The 30th anniversary of Princess Diana's bombshell Panorama interview is on Thursday, November 20, and while Prince William is now a 43-year-old father of three, he was barely a teenager when his mother confessed all to the BBC. The 13-year-old future King is said to have been left in tears while watching Diana's interview with the now-disgraced journalist Martin Bashir—and reportedly, Queen Elizabeth was extremely concerned about her grandson's reaction.
Prince William had just entered his first year at Eton College just two months before the controversial TV special, and as author Robert Lacey wrote in his book Battle of Brothers, "Before the 58 minutes ended, William was weeping." According to Lacey, the prince's housemaster, Dr. Andrew Gailey, "told Diana that he found her son slumped on the sofa, his eyes red with tears."
The author added that for William, "something inside him snapped" when he watched his mother confess to adultery on television and admit that she didn't think Charles was fit to become King. So worried was the late Queen that she allegedly told a palace source that she was afraid William "might have a nervous breakdown," as Tina Brown wrote in The Palace Papers.
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles are seen registering Prince William at Eton College in September 1995.
Prince William is seen at his first day at Eton College in 1995.
Although Diana was encouraged by Gailey to give William a heads-up about the interview, it seems their meeting didn't go well. On November 19, the princess headed to Eton to meet with her son, but paparazzo Mark Saunders recalls (per the Daily Mail), "After a few more moments, he walked away from Diana, making no attempt to kiss her or say goodbye."
"I watched in amazement as she got into the car and drove off, leaving a sad William watching from the doorway," he continued.
In Lacey's book, he describes how Diana's close friend and spiritual advisor Simone Simmons said that Prince William was mortified with "the idea of everything being on television." Simmons added, "He knew his friends would poke fun at him, which they did. He felt she made a fool of herself—and of him."
