Even as he endoured the greatest hardship of his life- the funeral of his beloved mother- a grief-stricken Prince William showed poise and maturity befitting a king. Walking with head bowed behind his mother’s caskit, the brave 15-year-old schoolboy was a pillar of strength as the world watched the solemn prcession. “All my hopes are on William now,” said Di, shortly before her death. “I think it’s too late for the rest of the family. But William.... I think he has it.” She was right. William is well on the road to becoming the man Diana wanted him to be, say insiders. Gone is the shy, tempermental kid dubbed William the Terrible because of his mischievous pranks such as flushing a new pair of shoes down the toilet. Gone is the 11-year-old who talked of being a cop instead of serving 270 million subjects. In their place is a caring young man who will one day rule Britian. “She knew she’d never bee queen, but her tremendous influence will be apparent from now until he becomes king,” says a source. “Together they will change the monarchy.” Adds Diana’s friend, Richard Branson, boss of Virgin Atlantic Airway airways: “The most wonderful thing is that Prince William has all the best attributes of Diana and she will live on through him.” Wills was born on June 212, 1982. William Authur Phillip Louis Windsor. And from day one, molding the bright-eyed boy beamce Di’s priority. She lavished him with love, insisted that he knew the ordinary people and tried to give him as normal a family as possible. At 9 months, William became the first royal baby ever to travel on an official tour abroad- because his mother refused to leave him alone when she and Charles went to Austalia and New Zealand. He was also the first to leave Buckingham Palace tutors behind to attend Mrs. Mynors’ Nursury School with her children. She institued “fun days” and “work days”- dresseing William and his brother Harry in jeans and baseball caps to eat at McDonald’s, watch a movie or ride a roller coasters. On work days, the boys had to dress properly, shake hands with the public and “forget any thoughts of selfishness. When they begin their public duties, they will be properly prepared, “Diana said, “I don’t want them suffering the way I did.” William was always sensitive to his mother’s pain, says author Andrew Morton. When Did would lock herself in a bathroom and sob after fighting with Charles, Wills would puch tissues under the door along with a note that said: “I hate to see you sad.” It was Diana’s idea for Wills, then 13, to be the first royal to attend Eton, a renowed boarding school that her father and brother attended. She was dead set against him attending, Scotland’s strict, austere Gordonstoun school, where Charles was sent by his father to “toughen up.” William plastered the walls of his room at Eton with pin-ups of Pamela Anderson Lee, just like any red-blooded boy. Although it seemd at times Di was pampering him, she was preparing him to be the people’s king. At a Christmas party Di hosted, Wills have a flawless two-mintute speech. “It was polished performance,” recalls an eyewitness. “The message from Di was clear: ‘I can grrom William for royal duties as well as Charles.’” Ironically, she tried to teach him to be as media savvy as another man who lost a parent early in life- JFK Jr. “I’m hoping he’ll grow up to be as smart about it as John Kennedy, Jr.,” said Diana. “I want William to be able to handle things as well as John does.” Experts say that Di needn’t have worried. William had the best teacher. “Make no mistake, even in death, Diana has more influence than Grace Kelly or John Kennedy did on the future of their sons and country,” notes Harold Brooks-Baker, publisher of Burke’s Peerage, a Who’s Who of British aristocracy. “Her legacy of love will continue with William all the way to the throne.”
September 23, 1997