by Penny Junor
But first was the pop, and in the run-up to the concert the Princes agreed to do two interviews, one with American television, NBC’s Today programme, and the other with Fearne Cotton for the BBC. For the first time, they spoke publicly about their mother and their loss.
‘We were left in no doubt that we were the most important thing in her life,’ said William, ‘and then after that there was everyone else, there were all her charities and everything like that and, to me, that’s a really good philosophy – she just loved caring for people and she loved helping.
‘We were so lucky to have her as our mother and there’s not a day that goes past when we don’t think about her and miss her influence, because she was a massive example to both of us.
‘It’s one of those things that is very sad but you learn to deal with it and there are plenty of other people out there who have got the same or worse problems than we’ve had.’
Harry added, ‘She was a happy, fun, bubbly person who cared for so many people. She’s very much missed by not only us, but by a lot of people and I think that’s all that needs to be said, really.’
The six-hour extravaganza took seven months and the help and expertise of a cast of many to organise, with both Princes overseeing every detail, but the result was worth every minute of preparation. When William and Harry went out onto the stage at the new £798 million Wembley Stadium on 1 July 2007, dressed casually in jeans, jackets and open-necked shirts, Harry simply said, ‘Hello, Wembley!’ The place erupted and the applause was deafening as 63,000 people got to their feet to clap and cheer. ‘This evening is about all that our mother loved in life – her music, her dance, her charities and her family and friends.’ And Harry, mindful of those he had hoped to be serving alongside in Iraq, added a word of encouragement: ‘I wish I was there with you. I’m sorry I can’t be. To you and everyone on operations we’d both like to say, “stay safe”.’
Twenty-two thousand five hundred tickets had been made available in December and sold out within seventeen minutes. It was broadcast in 140 countries to an audience of around 500 million people, and raised a total of £1 million for the Diana Memorial Fund and her five main charities, including Centrepoint and Sentebale, which William had said were ‘both charities that continue on from our mother’s legacy’.
Nothing like it had ever been staged before. There was music of every sort, there were dancers from the English National Ballet, there were songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, a comedy sketch (and an agonisingly prolonged improvisation when the next act failed to appear) from Ricky Gervais, there were speakers including Sienna Miller and Dennis Hopper, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamie Oliver and David Beckham introducing acts and artists, and pre-recorded video tributes from Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
Sir Elton John, who had performed a specially adapted version of ‘Candle in the Wind’ at Diana’s funeral, opened the concert with ‘Your Song’, and was followed by Duran Duran, her favourite band, and stars like James Morrison, Lily Allen, Status Quo, Sir Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, P. Diddy and Take That, while iconic black and white images of Diana, taken by Mario Testino, looked down on them from a giant screen at the back of the stage.
After Sir Elton’s closing song, William and Harry returned to the stage for the final word. William thanked everyone for coming and praised the artists for an ‘incredible evening. Thank you to all of you who have come here tonight to celebrate our mother’s life. For us this has been the most perfect way to remember her, and this is how she would want to be remembered.’
At the VIP party afterwards, Simon Cowell, from The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, praised both Princes. ‘You’ve put on one heck of a show,’ he told them. ‘In years to come, if you ever get tired of running the country, you can come and work for me producing TV shows.’
Perhaps to avoid unnecessary awkwardness with their father, the Princes banned all senior members of the Royal Family from the concert and the Royal box was filled with their cousins and friends, including Harry’s on-off girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, and Kate Middleton and her brother James. After their very public split earlier in the year, her presence at the concert, albeit two rows behind William, was seen as proof that their relationship was back on course.
‘There is no doubt that they love their father,’ says a friend, ‘but from everything I’ve seen he is a complex man and difficult to be the son of sometimes, and his reactions to things aren’t always as elevated as we might want them to be. Anything to do with their mother is really tricky. Any event, like the memorial interview they gave, their sensitivity about being seen to say anything about their mother is very noticeable. “Talk about our mother? Oh God, we don’t talk enough about our dad.” They are very careful of Charles’s sensitivities and dance around them a lot. Like at the service. He was very sensitive about where he sat and what it said.’
After their exclusion from Wembley, the senior members of the Royal Family were invited to the memorial service at the Guards’ Chapel in St James’s, and despite it being in the middle of their holiday at Balmoral, they all came. This was more intimate, designed, as much as anything, to bring together the two sides of the family, which had been so divided by Diana’s death. And the seating was an important part of that.
‘It became hugely complicated and William got very fed up even just thinking about it and finally said to his office, “Right, that’s it. I’m off. You sort it out.” They were left trying to deal with Charles via Michael Peat, which was not easy, and at the end of the day it was Harry who sorted it out. He just said, “F*** that,” picked up the phone and said, “I want to speak to my father, put him through.” And he just said, “Right, Dad, you’re sitting here, someone else is sitting there, and the reason we’ve done it is blah and blah. All right? Are you happy?” “Oh yes,” said Charles, “I suppose so.” Problem solved.
‘William gets quite buttoned up inside and angry about things and often it’s his brother who makes it happen. He’s the sort of “Can do, f*** that, let’s just sort it out” kind of guy. William’s quite complicated and Harry’s not at all complicated. He’s one of the most straightforward people I’ve ever met. Everyone adores him.’
William sat on one side of the altar next to the Queen and with his father and senior members of the Royal Family, and Harry sat on the other side of the altar with the Spencers – Diana’s brother Charles, sisters Sarah and Jane and all their spouses and children.
One person conspicuously absent from the front pews was Camilla. The Princes had invited her and she had accepted, but just days before the event Rosa Monckton, one of Diana’s closest friends, and the mother of one of her godchildren, wrote an inflammatory article in the press in which she said Camilla should stay away. ‘I know such occasions should be an occasion for forgiveness, but I can’t help feeling Camilla’s attendance is deeply inappropriate,’ she wrote. Diana would be ‘astonished’ at the presence of the ‘third person’ in the marriage. It had the desired effect and Camilla stayed away. She had intended to go to support Princes William and Harry, she said in a statement, but decided that her attendance ‘could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion which is to focus on the life and service of Diana.’
There were screens and loudspeakers relaying the service to the crowds that lined Birdcage Walk outside, but inside it was for family, Diana’s godchildren, bridesmaids and pages from her wedding, friends, a few celebrities, representatives from her charities and people who had known her or been involved with her in some personal way. The brothers chose the Guards’ Chapel because it was more intimate than most other churches in London – it holds no more than 450 people – and being Guards’ officers they were entitled to use it. The music was central to the day – as it had been central to her life – and it was sublime. They had the Chapel’s own choir as well as the choirs from Eton and the Chapel Royal all singing together and the orchestra from the Royal Academy of Music, of which Diana had been President. They played Elgar, M
ozart, Bach and Handel among others, and the first anthem was from ‘The Vespers’ by Rachmaninov, which Diana used to play to the boys on car journeys. And the choirs sang all Diana’s favourite hymns including ‘I Vow To Thee My Country’, which she had chosen for her wedding. William and Kate also chose it for theirs.
William read from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians; Diana’s sister, Sarah, read J. G Hoyland’s poem ‘The Bridge Is Love’; and Harry, unable to find anything already written that said what he wanted to say, wrote his own words.
‘William and I can separate life into two parts,’ he said. ‘There were those years when we were blessed with the physical presence beside us of both our mother and father.
‘And then there are the ten years since our mother’s death. When she was alive we completely took for granted her unrivalled love of life, laughter, fun and folly. She was our guardian, friend and protector. She never once allowed her unfaltering love for us to go unspoken or undemonstrated.
‘She will always be remembered for her amazing public work. But behind the media glare, to us, just two loving children, she was quite simply the best mother in the world. We would say that, wouldn’t we? But we miss her.
‘She kissed us last thing at night. Her beaming smile greeted us from school. She laughed hysterically and uncontrollably when sharing something silly she might have said or done that day. She encouraged us when we were nervous or unsure.
‘She – like our father – was determined to provide us with a stable and secure childhood.
‘To lose a parent so suddenly at such a young age – as others have experienced – is indescribably shocking and sad. It was an event which changed our lives forever, as it must have done for everyone who lost someone that night. [A reference to Camilla Fayed who was sitting in the congregation, whose brother Dodi died in the car with Diana.]
‘But what is far more important to us now, and into the future, is that we remember our mother as she would have wished to be remembered, as she was – fun-loving, generous, down-to-earth, entirely genuine.
‘We both think of her every day. We speak about her and laugh together at all the memories. Put simply, she made us, and so many other people, happy. May this be the way that she is remembered.’
It was left to their father’s friend, Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, to give the eulogy in which he articulated the message that they hoped both events – the concert and the memorial service – would finally achieve closure. ‘It’s easy,’ he said, ‘to lose the real person in the image, to insist that all is darkness or all is light. Still, ten years after her tragic death, there are regular reports of “fury” at this or that incident, and the Princess’s memory is used for scoring points. Let it end here. Let this service mark the point at which we let her rest in peace and dwell on her memory with thanksgiving and compassion.’
FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION
The concert for Diana was not the first time William had been centre stage at the new Wembley Stadium. As President of the FA he had opened it two months earlier, on the day of the 2007 FA Cup Final, when Chelsea beat Manchester United 1–0. Simon Johnson, then director of corporate affairs, was the point of liaison between Clarence House and the FA and had put in a bid for William to attend the match, present the trophy and declare the stadium open. He agreed but Simon sensed some reticence, which turned out to be nerves; William had scarcely spoken in public before.
They had met the year before when William came to a board meeting as the new President, and Simon subsequently helped smooth the way for the Princes to use the stadium as the venue for the concert for Diana, getting them the best possible terms, which William was clearly aware of when they next met at the Cup Final in May. That in itself had taken months of planning and preparation and included the official opening, a fly-past by the Red Arrows display team, and a parade on the pitch of former winners at the old Wembley Stadium.
Dozens of VIPs there that day were keen to meet Prince William – and there were many he was just as keen to meet, including some of the giants of football. Simon had arranged for these meetings to take place in private, in a small room off the Royal suite, known as the Royal anteroom, and it was agreed with security that he would escort them in one by one. William had just met Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Henry Cooper and a collection of football dignitaries, when there was a knock on the door and one of the security guards said, ‘Bob Geldof’s here.’ He was on the list of people that William said he wanted to meet, so Simon said he should show him in. ‘Well, he’s got one of his friends with him,’ came the reply, ‘and he wants to come as well.’ ‘Who’s that?’ asked Simon. ‘It’s Sir Mick Jagger [of the Rolling Stones].’ Thinking he should check whether the Prince was happy, he put his head round the door and said, ‘Excuse me, Sir, but Mick Jagger would also like to come and meet you.’ ‘Bring him in, bring him in!’ said William, excitedly. ‘What are you doing in July?’ he asked during the conversation. ‘Do you want to come and play at the concert?’ ‘I’d love to, mate,’ said Jagger, ‘but we’re in Brazil.’
William was very nervous about his speech. All he had to do was say, ‘As President of the Football Association, it is my honour to declare Wembley Stadium open,’ but he had to do it in front of nearly 90,000 people who were football fans and not famed for being quiet and listening to prepared speeches. While they were waiting in the tunnel before going out onto the pitch, he was agitating about whether his speech was on the lectern and whether the lectern would be set at the right height. The trophy was to go out first and be placed on a plinth, then William would go out and make his speech, then the teams would go out and William would be introduced to them. The trophy is usually carried by someone from the military, and on this occasion it was Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, the Grenada-born soldier who received serious head injuries in Iraq and in 2005 was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for bravery. ‘As Johnson came into the tunnel area where we were waiting,’ recalls Simon, ‘he went to salute Prince William, and William told him not to; it should be the other way round – he, as a serving military man, has to salute a VC holder. In his view, the military hierarchy trumped any other hierarchy, but Beharry’s instinct was to salute his future monarch.
‘William loves football and can talk knowledgeably about it. He knows who everybody is and enjoys meeting players, former players and managers. He always likes to meet the England manager, always has a good conversation and across his time as President he’s spent a lot of time with the England players.’
He first met the squad at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany in his new capacity as President, when David Beckham was captain. ‘He’s a proper fan,’ says one of his Household, ‘he likes the big games, England’s his big thing and I think he was excited, like any football fan, to meet some of the players. Funnily enough, when he met them, they were more excited to meet him. They were like a bunch of kids. They’re so used to being the stars of the show; when someone came along with more star power they were tongue-tied.
‘There was a lovely moment when he went to the training camp for the 2006 World Cup to see them train and several of the England players were queuing up for an autograph but were too nervous to ask him. These are players who normally dispense autographs to very nervous fans and there they were wondering whether they could ask him to sign a shirt. Having come from that world, to see footballers behave like fans was quite funny, but he’s very good with that, very relaxed and good at putting them at their ease and trying not to make them feel nervous. The whole football thing works. He also takes it very seriously, he believes the FA is an important institution for football and the nation because it’s the national sport and he follows its ups and downs and plays quite an active role as President, probably more so than previous ones, mostly behind the scenes.’
Simon Johnson endorses that. ‘From 2007 we saw a lot of him. He came to see the England v. Croatia match at Wembley when we failed to quality for the 2008 European Championships,
but he also came and did a grass roots training event in Newcastle with Sir Trevor Brooking’s five- to eleven-year-olds, just after England had lost to Russia. Jamie was very good at arranging for him to send good luck or congratulations messages to the team and I think they really appreciated that he was taking an interest. He recognises his role is to sit there in the centre seat in the Royal box and present the trophy and the medals, but he wants to be seen to be making a difference to the grass roots game. He enjoys that stuff and it’s really important to him. He doesn’t just want to do the glory stuff, as Jamie calls it, he wants to use his presidency to make a real difference.’
In January 2009, Simon was appointed Chief Operating Officer of England 2018 Limited, the company putting together England’s bid to host the World Cup, at which point he should have relinquished his role as liaison with the Palace, but they had built up a good rapport and Jamie asked him to continue. Thus in May 2009, just days before the UEFA Champions League Final in Rome between Manchester United and Barcelona, it was Simon who put through a desperate call to Clarence House. England’s bid company had got word that the King of Spain would be at the match, and since Spain was one of the other bidders for the 2018 World Cup, it was important not to let them steal a march on England. ‘We got an anguished phone call on the Thursday before the Final, that was on the following Wednesday, from UEFA, the organisers,’ says Simon. ‘They said, “What are you doing, you English? The Prime Minister of Italy’s coming, the King of Spain is coming and you’re not sending anyone, not even a government minister.” My job as COO of the World Cup bid was to manage this sort of thing and I was told get someone from the government or try to get someone from the Royal Family. Those people don’t just appear and I said to everyone, “I’m not a bloody magician but I’ll do what I can.”
