The sweet way William and Harry's primary school headmaster 'sheltered' them from Charles and Diana's troubled relationship revealed
Prince William and Prince Harry were boarding at Ludgrove School in Wokingham as their parents' marital problems played out in the media
Prince William and Prince Harry's primary school headmaster 'sheltered' the royal brothers from the details of their parents' relationship troubles, according to a royal insider.
- Prince William and Prince Harry were 'sheltered' from their parents' marriage problems at Ludgrove, the boarding school they both attended between the ages of 8 and 13.
- The headmaster of the elite Wokingham school reportedly made it his 'mission' to protect the royal brothers from tabloid gossip about the Royal Family while they were on campus.
- In other royal news, 'So much of Diana can be seen in Kate' on anniversary of the Princess of Wales' death.
Prince William and Prince Harry were 'sheltered' from their parents' relationship conflict at school, according to a royal insider.
The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex both attended Ludgrove as children, a preparatory boarding school about a 30-minute drive from the Queen's Windsor Castle.
At the age of 13, they moved to the prestigious Eton College to pursue their secondary education and receive their A-levels, before heading off to the University of St. Andrew's (William) and the British army (Harry). Their schooldays were somewhat similar to the country environment that awaits Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis at Adelaide Cottage, but also distinctively different due to one painful reason ‒ their painful home life.
The boys' enrolment at Ludgrove in the early 90s coincided with Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marital problems, which were widely covered in both the print and broadcast media at the time.
The Prince of Wales was infamously involved in a longstanding affair with Camilla Parker Bowles at Highgrove House, while Diana was reportedly seeing several different men at Kensington Palace in the later years of their marriage.
The couple's alleged arguments, many of which inspired scenes in The Crown Season 4, were also said to be a regular occurrence in the royal household. Their strained relationship didn't go unnoticed by William and Harry, who reportedly saw Diana reading the newspaper articles about her personal life at home.
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At school, however, it was a totally different story.
"Ludgrove was extremely good at protecting him and later Harry," Dickie Arbiter, the former spokesperson for the Prince and Princess of Wales, revealed. "It took them out of troubled waters."
It's understood that Ludgrove's headmaster, Gerald Barber, banned newspapers in the library and ordered all pupils' television viewing to be restricted and monitored. (Educational programs were reportedly the only shows allowed). He also asked teachers and staff to avoid leaving their newspapers around and to switch off their TVs in front of students.
"The Barbers were more than equipped to deal with the princes," a former pupil at Ludgrove said. "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."
Hailing from the lovely city of Dublin, Emma mainly covers the Royal Family and the entertainment world, as well as the occasional health and wellness feature. Always up for a good conversation, she has a passion for interviewing everyone from A-list celebrities to the local GP - or just about anyone who will chat to her, really.
Emma holds an MA in International Journalism from City, University of London, and a BA in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin.
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