me.’ For his part, Charles took steps to ensure that Olga Powell was back in overall control and despite her stern nature and their affection for Tiggy, Harry and William were glad that that war at least was over. The row between people they were both so fond of had disturbed them deeply.
Harry, however, was particularly upset by another very public episode. With ever increasing paranoia, Diana realised that the family now thought of her as the enemy and Tiggy, the woman she regarded as her own most bitter rival, as a friend. Despite settling with the nanny, her façade was beginning to crack and, far from seeing her as an enemy, the Queen described Diana to a regular companion as ‘not a well woman’. Her Majesty’s insight had already been proved when just five days after the twelfth anniversary of her wedding, Diana had taken Harry and William to see
Jurassic Park.
When photographer Keith Butler snapped their picture as the trio left the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, she dashed up to him and, standing on tiptoe to confront the six-foot-three-inch-tall cameraman, screamed: ‘You make my life hell.’ Passers-by gazed in amazement at the sight of the Princess of Wales, fetchingly dressed in black blazer and silk trousers, brushing tears from her eyes as she stormed off down the street ahead of her sons and their detectives. The mask had slipped. Butler, one of the paparazzi’s shrewdest operators, had crossed the line; he admitted later that ‘she was clearly very distressed’, but evidently failed to recognise that he was the cause of her vexation that night.
Diana retreated to Floors Castle, the Scottish home of the Duke of Roxburghe, where her old friend Willie van Straubenzee was staying. When the press followed, her fury returned. Once the Queen learned about the Leicester Square incident and the fact that Harry had burst into tears and even screamed at the sight of his mother’s anger, she telephonedDiana and insisted that she return and seek help for her public display of anger, however righteous it was. The two women had kept each other at arm’s length since Diana spent what turned out to be an innocent night at Gatley Park, the home of the Lord Lieutenant of Hereford and Worcester, Thomas Dunne and his wife Henrietta. The Dunnes had not been in residence as they were away shooting, but their son Philip was at home. And Diana, although separated, was still very much married to Charles, who had his reservations about Diana’s apparent attraction to the dark and handsome merchant banker. Her Majesty had a long memory and recalled previous incidents reported to her by royal protection officers, including the time Diana disappeared from Highgrove for an entire weekend and couldn’t be traced. The monarch had been particularly disturbed by reports that during an official visit to Portugal with Charles she had flirted with both Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and President Mário Soares.
During earlier disagreements between the Queen and Diana – the latter of whom had the previous year threatened to walk out once Harry started boarding school – Diana had stood her ground but this time she knew Her Majesty would not tolerate any argument. The Queen more or less ordered Diana to seek further therapy. The Princess obeyed and for a time it appeared to work. Encouraged by her American pal, Lana Marks, she set about an amazing PR operation to demonstrate to the world that she was not the broken woman who had caused such a much-publicised scene in public, but one very much in charge of her life in general and her sonsin particular. She took Harry and William, along with Mrs Powell, on holiday to Nevis, an exotic island in the eastern Caribbean, one of the sixteen sovereign states that make up the Commonwealth to which both boys are heirs to the throne.
It was Ken Wharfe who had suggested Nevis after he had ruled out her first choice, drug-swamped Jamaica, as being too high a security risk. On a
Harry, however, was particularly upset by another very public episode. With ever increasing paranoia, Diana realised that the family now thought of her as the enemy and Tiggy, the woman she regarded as her own most bitter rival, as a friend. Despite settling with the nanny, her façade was beginning to crack and, far from seeing her as an enemy, the Queen described Diana to a regular companion as ‘not a well woman’. Her Majesty’s insight had already been proved when just five days after the twelfth anniversary of her wedding, Diana had taken Harry and William to see
Jurassic Park.
When photographer Keith Butler snapped their picture as the trio left the Empire cinema in Leicester Square, she dashed up to him and, standing on tiptoe to confront the six-foot-three-inch-tall cameraman, screamed: ‘You make my life hell.’ Passers-by gazed in amazement at the sight of the Princess of Wales, fetchingly dressed in black blazer and silk trousers, brushing tears from her eyes as she stormed off down the street ahead of her sons and their detectives. The mask had slipped. Butler, one of the paparazzi’s shrewdest operators, had crossed the line; he admitted later that ‘she was clearly very distressed’, but evidently failed to recognise that he was the cause of her vexation that night.
Diana retreated to Floors Castle, the Scottish home of the Duke of Roxburghe, where her old friend Willie van Straubenzee was staying. When the press followed, her fury returned. Once the Queen learned about the Leicester Square incident and the fact that Harry had burst into tears and even screamed at the sight of his mother’s anger, she telephonedDiana and insisted that she return and seek help for her public display of anger, however righteous it was. The two women had kept each other at arm’s length since Diana spent what turned out to be an innocent night at Gatley Park, the home of the Lord Lieutenant of Hereford and Worcester, Thomas Dunne and his wife Henrietta. The Dunnes had not been in residence as they were away shooting, but their son Philip was at home. And Diana, although separated, was still very much married to Charles, who had his reservations about Diana’s apparent attraction to the dark and handsome merchant banker. Her Majesty had a long memory and recalled previous incidents reported to her by royal protection officers, including the time Diana disappeared from Highgrove for an entire weekend and couldn’t be traced. The monarch had been particularly disturbed by reports that during an official visit to Portugal with Charles she had flirted with both Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva and President Mário Soares.
During earlier disagreements between the Queen and Diana – the latter of whom had the previous year threatened to walk out once Harry started boarding school – Diana had stood her ground but this time she knew Her Majesty would not tolerate any argument. The Queen more or less ordered Diana to seek further therapy. The Princess obeyed and for a time it appeared to work. Encouraged by her American pal, Lana Marks, she set about an amazing PR operation to demonstrate to the world that she was not the broken woman who had caused such a much-publicised scene in public, but one very much in charge of her life in general and her sonsin particular. She took Harry and William, along with Mrs Powell, on holiday to Nevis, an exotic island in the eastern Caribbean, one of the sixteen sovereign states that make up the Commonwealth to which both boys are heirs to the throne.
It was Ken Wharfe who had suggested Nevis after he had ruled out her first choice, drug-swamped Jamaica, as being too high a security risk. On a
Similar Books
