things if William didn't like the stories appearing in the press neither did Diana so she decided to leak her own Oh Diana managed to get straw his league touts through me and through other people richer cape was the journalist she told everything to it's no secret on one occasion I was photograph getting into into her car and we'd arranged him to meet somewhere unlikely like around the back of Paddington Station she was extremely careful about what she said to me about her private life because of what I did I mean where she could help me would be someone who reported that she was seeing X and she wasn't or what she would tell me that's not true although Diana could trust some journalists to write her version of the truth she struggled to find someone amongst us see a friends whom she could confide in Diana had a very hard time trusting people because obviously being in that position who's your friend there's many single parents find who are going through a divorce you tend to rely more in your children William became less of her son needing her advice and more of an advisor to her [Music] dynasty was thinking a lot about her future how she could strike out on her own and you know talking about getting rid of her some of her clothes and Prince William famously said well why don't you orcs than them off and and give the proceeds to charity one hundred thousand sixty-five one seventy-five I knew she was gonna say that the gowns were sold in New York and raised what four or five million pounds for charity we tend to think in forests you know just the gorgeous princess in glamorous gowns and Tiaras but you know towards the end I think she'd discarded all that she was just out to try and make a difference a big difference Princess Diana did everything she could to make her children see that there was more beyond the monarchy that was more than being royal having discarded her gowns and tiaras Diana began her new role to rid the world of landmines it would be her most controversial role to date Angola had 15 million unexploded landmines - scattered in places young children playing football on the local village football pitch were getting blown up I accompanied the princesses that remember the press to Angola she had the bit between her teeth she seemed very determined to make a difference she kicked us off for the press a little bit saying that we'd focus too much no clothes not the issues that matters you knew that you were being in many ways as a member of the media being manipulated by her for her causes but you couldn't help yourself [Music] Diana wasn't just showing William a role for a future king she was showing him how to walk a political tightrope trying to highlight a problem that's going on all around the world that's all it's been said though that you're aligning yourself with labor policy do you think that's wise Levi I didn't know what you're talking about your naivety about Diana that I thought was endearing it was what drove her what what enabled her to be compassionate there was a cynical view that her care and compassion were photo opportunities but I remember going to Chicago with her to the Northwestern Hospital we were showing all over including the premature baby unit I was very unwilling to allow the photographs into that unit and so the cameras didn't go in there there was no difference to the way that she behaved with the mothers with the children with the compassion that she showed and the interest and the tenderness towards the children then if the cameras had been there she was genuinely you know that sort of person [Music] while Diana was trying to show William our royal celebrity could be a force for change he was sheltered away at Eton but what happened next would not only help him understand compassion but would throw them right back into the media spotlight particularly our guest of honor Diana Princess of Wales the metaphorical by the time William is 15 his mother had successfully forged a new role for herself outside the royal family but her life was becoming more unpredictable she had great deal of fulfillment in her public life in the public world but her private life was difficult I think he was always gonna be difficult where do you go after you've been married to the heir to the British crown who'll take me on she would say who really in their right minds would take me on I think she was always looking for a man for the right man and and probably never found him in July 1997 Diana took William and Harry to stay with Dodi Fayed at his father's villa in the South of France clearly she'd fallen for him in a big way who's worked in Hollywood who's been used to the glamour and the cameras and and a life and in the public eye [Music] Dianna's time spent on the Phibes yacht off San Tropez was a final holiday with William and Harry and her final act in the war of the Wales's she was down in San Tropez on that holiday with William and Harry and she came over to our boat and she was so upset it's almost pleading with us why are we there and I said so would you I had to ring the editor and see if we can perhaps pull out of here and she said well I don't really want that she said and then anyway she she went back in a boat she did the most beautiful dive into the sea [Music] and then she went over to where Harry was on a jet ski and she got on the back of the jet ski and she just were drowned our boat on this jet ski giving this most amazing photo call so work that one out I can't Ike still to this day cut working out she only behaved like an aspiring starlet in San Tropez because Prince Charles was hosting her 50th birthday party for Camilla parker-bowles I remember James cultist asked her if Prince Charles came to you on bended knee would you take him back and she thought about it for a long moment and she said yes [Music] accidents happened in the early hours of this morning the pager started dancing on the wooden floors at about 1:30 in the morning I was asleep at a colleague Hamlet on doors and windows until I woke up we're just receiving the the sad news that Diana Princess of Wales has in fact Wales has died Prince William was at Balmoral his father came in to his bedroom woke him in the morning and told in the news [Music] after years away from the glare of the media spotlight Diana's death pushed the 15 year old Williams center stage by putting aside his private grief and stepping out to greet the public Prince William had come of age they were going around looking at the flowers although commemorations to their mother and a lady made a comment to him and then handed him some flowers it was just so Pillai and together it seemed extraordinary William really showed what strength he had [Music] on September the 6th 1997 and millions of mourners around the world watched Diana's funeral they also saw William waiting in the wings ready to follow his mother for the last time [Music] [Applause] 14 years after his mother's death William has a prominent role as a member of the royal family but what will be the influence of Diana's life on William will he want to follow in her footsteps clearly the influence of his mother is going to be special I mean she opened his eyes to the other side of life the first ever pat reduced his side himself to was the center point Center for the Homeless because he will remember and reflect back to those days when his mother took him to the the passage day Center to all the work that his mother had done for the homeless the aged the the dispossessed William has always been searching for normal he doesn't he wants to live a life less extraordinary he's found someone who doesn't necessarily have these emotional problems he doesn't come from a broken home she comes with a very solid middle-class family very fact that he is able to meet fall in love and live a quite normal existence with Kate she says that William benefited from that experience with dialer and produced a ring there and then and it's a family ring his phone ring yes it's my mother's engagement ring obviously she's not be around to sharing near the the fun excitements with all this this is my way of keeping her sort of close to at all you [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 5,586,994

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Keywords: TV Shows - Topic, documentary history, Documentary Movies - Topic, history documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, History, stories, Channel 4 documentary, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Full Documentary, real

Id: M9MBokHhhPs

Length: 46min 24sec (2784 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018