The royals - Kitty Kelley [154]
Within the royal family the relationship between the Princess Anne and the Princess of Wales was visceral: they loathed each other. Anne thought Diana was vain, dim-witted, and neurotic. “Too gooey about children,” she said.
Diana dismissed her sister-in-law as a male impersonator. “I think she shaves.”
“You forget,” said a friend. “Anne was the only female competitor at Montreal Olympics [1976] not to be given a sex test.”
“Results would’ve been too embarrassing,” joked Diana. “She’s Philip—in drag.”
The Princess of Wales did not understand a woman like Anne, who appeared to be so determinedly unfeminine. She refused to wear makeup, pulled back her hair in a bun, and wore clothes that looked like thrift shop rejects. Diana had heard about Anne’s adultery with a Palace guard but did not understand his sexual attraction. “What do men see in her?” she asked.
Blunt as a bullet, Anne did nothing to ingratiate herself with others, especially the press, which she detested. “You are a pest by the very nature of that camera in your hand,” she snapped at a photographer who was trying to take her picture.
Charles agreed that Anne could be difficult but said she was his only sister and had honored him by making him godfather to her firstborn son. So he suggested that he and Diana return the honor by making Anne one of Prince William’s godmothers. Diana refused.
“Darling, please,” Charles said plaintively. “Please.”
Diana was unmovable, and Charles, after a halfhearted struggle to change her mind, gave up. Days later they announced their choice of godparents: Princess Alexandra; the Duchess of Westminster; Lady Susan Hussey; King Constantine II of the Hellenes; Lord Romsey; Sir Laurens Van der Post.
At the christening, the Archbishop of Canterbury poured water over the baby’s head and handed a lighted candle to his father to signify the young Prince’s admission into the church.
“The windows were open, the sun streaming in,” Sir Laurens told Horoscope magazine. “Then the sky went grey as a great storm gathered. Just as the Archbishop handed over the lighted candle, a violent gust of wind blew through the windows. The candle flickered, but did not go out.”
The sage saw that as a portent for the Prince and Princess of Wales, who both believed in mysticism. Van der Post said it was a good sign and explained that the flickering candle represented a crisis in Prince William’s future, but one that he would survive.
Two years later, after the birth of their second son, Charles again suggested choosing his sister as a godmother, but again Diana refused. Instead she chose Celia, Lady Vestey; Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, the daughter of Princess Margaret; and Carolyn Pride Bartholomew, her former roommate from Coleherne Court. As godfathers, Charles chose his brother, Andrew, the Duke of York; artist Bryan Organ, who painted flattering royal portraits; and Gerald Ward, a rich polo player.
The announcement of the baby’s godparents sparked a furious row within the royal family. Prince Philip was so angry at Charles for bypassing Anne a second time that he didn’t speak to him or visit his new grandson for six weeks. At the end of the year he fired off a memo, telling Charles he was not carrying his weight as heir apparent. Philip praised Anne, his favorite child, as the hardest-working member of the royal family. “She’s represented the Crown at 201 events whereas records indicate you made 93 appearances and your wife 51. Taken together, these figures [for 1984] don’t add up to your sister’s efforts.”
Three years