Kate Middleton and William: Rae discusses time in Scotland

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After Charles and Diana’s dramatic separation, William and his brother, Prince Harry, spent time with each of their parents doing very different activities. The Prince of Wales would still bring the boys to the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland where the trio would enjoy outdoor pursuits, often free from photographers. However, Diana, the Princess of Wales, would take them for what she hoped were “normal” days out, but which at times inevitably drew attention from the media.

According to Richard Kay, a royal correspondent for the Daily Mail, William enjoyed the relative obscurity of his countryside outings with Charles.

During the 2011 Channel 4 documentary ‘How Diana’s Death Shaped William & Harry’, Mr Kay said the young prince took great pleasure in his escapes to the wilderness.

He said: “His mother’s life was trouble, it was always trouble with a capital ‘T’ but with papa, with Prince Charles, he could get away from all that and there was a degree of freedom he relished.

“Diana couldn’t do things with the boys that Charles could do, Diana didn’t have royal homes dotted around the country.

“She didn’t have wide open spaces for them to run around in, knowing they wouldn’t be photographed, and the boys looked forward to that hugely.”

The documentary examines how Diana’s rules of engagement with the press changed following her divorce. 

Archive footage shows the People’s Princess on holiday with William and Harry in the Austrian ski resort of Lech at Easter. 

Diana can be seen walking up to a person holding a camera and asking them not to film her children.

Mr Kay added: “Diana, we have to remember, had discarded her police bodyguard, taking considerable risk in my view at times.”

Another famous trip Diana and the young princes went on was to the Thorpe Park theme park on the outskirts of London. 

Sporting a Hard Rock Cafe leather jacket, the princess could be seen taking her sons on a number of rides, including the log flume.

The documentary also shows footage of William and Harry with Charles at Balmoral, one of the Royal Family’s favourite holiday destinations.

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The 50,000-acre estate is where royals down the ages have enjoyed going walking, grousing, fishing and hunting.

As well as Charles’ influence on William’s downtime, his divorce with Diana is also said to have left an impression on the young prince in terms of his relationships.

According to royal historian and biographer Robert Lacey, William’s parents’ break-up had a lasting impact on his own marriage to Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge.

In his 2020 book, ‘Battle of Brothers: William, Harry and the Inside Story of a Family in Tumult’, he argued that William was aware that Diana had been too young when she was launched into the public eye and he did not want to repeat that mistake.

He said: “When he meets Kate Middleton at university, he actually makes the poor young woman wait nine years to effectively audition her for the job as wife to the head of state. He took the lesson of duty.”

William and Kate tied the knot in 2011 at Westminster Abbey, with more than 17 million viewers reported to have tuned in to watch the wedding.
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