Prince William: Teenage Idol To Future King | Behind The Headlines | Real Royalty

(girls screaming) (gentle music) - [Kate] Canada, March 1988. For Prince William, a rock star's reception. (girls screaming) For a shy royal teenager, an ordeal to be borne with dignity. - I gave him flowers and he shook my hand. (upbeat music) - [Kate] A year later at Highgrove, Prince Charles's home in Gloucestershire, William is behind the wheel of a borrowed car. (upbeat music) The next day, he passed his driving test. Never short of party invitations, William has a wide circle of friends and attractive companions, but worryingly, some older friends have admitted taking drugs. 20-year-old Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, has admitted to using cocaine. He appeared recently as a fashion model. Tom Parker Bowles, son of Prince Charles's mistress Camilla, is another close friend. - It is embarrassing to have Tom Parker Bowles getting into problems. I mean, the royal family have had enough scrapes and scandals in the past 10 years. They don't need anymore. And certainly, William, who to date's been untarnished, doesn't need to be involved with people who are going to hit the headlines in the worst way. - [Kate] Many of William's set are young, still at school, and share his interests, unlike another group of older friends who have embarrassed the young prince. One is Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, a 27-year-old socialite who has admitted a drugs problem. Bad publicity has linked her to William. - There was a story that they were all out together in a club and Tara playfully dived on William's zipper on his trousers. I don't think she really intended to do anything at all, but she was just teasing William. However, when it's printed in the press, it doesn't look very good. It's a great pity that Diana's not still around to keep an eye on her boys, because I think she'd be appalled at what's been going on. - [Kate] William faces the trials of youth without the guiding hand of his adoring mother. At the time of her death, her two young sons were only half-raised to adult life. - Thank you so much, thank you. (somber music) - [Kate] At her funeral, they coped with the trauma of her death and the outpouring of public grief. Later, their Uncle Earl Spencer, who shared their walk behind Diana's coffin said, "My admiration for those boys is beyond bounds. "It was the most amazing display of courage I'll ever see." William enjoyed an exceptionally close relationship with his mother. He was her friend and confidant. Her death sealed that bond forever. His thoughts turn to Harry, almost 13 at the time. Claims that Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed were assassinated in a Paris car crash have added to her sons' grief. - Diana's death was an absolutely tragic accident. It was a case of, a basic case of drunken driving. And the Paris authorities and the Paris courts have now given their verdict on that. And it's very, very well-documented. He will have gone through this time and time again. If you think that the influences of drugs and alcohol can kill, that's something which I think will sit very, very firmly in Prince William's mind, so that may indeed assist him. - [Kate] In August 1999, William set off for the annual family holiday. Teenage friends were invited as companions for William and Harry. Press reports claimed that William had also invited Camilla to join the royal party aboard the yacht Alexander. Loaned by Prince Charles's friend, the Greek billionaire John Latsis, it is an ideal location for a royal family holiday, away from the prying eyes of the hungry press. - They went on holiday together last summer, on a cruise through the Greek islands. So, there's no doubt that as Prince Charles's companion, she would have been chiefly in charge of the boys and saying, "Hurry up, get ready for dinner," or, you know, the other things that moms and stepmoms do. It's astounding when you think a few years ago how much Princess Diana hated Camilla, that Camilla should now be the main woman in William's life. She, I wouldn't say she's trying to usurp Diana's role as mother, but she's certainly become very close to William. There's no doubt. She supervises arrangements when the boys are away from Eton and on holiday at Highgrove. She'd be sort of mother hen, you could say. (upbeat music) - [Kate] Charles had already publicly stepped out with his longtime mistress earlier in the year. He is determined to have her accepted as his partner, despite speculation that her presence might disrupt the lives of his sons. - I mean, they are socially and privately very comfortable with each other, it's only this whole idea built up by the press, goodness gracious me, you know, the other woman, you know. What's gonna happen when the poor princes meet, you know, the wicked witch from Wiltshire? Which, of course, she isn't. So I mean, it's all a farce. I mean, they get on extremely well together. And they encourage, I think they see that their father's very happy with Camilla. And I mean, she's quite a charming person, you know, in her own right. She's got a great sense of humor and she, Camilla Parker Bowles would know how to make boys of that age laugh and she'd be funny and jokey with them and so, no problems there at all. - [Kate] William is often seen as the great hope of the royal family. A point seemingly made by the Queen Mother on her 99th birthday. Fond of Prince Charles, she hopes that William has the charisma and stature to sustain a popular monarchy in the future. Now at over six feet, William is destined to become the tallest sovereign since King Henry VIII. On Christmas morning at Sandringham, the young prince couldn't help overshadowing the rest of the royal family. Prince Charles often jokes that he is shrinking as his boys are growing. - [Man] Merry Christmas. - [Kate] In April 1999, William, his arm in a sling after a sports injury, became a godfather to the grandson of the exiled King Constantine of Greece, a longtime friend of the royal family and a godfather himself to William. His shy, awkward charm reminds observers of the teenage Diana. - One of the problems he has, is just like Diana when she was younger, she was rather sort of clumsy when she first came on the public scene and she was tall, probably too tall. And it's awkward for him. He's looking down on most people, including his own father. But he's also trying to, he's so self-conscious and shy that in any public place, with or without the press there, he will be looking down in that very sort of Diana-ish way and it hasn't done him any favors. His deportment is not good, he developed a bit of a stoop and they had to talk to him about it, try and get him to, you know, look at people and smile. And you'll see that he blushes as well, like Diana always did. - [Kate] William shared his godparent duties with Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden. At the Greek Orthodox ceremony, they vowed their support for baby Constantine, named after his grandfather who had lost his throne. (priest chanting foreign language) William was at ease amongst the other young royals. - I was at the christening and I noticed that William seemed to come out of his shell that day and do far more than we expected. Having got used to the shy William who hangs back and, because he's so tall, hangs his head all the time to avoid being photographed, we thought that we weren't going to get much in the way of good pictures that day, but William surprised us all. He turned up and posed with the baby. I think he felt that he owed it to King Constantine, who's been a great friend of his father's, and he realized it was an important day for the young parents. (priest chanting foreign language) - He's got that nice, sort of self-effacing, very charming, easy manner about him. And he's slightly shy, which girls of a similar age like. I mean, I think that a lot of sort of teenage girls find boys of their own age rather aggressive. They're sort of into what I call the point scoring thing, you know, and I don't think he's that at all. They like the shyness. They like the fact that, rather like his mother, he looks down sometimes when he talks to you. And he's not sort of, he's not too boisterous. (upbeat music) - [Kate] Six months after Diana's death, Charles persuaded William to join him and Harry for a brief official visit to Canada, followed by a private skiing trip. As they were presented with souvenir outfits from the Canadian Olympic team, Charles took part in clowning around. Intended to be a relief from the period of mourning, the tour became an ordeal for William, who was mobbed by screaming teenage girls. (girls screaming) - William could not wait to get through the crowds of screaming girls outside the school and once he got inside, he went, "Whew," you know, I'm glad that's over. I mean, it didn't help also that Harry teased him a lot about it. He was, we could hear him say, "Go on William, wave at the girls and make them scream." And there was a kind of, sick kind of atmosphere. A lot of the women in the crowd were not young. There were older women and one of them said to me, "When I look at William, I want to embrace him "because I feel I'm embracing Diana." And I thought that was dreadful. William must be allowed to be his own person, not a clone of his mother, and people who regard him as a kind of new generation Diana are rather sick. They're not allowing the boy a chance to be himself. And I think he wants to assert his individuality and be seen as someone in his own right, not just a new Diana. (bells ringing) - [Kate] In September 1995, William began the last stage of his school life at Eton College, near Windsor. Charles and Diana were agreed on the choice of Eton. Charles had been miserable at Gordonstoun in Scotland and they wanted William to have a more enjoyable schooling. At 13, William was already getting into the swing of things. - When he arrived at Eton, he had the most enormous sort of photographs of Pamela Anderson with very little on and other nudes on his walls. And I think his tutor said to him, you know, "Do you think maybe we could tone this down a bit?" You know, so that was very interesting. So, he was obviously into girls at a very early age. - [Kate] The new boy found he liked the Eton regime, even wearing the traditional uniform of long tailcoat and striped trousers. He made friends with boys from a wide variety of backgrounds and progressed rapidly in his studies. Inevitably, the press thought up stories about his school days. - We all find it quite amusing reading the tabloids at breakfast, as it gives you a chance to see what is supposed to have gone on, all of which we tend to know nothing about. Often I imagine it's made up the night before when there is a shortage of actual news. I'm always amused to read that Prince William is very lucky to have his own room and everyone else stays in dormitories. Well, my experience was I was given my own room right from the start. - [Kate] Founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, Eton is the most famous English public school. All the men in Diana's family had been educated there, so she was keen for William to follow in her family's tradition. Although Diana's own academic achievements were poor, she was keen for her sons to receive the best schooling. William, as a future king, needed a formal education with strong competition. - I would suspect he probably is very much on a level with his father, at the same age. You see, Diana, for all her other many, many talents, was not blessed with a great deal of intelligence. I think she got two GCSEs, one of which was in domestic science, which is cooking. So, no great shakes on the female side. But, I mean the Prince of Wales was as all as a sensible intelligent fellow, rather than being sort of hyper-intelligent. - [Kate] With the arrival of Prince William, the school had to increase its security for its most famous pupil. Accommodation had to be provided for William's personal bodyguard. The school and staff supported William through his parent's divorce and his mother's tragic death. The pastoral care at Eton is provided through the house system. William is cared for by his house master Dr. Gailey, but the headmaster also takes an interest in his studies. - The parents are invited to talk to the headmaster after any chapel service weekends, so there is plenty of scope for the parents to talk to the headmaster. Many parents get to know throughout their child's career their house masters very well and will often ring up, chat to the house master, or perhaps comes to supper with the house master. So, they're able to get a very good insight into the child's education and how the child is fitting in. There's certainly no cases I know of where the child's being dumped at Eton and left to get on with it. (brass band playing) - [Kate] The choice of Eton attracted charges of elitism. Critics felt that William was being educated in an old-fashioned class-based system, remarkable for its strange outfits and traditions. But Eton's customs, like the Fourth of June, are stoutly defended by its boys. - The Fourth of June is the Eton picnic, as it's often called. This is a chance for the parents to come along and see a bit of Eton. There is a cricket match going on, there is the procession of boats, where the boys row down the river and wave their hats into the river to allow the flowers to float past in the wonderful procession. - [Kate] William is the keen sportsman. He enjoys Eton's many activities such as soccer, rugby, tennis, water polo, and rowing. He's done well academically, gaining 12 GCSEs. In September 1998, William began his A-Level courses in English, geography, and the history of art. He is considering a gap year before going to university. - There's talk isn't there, that he will go to Australia and to Argentina. I can certainly see him going to Australia, without a shadow of a doubt. I mean, his father did that and you see Prince William is a great swimmer, like his mother. And he's a hell of a good swimmer. So, all that sort of surfing and Bondi Beach stuff, that will be right up his street. (camera shutter clicking) (whistle blows) - [Kate] William is the captain of Eton's swimming team. He has led them to victory many times, including this triathlon, where his team finished 10 minutes ahead of their nearest rivals. (upbeat music) Like many young boys from Eton, William has easy access at weekends to the busy social scene in London, where the drug culture dominates. Some people believe that children educated at boarding school, away from their parents, are more vulnerable to temptation. - I'm not at all in favor of boarding schools, because that separates children, from a very early age, from a nurturing environment. Many of them it's not appropriate for. Some of them it is. And they then find themselves in a population where everybody feels much, more or less, the same sort of sense of loss. And if all of them get a reasonable amount of pocket money, as most of them would do at a private school like Eton, then they have, really, access to buy the drugs that would somehow make it up to them for the cutoff from their mother's love. - [Kate] Within weeks of William's confirmation service in 1997, Diana was tragically killed. Like Harry, he will have to cope with that loss for the rest of his life. - There is one area which is very, very worrying, really, for the young princes. And that is bereavement. To lose a parent, either by the death or divorce, but of course, particularly by death, in the teenage years predisposes you to using drugs. It is something which comes up again and again in the studies of drug addiction, that the loss of a parent is an indicator for dependency on drugs because it does hit young people at a very, very vulnerable age. - [Kate] The royal family has a disturbing history of alcohol abuse and drug addiction. Prince Charles must warn William of the dangers. - There have been more than one member of the family who's been addicted to drugs. I mean, there's the Duke of Kent, for example, King George VI's younger brother, who was well-known to be addicted to cocaine. There is a history of addiction throughout both sides of the royal family and therefore, the genetic factor, the genetic loading is quite high and he has to be aware of that and he has to, I think, make Prince William aware of it and make him realize that it isn't something that he could do like other boys might, you know, just try a bit of marijuana or have a few more drinks on the weekend than he should. He has to be a little bit more careful than most people. - There are a lot of courtiers around him, saying you can't do this and you can't do that and his life is more restricted than many young men of his age. And so therefore, the temptation to kind of break out and to have a bit of rebellion and actually, you know, to be a bit wild sometimes, that must be natural too. He really has a very difficult path, I think, ahead of him. - [Kate] There's also concern for Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Frederick, slightly older than his second cousins William and Harry, grew up next door at Kensington Palace. (camera shutter clicking) Once admired by the Queen for his exemplary manners and considered a role model for Prince William, Lord Frederick is the grandson of the late Duke of Kent, who was famed for his bohemian lifestyle. Lord Frederick, a gifted scholar at Eton is now studying classics at Oxford University. He appeared recently on a magazine cover, making his modeling debut in the manner of a modern day van Dyck. His admitted drug taking means William must be wary about family tendencies and the exhibitionist activities of some of his royal contemporaries. - He therefore has to be particularly conscious of the need to deal with any possible genetic predisposition to addiction. He must be aware of that, he must be made aware of it, because not only does he have a genetic predisposition to addiction, but he also has an environmental one, because he is a needy child. He would have to be a needy child, because he comes from a broken home. He has to be a needy child, because mother wasn't always available for him. And he has to be a needy child because he would feel somehow there are other people coming between him and his mother that prevented her from giving him the love that he was entitled to have while he was growing up. - [Kate] While Diana had a complicated romantic history after the breakdown of her marriage, the evidence suggests that she gave her children a great deal of attention, providing them with many opportunities for fun and adventure. (water splashing) - Can we do it again? (calm music) (laughing) (calm music) (shouting) - [Kate] Diana wanted them to have a happy childhood despite their parent's separation and divorce. She adored her boys, but confided particularly in William. She called him her anchor and recognized that he was a deep thinker. - William's quite a serious character, very interested in Shakespeare and poetry, although he does love the outdoors and he's the sort of hunt and shooting and fishing type. He's rather like his father in character, in the sense that he's quite reserved and it takes a long while to get to know him. He doesn't trust people easily, partly because of the position he's in, he can't really afford to. He's quite studious, too, and dutiful. In public, you certainly rarely see William show any emotion. He ducks his head a lot and he'll smile to order, but you often feel that he's making an effort just to put on a public face and that the real William is still a bit of an enigma. - [Kate] Charles has allowed William his own flat in the London home they share at St. James's Palace. With his own key, William entertains his wide circle of friends. Many of these are the grown-up children of Charles's own circle. However, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, party girl and renowned self-publicist, in spite of her immaculate connection to Prince Charles, is a definite cause for concern. - They've set up William with a lot of older friends, people to look up to, role models I suppose they're supposed to be, but the reality is that these role models are kids older than William, much more experimental. They're not older and wiser, they're older and doing drugs, basically. - [Kate] Tara, along with her sister Santa, has long been part of Charles's unofficial entourage. Caught off-guard in the snow, Charles unwisely encouraged her familiarity and ignored the dangers. In April 1999, as rumors circulated about her involvement with William, Tara checked into an American drug addiction clinic. Later, she denied the gossip. - Can't imagine what any parent would have ever thought these people could do. It's totally exploitative. Why would he need a load of decadent, coke snorting, ridiculous people, who just, like Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who's just feeding off the connection with the royal family? - It led, some say or claim, that to the banishment of Tara, she was sent off to a drug clinic in Arizona and oh, Colorado I think it was, and it was kind of like clean up your act or you can't come near William ever again. - [Kate] Her parents, Charles and Patty Palmer-Tomkinson, are among Prince Charles's closest friends. He helped rescue Patty when she was injured in the Klosters avalanche in 1988. Santa, now married, behaved with dignity, but Tara exploited the royal connection. - I suppose it must be impossible to get 'round the freeloading situation. When the royals were much more remote, there wasn't the opportunity, but now, this generation of kids born to wealthy parents who are close to Charles, they're all in sort of banking or modeling or whatever they are and, you know, in this commercial world of ours, it's a fantastic opportunity for them to exploit their closeness to William. (marching band playing) - [Kate] Camilla is also close to Tara's mother, Patty Palmer-Tomkinson, who accompanied her to polo in 1992, as her adulterous relationship with Charles was exposed in the press. She is said to have reunited Camilla with Charles in the mid-eighties, when his marriage to Diana had deteriorated. Seven years later, scandal touched both families when Tara admitted drug taking, as did Camilla's son Tom. (camera shutter clicking) Now 24 and a close friend of William, Tom was seen taking cocaine at the Cannes Film Festival. - Poor old Tom Parker Bowles has been very, very, very foolish that you know, I mean the answer is, it's in our day, it was like smoking. Do you know what I mean? I mean, the answer is that I'm smoking after lights out. I mean, everybody did it, but you don't get caught. Seems these days that absolutely everywhere, I mean, drugs are absolutely everywhere. It's a huge drug culture and poor old Tom Parker Bowles is not a bad bloke. I mean, he just got a bit careless and he got caught out. - [Kate] That view would not sit well with Diana. She was a very protective mother, who tried to make her sons streetwise over issues such as drug addiction. - It's a great pity that Diana's not still around to keep an eye on her boys, because I think she'd be appalled at what's been going on, especially the sort of scandalous behavior of some of the, of the people on Camilla's side and Prince Charles's friends, notably Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. - It's certainly not right for him to model himself at all on people who have problems. And some of the people that we've looked at certainly have problems of addiction. It's up to him whether he looks at them as role models. They aren't his role models. He has other, better role models to think about. He has his grandmother, who's a perfectly reasonable person, who's never been known to be addicted to anything other than perhaps horse racing. He has got his great-grandmother, who's a very lovable person. And I think he should be looking not only at them, but at his tutors at school, at the ordinary man in the street, at his friends, most of his friends, who behave perfectly normally. It's only very few of them, the ones that get into the newspapers, that he needs to, as it were, take a view about. (dramatic music) - [Kate] On the 29th of July, 1981, the Prince of Wales, then 31, married 20-year-old Lady Diana Spencer. A group of young bridesmaids and pageboys shared the magic of that day on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. One of the pageboys was eight-year-old Edward van Cutsem. He is now one of William's more respectable companions. His mother Emily is a long-time friend of Camilla Parker Bowles. She's often been seen with Charles and his sons. - Much closer to William are the van Cutsem boys. Emily and Hugh van Cutsem are rich landowners, have three sons who've virtually grown up with William and Harry, and they are much more respectable young men. They're not in the fast world of the show biz world that Tom Parker Bowles lives in. They're not in the fast lane at all and it seems that Prince Charles has decided that Edward van Cutsem would be the perfect guide for William when he goes traveling in his gap year between school and university. William loves shooting and he got his love of shooting from the van Cutsem boys, who are very keen on it and have taken him many, many times on shooting on their estates and friend's estates. They've all been away together on holiday. Sometimes William has pulled out of the skiing trips with his father to go shooting with the van Cutsem boys. I would say they are his closest friends. - [Kate] Princess Anne's two children, Zara and Peter Phillips, are also close to William. An accomplished sportsman, Peter, now 22, is studying sports science at Exeter University. - Peter Phillips is a role model and has been, probably, for all of William's life. And they seem to have got it right with him anyway, because he is a big, healthy, no-nonsense kind of guy who's very good shot, good horseman, plays rugby. You know, he's rough and tough. He doesn't seem to have any airs and graces and he's been pretty brilliant with William. And that seems to be a good choice and a natural choice. You would look up to your cousin. He's big and beefy and he's got that blonde looks. It's very sort of close family thing. - When he was much smaller, William absolutely hero-worshiped Peter Phillips. Peter taught him to play cricket and they spent all their summer holidays together. Very often, when Princess Anne went back to work in the new year, Peter and Zara would stay on at Sandringham with William and Harry and Diana would look after all four of them, help them build snowmen, and you know, just generally give them a good time. So, they're very, very close. I'd say more like brothers than cousins. And it was noticeable when Diana died. William made his first public appearance when he went out to look at all the bouquets and cards at Balmoral Castle. Peter Phillips was right there behind him, lending him moral support. - [Kate] The tragedy is that Diana is not here to see the mature way in which William and Harry have coped with their own emotional trauma. She would have been proud of her boys. At Diana's funeral, her brother Earl Spencer vowed to protect his nephews. - Your boundless energy, which you could barely. My own and only explanation is that genuine goodness is threatening to those at the opposite end of the moral spectrum. - While Charles Spencer made that amazing speech at Diana's funeral, promising to stay close to Diana's boys and give them the things that the royal family couldn't, which is a very controversial speech, they're not exactly madly close, but they do see each other and stay in touch. (somber music) - [Kate] Sadly, William and Harry see little these days of their young cousins Princess Eugenie and Beatrice, daughters of Sarah, Duchess of York, now effectively banned from royal circles since her divorce from the Duke of York. Sarah says that senior members of the royal family, such as Prince Charles, regard her as pointless. This has led to a distancing of the two families that were once very close. In the past, they shared holidays together, such as this ski trip in 1995 to Klosters, Charles's favorite ski resort. (dramatic music) When four-year-old Eugenie fell into the deep snow, her 12 year old cousin William was close at hand. (coughing) This is one of the few occasions when he has readily taken part in a photo call. - [Man] So how are you enjoying your holidays together? - Quite nice. - [Man] Enjoyin' it, that's good. - Fun. - Good fun. - [Photographer] Keep in touch, turn this way slightly. - Well, improving these two, very good. - [Man] They're improving? - Very good skiers. - [Photographer] Sorry, put your arms around here, sorry. Can we do something? Just want the two boys put the skis down. - Yes, it'd be good fun, it was very good, enjoy it. - [Man] Can you look this way? (dramatic music) - [Photographer] Nice and close together if you can, please. - [Kate] Both the Queen and the Queen Mother have taken a close interest in William's upbringing. He grew up a thoughtful, courteous boy, ready to help others without prompting. Although Diana had difficult relationships with the royal family, she knew that William had to be taught by them for his future role. - The Queen has made certain that she spends a lot of time with William, especially on Sunday afternoons when he goes to see her for tea. She can kind of give him a very subtle training in the art of kingmanship. They discuss more serious topics and she can explain to him what it's like to have a life filled with, you know, eternal boxes from the government that you have to look through and what it's like just to be in that position, that the privileges must be paid for. She realizes the problems that he's got confronting his destiny and also living in the spotlight, so I think she's trying to help him adjust to that. - [Kate] Harry is being raised as a backup for William, to help him through a lifetime of duties. (upbeat music) From his birth in June 1982, William has been a world celebrity. Every major event, from his christening to his first tentative crawl about, has been captured by cameras. (upbeat music) The flash bulb of fame has marked every milestone of his infancy, his school days, sad family events, and happy ones. (upbeat music) Everywhere he looked, press men with their inquisitive long lenses were there. (camera shutter clicking) Even on private holidays, there was no escape. He came to dislike the constant intrusions. (upbeat music) Diana sometimes pleaded with the press to leave her sons alone. William, far more than Harry, became camera shy, hiding his face from the paparazzi photographers who hounded Diana and her sons. - Now, I once said to Diana, "William doesn't like being photographed?" She said, "Oh no, he hates it." And I said, "Well, it seems to me "life will be a lot easier for him "as soon as he learns to live with it." And she said, "I think you're being very hard." And I said, "Well maybe, but what are princes for? "They're for being photographed, "that's all they are, they're symbols. "They don't actually do or achieve very much." And I think William hasn't yet come to terms with that. (camera shutters clicking) - [Kate] At Eton, William is grateful for being one of the crowd. His friends recognize his need for privacy and shield him from the press. - Well, I'm told the only time that Prince William uses foul language, four letter words, is when he either reads about himself or sees photographs of himself or the physical presence of photographers. - The problem with William is he's too good looking for his own good. And as there are no other young, attractive people coming up rapidly in the royal ranks, William's the natural successor to Diana. And as he has a kind of very ambivalent attitude to the media, life's gonna be very difficult for him. Diana, I think, brainwashed him to dislike being photographed, being scrutinized. He saw the problems she went through. He didn't see the other side of it, that she used the media for her benefit. And he is not at a stage yet where he can do that. - [Kate] Sometimes, Diana had to be rescued by her bodyguard from scuffles and squabbles with press men. William dreaded these confrontations. At this stage, he had no idea that Diana also had a secret life. Later, he learned the truth about her lovers such as James Hewitt, whom he saw just as a family friend. In November 1995, Diana gave a television interview. She admitted adultery with Hewitt, accused Camilla of being the third person in her marriage, and questioned Charles's suitability for the throne, hinting that William would make a much better king and should succeed the queen. - I've always thought that Diana laid too much responsibility on William and treated him as a sort of alternative husband. She confided in him too much about her problems, her romantic life. William coped with it very well. It probably helped to mature him very rapidly, but it shouldn't have happened to him. And I think part of that is the reason he hates the press. He feels that if the paparazzi hadn't always been pursuing his mother and she and Dodi hadn't been concerned that the press might be on their tail, perhaps they might have driven more slowly through Paris and they'd be alive today. (upbeat music) - [Kate] White water rafting was one of the outdoor activities Diana's sons experienced in contrast to the more traditional forms of royal pastimes, like hunting, shooting, and fishing. At home, she took them go-karting and on holiday in Colorado in 1995, she allowed them to ride quad bikes, despite protestations from their father. (upbeat music) Since her death, William and Harry have not repeated this type of holiday. William is Harry's protector, especially since he joined him at Eton in 1998. Harry is the tearaway of the family, William the quieter and more thoughtful one. - He doesn't mother Harry and I don't think Harry needs mothering either. I mean, Harry's gonna be quite a little tiger. Harry's gonna be different from William. But I mean, Harry's gonna be quite a little tiger in his own right, I think. - [Kate] Tiggy Legge-Bourke, their former nanny, has helped William and Harry cope with the shock of their mother's death. She joined Charles's staff in 1993, when he shared custody of the boys with Diana. Sporty and adventurous, Tiggy became a vital part of their lives, but was criticized for allowing them to take part in some dangerous activities, such as abseiling down the side of a dam without protective headgear. Charles was reportedly horrified. - She let them do some harum-scarum things. I wouldn't say she exactly introduced them to the downside of life, she'd take them to the movies and to restaurants. But, it was Diana who felt that the boys should have a slow introduction to people who were less lucky than they are. - I would think the real world to Prince William was brought home to him, definitely by his mother, the various little trips that they did make, the visit to Centre Point, seeing how homeless people were, struggled and coped with life, AIDS victims, this and that and the other. I would suspect that that would have made a very major impression on him at an impressionable age. You know, how old was he when that was going on? He was sort of 14 or 15, so I would think, without a shadow of a doubt, yes. And probably what's making him into a nice, rounded boy. I think the hardest thing for any member of the royal family is that they live in this sort of, in this glass house, they're sort of cocooned, and they don't really understand too much about not necessarily how the other half lives, but how, you know, how the other, you know, 98% of the world lives. (lighthearted music) - [Kate] One of Charles's favorite sports is polo. He was an enthusiastic player until injuries limited his performance. He rarely plays now, but would like to see his boys take up the game. - Well, there's no doubt about it, that the Prince of Wales would love both his sons to become polo players. I mean, it's a brilliant game anyway. I mean, it is the, somebody said to me, what a lovely way to have a sweat, and it is really. It's sort of riding horses, the involvement with horses, you've got none of the problems you've got with fox hunting and you know, the blood sports angle. You're sitting on a horse hitting a ball and you got a nice degree of physical contact with the riding off and you know, the hooking of the sticks. It's a good strong manly game and apart from the fact it's bloody good fun. - [Kate] Reluctantly, Diana took her boys to watch Charles on the polo field. She found the game boring, like most of her husband's interests, but realized that her sons felt differently. They enjoyed the whole polo experience. - [Announcer] A training session now, between the two games. - [Kate] William has gone on to take lessons himself. (camera shutter clicking) He now owns his own polo pony and has a real aptitude for the sport. - William and Harry have been given sort of private lessons, sort of, not quite behind closed doors, but without anybody watching them. And both of them enjoy the game. The problem, the major, major problem that William is gonna have, of course, is he's left-handed. And of course, there are no left-handed polo players in the world. You know, when you line up, you've gotta line up right hand to right hand. And which is quite obvious, because otherwise people would kill each other. What you're talking about in polo is swinging the stick. You've gotta get that whole swing and the swing of the shoulders. So you've gotta, he is gonna have to switch his whole body balance from the left-hand side to the right-hand side. That'll be difficult for him. (marching band playing) - [Kate] Princes are expected to have a military career. Charles was in the Navy, but William has shown an interest in the Army. - He's doing very, very well in the Combined Cadet Force at Eton. I understand that he won the sash of honor last year, which was for the most outstanding sort of young cadet, soldier cadet of his year at Eton. So, that's a big thing. He's gonna be a soldier prince. And there's this big talk, and I'm sure this is right, that he's gonna go into the Welsh Guards. That will be obvious, because when his father becomes king, he will be the next Prince of Wales, so you have to go in the Welsh Guards. So, that would make a lot of sense. Good regiment, nice regiment. (dramatic string music) (girls screaming) - [Kate] Doubts have grown about William's acceptance of a burden thrust on him by fate alone. Given a choice, he would probably avoid any of this and settle for anonymity. All his life, he's been groomed for some distant day when he will become King William V, but he may long for a different destiny. - William seems reluctant to take the spotlight and inevitably, one day, he will be, you know, the main man in the royal family and he'll have to spend his life in the spotlight. He seems to dread it. The palace officials seem to think it's a stage he's going through. I'm not so sure. I think big problems lie ahead. Another abdication would be, probably finish off the House of Windsor. I think it's really unfair to say to a young man of William's age, sorry, you can't be a rocket scientist or a drummer in a rock band, you've gotta be a king. In this democratic age, no other young man is forced to go into his father's firm. William has no choice and it's a very daunting prospect. He's got to be king and that very idea that he hasn't any choice is probably very bitter to a boy of his age. - [Kate] William's position as heir in line to the throne is so special, that unlike Harry, he is not allowed to travel by plane with his father. In the summer of 1999, accompanied by friends, they flew out separately for their cruise around the Greek islands. A selection of attractive, well-bred aristocratic young women provided company for William. (camera shutter clicking) Amelia Dalinger, daughter of a rich Dorset land owner, was among them, as was Davina Duckworth-Chad, also known as the Deb on the Web after she appeared on the internet. - The process of finding him a sort of life partner is all going on. I don't know if he's aware of just how much this subject's thought through and talked over and there's a determination that you know, that whole establishment thing that they always used to do, trying to introduce royalty to royalty. So, bringing in a few European princesses. I mean, they've abandoned that. But they also don't want another Diana or Fergie on the scene. - I'm sure he will enjoy a close relationship with a woman, but what sort of woman are we talking about? Is he going to choose a woman like his mother, a woman who isn't going to be there for him all the time? Or is he gonna be exactly the opposite? Is he going to try and find somebody who's nothing like his mother? Somebody who's going to be always there, somebody who's going to be entirely faithful, someone who is not gonna have other relationships, other than the one with him. - I wouldn't be at all surprised if William ended up in some rather dowdy girl who wasn't another Diana. That's what we'd all like to see him with. But, I think he'll be going for something safe and loving rather than someone dazzling, because, you know, the problem, one of the great problems between Charles and Diana was that she outshone him. And William will have to use his head as much as his heart when he finds a wife. (cheerful music) - [Kate] William's association with unsuitable companions and his recent attraction to London nightclubs worries the royal family. They hope that with maturity, he will distance himself from bad influences and they know that William has a deep love of the peace and tranquility found on the royal estates. (cheerful music) - William's happiest, really, in the countryside. He adores Scotland, he adores Balmoral. And although he's not a loner, I suppose when your life's crowded like his, you probably do relish moments alone. And he's got a hell of a lot to think about, more than most human beings. - [Kate] William's relationship with his father is all-important. He knows that he and Harry and Charles must all support each other in the years ahead. - I think he's now getting on with things and realizing that his father's never been happier. And although, you know, he misses his mother, there's nothing he can do about it and he's just got to ensure now that he does what he can to help his father. - He's got all his mother's charm, he's got his mother's, you know, apparent good looks, and the world is his oyster right now. (uplifting music)