02 January 2024 , 09:53
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Since the tragic death of their mother Princess Diana, both Prince William and Prince Harry have spoken extensively about the close relationship they shared with her when they were younger.
But according to one royal author, this bond extended beyond the good times for William, as he was tasked with giving his mum a lot of emotional support during the more turbulent moments in her life.
Diana, who was open about the mental health issues she struggled with, suffered an acrimonious marriage breakdown to the now King Charles that went on over a number of years. Her unimaginable levels of fame plunged her into the spotlight during her toughest moments, and she reportedly leaned on her son William to break free from the scrutiny.
Robert Jobson claimed in his book The Making of a Modern Monarch, that William felt burdened by the support his mother required of him emotionally, and that there was only one place he could go where he was guaranteed to be free of the responsibility: his preparatory boarding school.
"For William, school was not only fun but a respite from his mother's increasing tendency to lean on him as an emotional crutch," Jobson wrote. William attended Ludgrove School between the ages of eight and 13, before he moved onto Eton College.
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Ludgrove - which is located about 30 minutes away from Windsor Castle - offered William a much-welcomed respite away from his family, and this was something that he greatly appreciated, according to Jobson.
Harry also attended Ludgrove - which these days costs £33,300 per year - and he said of his time at the preparatory school that it was "largely run by women. We called them matrons. Whatever tenderness we got, day to day, came from them.
"The matrons hugged us, kissed us, bandaged our injuries, wiped our tears," he described in his memoir Spare, adding that, "they fancied themselves our surrogates. Mums-Away-From-Mums, they'd always chirp, which had always been odd".
Harry described this culture as being "especially confusing" after the death of his mother, particularly when combined with the first flushes of puberty that made the matrons seem "suddenly" attractive to him as a young boy.
Another royal expert - Dickie Arbiter, who formerly worked as a press secretary for the royal household - has claimed that the school was "extremely good" at protecting both the brothers from both the prying eyes of the outside world and the dysfunction they had left behind in their family home, he added, "It took them out of troubled waters."
A former fellow pupil also claimed that, "William and Harry weren't the only members of a royal family to attend the school and they certainly weren't the only children to come from dysfunctional homes."
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