Prince William’s Father’s Day Photo Has Hidden Significance

Prince William’s choice of Father’s Day photo shows him as a toddler with King Charles III months before Prince Harry was born and shortly before Princess Diana said her marriage “went down the drain.”

The photo, from June 1984, showed the prince and his father with a football, in a subtle reference to the UEFA Euro 2024 soccer championship, currently taking place in Germany.

However, it also dates back to a significant moment in William’s childhood after which there was a major turning point in Charles and Princess Diana’s relationship.

The Simple Meaning of the Photo
The image shows Charles and William playing soccer together in the gardens of Kensington Palace on June 12, 1984, during a photoshoot marking William’s second birthday.

The prince’s choice of picture was almost certainly a nod to the England national team’s soccer against Serbia taking place in Germany that evening, which England won 1-0.

He is president of the Football Association, English soccer’s governing body, and will head out to Frankfurt to watch the country play Denmark in its second group game on Thursday.

The message that accompanied the picture was sweet and simple: “Happy Father’s Day, Pa. W.”

However, whether deliberate or not, the picture also comes from a complex period in the lives of both his father and mother.

Princess Diana’s Account of Her Second Pregnancy
While William may have been unaware at the time, as he was only two, the months leading up to and following Prince Harry’s birth in September, 1984, were difficult for his mother.

In tapes recorded for her secret biographer Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story, she said: “Then between William and Harry being born it is total darkness. I can’t remember much, I’ve blotted it out, it was such pain. However, Harry appeared by a miracle.

“We were very, very close to each other the six weeks before Harry was born, the closest we’ve ever, ever been and ever will be.

“Then suddenly as Harry was born it just went bang, our marriage, the whole thing went down the drain.”

King Charles’ Account of Prince Harry’s Birth
Charles worked with journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994 to produce an authorized book about his life, The Prince of Wales: A Biography.

The book, based on interviews with Charles and his friends and aides, contains a rival account of the same period: “While she was pregnant with Prince Harry and for six months after his birth the Princess made no further official visits abroad, preferring to stay at home with her very small children.

“For much of the time they lived within the shell of a normal marriage, though they still lacked the intimacy and mutual understanding without which the relationship could not grow.

“As they shared no common interests there was little to talk about except the mundane arrangements that are necessary when two people share the same roof.

“The Princess had dispensed with the services of her psychiatrist, saying that she was better. However, her swings of mood continued, and there were periods of distress that were exhausting to both of them.”

“The Princess still appeared to believe not only that the Prince’s friends were conspiring against her,” Dimbleby continued, “but that their very presence in her life was corroding their marriage.

“She clearly believed that a number of his oldest friends and advisers including distinguished figures in public life, were, as she put it, ‘oilers,’ sycophants whose influence on his judgement was malign.

“One by one, friends who in some cases he had known since childhood found themselves suddenly expelled.

“From a mixture of embarrassment and loyalty to his wife, the prince evidently could not bring himself to explain his action to them, with the result that they discovered what was happening only when the phone calls stopped, the letters ceased to flow and the invitations to Highgrove and Balmoral failed to arrive.”

He suggested Diana forced Charles to give up his dog and added that “while there were interludes of happiness, neither of them was able to reach across the gulf that separated them.”

When Diana’s perspective to Morton and the perspective in Charles’ authorized biography are combined it paints a picture of a couple straining to hold their marriage together during the pregnancy.

And just months later, after Harry was born, according to Diana at least, they could hold on no longer.